THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS VISUAL,

INTERACTIVE AND PORTABLE

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

3INTRODUCTION

4MAKING YOUR TRAINING STICK – LEARNING BY DOING

7WORK IS NOT A GAME, BUT TRAINING CAN BE

10PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING

16THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS PORTABLE, SCALABLE, MODULAR

20SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT

24QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE CONSIDERING VIRTUAL TRAINING

2

CONTENTS

Training is tough because it rarely remains static. As equipment is updated (or completely replaced), training naturally needs to be updated (or completely replaced) as well.

And there’s more: you often have to fly folks in for the training or make this new – and expensive – equipment available for said training. And instructors aren’t cheap either.

3D interactive training flips that whole scenario sideways, making training faster, cheaper, more accessible – and yes, more effective – than whatever you’re doing instead of 3D training right now. Beyond cost, there’s safety to consider. If you aren’t providing refresher training for technicians, you’re one mistake away from disaster.

But are you ready for visual, interactive and portable training? In the following pages, we break it down for you so you can realistically consider your options. And we invite you to reach out with any questions you have beyond what you’ll find inside!

I N T R O D U C T I O N

I hear, I forget, I see, I remember, I DO, I understand.- Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)

INTRODUCTION

3

1M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K –

L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N GDo you know how to jump rope? Imagine if you didn’t know anything about it and someone described it to you. You could probably repeat how to do it, if asked – though you’d forget the details, like knowing it’s time to jump as the rope comes over your head and passes your eyes or remembering how important it was to keep a steady pace. Watching someone jump rope would help. You would see the rhythm of it and see that one doesn’t need to jump very high to be successful.

But DOING it – that’s another thing entirely. And if presented with a test at the end, outside of crazy luck, only the person who had picked up the rope and tried on his/her own would have ANY chance of jumping the rope successfully for a few minutes the first time around.

So then WHY is most training and learning based on the concept of ‘Show & Tell’ or even worse, sometimes just ‘Tell’? If something as simple as jumping rope needs to be practiced to be fully understood, what does that say for mission-critical Operations & Maintenance training?

Our customers often tell us “these PowerPoint’s and YouTube style how-to videos aren’t working, should we improve the graphics or shoot them in HD?”

No, you shouldn’t. You should stop wasting time on them at all, actually.

4

MAKING YOUR TRAINING STICK - LEARNING BY DOING CHAPTER 01

1

A common saying in the trenches of field operations is “If there is no practice, there is no training”. Till the students are able to perform the procedures themselves, retention is minimal.

And numerous studies offer similar results. When it comes to knowledge retention, people remember:

So, here’s how to make your training stick:

1. SHOW them what to do, don’t just tell them. Make it visual.

2. Make them DO it. (This is the most important step.)

3. TELL them how they did, what they did right/wrong and remedial solutions. The more visual the feedback, the better.

It’s as simple as that.

But live sessions on real equipment are expensive, hard to schedule and sometimes even dangerous. So what now?

Heartwood’s 3D Interactive Training (also known as simulation-based training) does ALL of the above. It empowers students to practice on virtual equipment (or Aircraft, Vehicle, Machinery, etc) that is replicated in form and function, allowing them to ‘learn by doing’ anytime, anywhere. AND - it saves you money.

Watch: https://vimeo.com/40638056

Let’s delve a bit deeper into why interactive gaming technologies hold the key to “learning by doing” efficiently . . .

5

MAKING YOUR TRAINING STICK - LEARNING BY DOING CHAPTER 01

2W O R K I S N O T A G A M E –

B U T T R A I N I N G C A N B E !Hands on experience is key – but it’s NOT a good starting point.

Learning by doing something in real life is the best way to learn – but it’s also the most expensive way. And it can be dangerous too (to both operators and sensitive equipment). Beyond THAT – timing is often an issue as scheduling trainings is never easy and comes with its own set of costs.

And if training in real life isn’t the best starting point (or even desired, considering the cost and risk involved) – what’s the next best thing?

The 10,000 Hour Rule

The ‘10,000 hour rule’ claims “the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.” That’s a LOT of training – and ‘training’ is not something employees sign up for willingly, or that they even stay awake during, most times – so add THAT to our growing list of obstacles to overcome.

But what if there was a way to make training interesting, safe, cost-effective, portable, scalable AND interactive? There is – but first an aside:

7

WORK IS NOT A GAME - BUT TRAINING CAN BE! CHAPTER 02

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

1DID YOU KNOW THAT “THE AVERAGE YOUNG PERSON RACKS UP 10,000 HOURS OF GAMING BY THE AGE OF 21”?

And, as noted by Jane McGonigal, a world-renowned designer of alternate reality video games, “that’s almost exactly as much time as they spend in a classroom during all of middle school and high school if they have perfect attendance.”

And they’re doing it “because games do a better job than ordinary life of provoking our most powerful positive emotions” . . . and learning. The reason people today love video games is that it’s immersive – it puts them in the driver’s seat and they control the experience. It’s engaging and requires the participant’s full attention. Ever catch someone fall asleep playing a game?

The skillset is already there, you see – it just needs to be harnessed.

Now imagine harnessing that same interactive experience and applying it to work challenges: Rather than trying to make sense of unintuitive manuals and drawings, Operations & Maintenance techs could have access to amazing, immersive applications whenever and wherever they needed it.

2

WORK IS NOT A GAME - BUT TRAINING CAN BE! CHAPTER 02

8

From learning by listening to learning by doing… Education and learning will become as much fun as videogames. And we call it ‘full body learning.’- Bing Gordon, Partner, KPCB (arguably one of the most influential Venture Capitalist firms)

2

To be clear, this isn’t exactly Gamification (we will expand on that in an upcoming section) – but it IS using interactive technology – the same technology that we are already comfortable with in our every day lives.

And this concept isn’t new: The success of companies like Apple is rooted in the fact that they made computers desirable for ‘people who hated computers.’ And then they did it again with the phone (they did almost too well), with people now loving and never leaving home without their phones.

Taking inspiration from that, we have embarked on the Big, Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of making training desirable for ‘those who hate training.’ And we’re succeeding.

Built on modern video game engines and delivered via desktop, web, mobile or tablet, Heartwood’s 3D Interactive Training technology makes training stick.

Why does this work so well? Simplicity.

9

WORK IS NOT A GAME - BUT TRAINING CAN BE! CHAPTER 02

“A universal lesson that I keep sharing with all entrepreneurs building for the enterprise is the Zero Overhead Principle: no feature may add training costs to the user.”- The Zero Overhead Principle by DJ Patil

And the other reason it works so well is something we mentioned already – it keeps participants awake! If you didn’t already know it – the unfortunate truth is this: eLearning has replaced classrooms . . . for naptime.

 

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

13

P i t f a l l s o f

T r a d i t i o n a l e L e a r n i n gMuch like monotone lectures or subtitled movies, there’s another contender for the “most likely to put you asleep” award – eLearning courses, often embedded in a LMS (Learning Management System). And it doesn’t bode well for your company’s training efforts if you rely on such a passive method of training.

Once upon a time, eLearning modules were praised as technological advances (and they were, briefly), but now I don’t know of many people who look forward to this mode of learning – do you?

eLearning courses are hard to love, that’s for sure. This white paper on the topic, The Illusion of e-Learning: Why We Are Missing Out on the Promise of Technology, explores the crux of the dilemma.

 The typical “instructional strategy is reading text, watching a streaming video of the average instructor, or following an audio-over-PowerPoint presentation.” And “trainees often [find] the training dull, rigid, and not related to their work.”

10

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

1None of this is new. Both the instructional methods and trainee reactions have been the norm since the launch of these products. And beyond an “unwillingness to insist on measurable outcomes” typical eLearning courses particularly fail in Operations & Maintenance (O&M) training for three reasons:

1) There is NO PRACTICE. Available technology is limiting the instructional strategy and students are fed one-way instructional content like videos, images, and voice overs.

2) There is NO FEEDBACK. ‘Next Page’ style courses don’t allow the opportunity for the user to get feedback on what step he/she did wrong and how to self-correct. Wouldn’t it be great if an alert popped up saying “Warning: you picked the wrong tool for this step“?

3) There is NO relevant TESTING. multiple choice questions don’t prove a technician can remove and replace a part. You know what does? – actually removing and replacing a part!

And looping back to outcomes, “three-fourths of corporations use course completion as a measure of effectiveness” – and that makes little sense. Is that how YOU would measure effectiveness of anything? If you watch a cooking show, even if you paused to take notes, can you replicate what you saw a week later from memory?

Merely completing watching something is not effective – and it certainly isn’t mastery, which is the ultimate goal of any training.

“ Practice IS everything. This is often misquoted as Practice makes perfect.” - Periander

11

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

3

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

13

The most telling comment in the “Illusion of Learning” study shared though was from an InformationWeek question (and response): “Does eLearning work? If I invite 50 people into a session, is there learning? If it’s well-structured, there’s the right content, we’ve taken care of who we invite, and there’s a payoff at the end, they’ll probably learn as well as they would in the classroom—which isn’t very well.”

But wait – so now we’re telling you that classroom learning doesn’t work very well either? Yes.

Being told about something does not help you learn and remember it. Being shown something does a little better (though not much). True learning happens when participants can practice what they’re learning.

We’ve covered the logic behind this in-depth before and there are many studies speaking to this as well – like this study from Purdue University comparing hands-on learning to lecturing where “researchers found that students who built the hands-on water purification system had ‘a deeper understanding’ of the concepts than the students who had lecture-based lessons.”

Why is that?

A check box on an LMS dashboard is not the same as going through 43 steps required to remove and replace a part yourself. Typical online eLearning courses mistake clicking ‘submit’ for interactivity.

12

“If there is no practice, there is NO TRAINING” – common field saying

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

13

How did this happen?

In our efforts to reduce training costs and expensive live training, we have, as an industry, reduced what used to be hands-on ‘engaged’ training into Powerpoint ‘next page’ style passive learning. And to compensate for that loss of engagement, some of us will embed some images, graphics and maybe even animations to show more. The problem with all of it is that it’s still a lot of ‘Showing’ and almost zero ‘Doing’.

Remember, when it comes to knowledge retention, people remember: 

This is where Virtual Training Simulations (or 3D Interactive Training) can bridge the massive gap between cost-prohibitive live training sessions and ineffective passive eLearning. Simulated learning – much like gaming – requires active participation.

You’ve likely seen people fall asleep watching movies, but, again - not while playing a game!

13

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

13

The key factors are Interaction and Participation. One is a monologue and the other is a round table discussion.

To explain this point visually, below is an example of how ‘Remove & Replace’ procedures are typically learnt online. Simply watching these graphics does NOT provide the same learning as actually performing it yourself.

Replacement of a Ferrari Testarossa clutch thrust race slide share: http://www.slideshare.net/philworrall/replacement-of-ferrari-testarossa-clutch-thrust-race?ref=http://hwd3d.com/blog/pitfalls-of-elearning/

Now consider this Virtual Training Simulation in comparison (below is a video capture of a user ‘in action’). It engages at every step, and gives feedback on the performance:

Watch: https://vimeo.com/111878900

Which one would you want your operations and maintenance techs to complete?

Which would provide the best long-term results – and ROI – for your training dollar?

14

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

13

To summarize, the three key pillars of effective Virtual Training today are:

1. Learn-by-Doing or practicing virtually – instead of seeing, reading or any other form.

2. Mobile and touch focused – Elegant and user-friendly apps, not complicated like a software program.

3. Uncompromising visual quality – closely mimics reality.

And this training is best when it can be used again and again for new trainees and as a refresher for more experienced technicians - anytime and anywhere. Which is why the future of training is portable, scalable and modular.

 

15

PITFALLS OF TRADITIONAL ELEARNING CHAPTER 03

S I M P L I C I T Y I S A C O M P E T I T I V E A D V A N T A G E c h a p t e r 0 3

4

W h y t h e F u t u r e o f T r a i n i n g i s P o r t a b l e , S c a l a b l e &

M o d u l a rWhat if any employee or student could access the right piece of learning content just when they needed it? For example, training content about machinery, vehicles, or any other equipment?

And what if that content was delivered in an interactive, engaging, and truly immersive form? You know, like a 3D Interactive App accessible via a mobile phone or tablet?

Sounds a bit of a far reach, right?

Industries are challenged with equipment-based simulator training

Well, it turns out the future is now… but very few know it. At least that’s what we’re finding from our travels across the country talking with Operations & Maintenance (O&M) training teams who work at large enterprise organizations.

What we’ve instead discovered is a common set of challenges, especially across Aerospace, Defense, and Energy industries.

Turns out that in an effort to deliver the best virtual training simulation to their students, these companies have deployed desktop simulator training devices on-site. These simulators replicate the machinery (or aircraft, vehicle) in form and function; and are a combination of cutting edge hardware and software integrated together.

16

WHY THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS PORTABLE, SCALABLE & MODULAR CHAPTER 04

S I M P L I C I T Y I S A C O M P E T I T I V E A D V A N T A G E c h a p t e r 0 3

4As a matter of fact, they can simulate almost any kind of real-world scenario, and someone using a simulator can do pretty much anything that they can do on the actual equipment. Pretty impressive, right?

Well, here’s the challenge with that…

Simulators that connect to real world equipment and hardware are very useful at some things; however, they’re limited in reach, often complicated to train on, and aren’t portable so that students can learn at their own pace, anywhere, anytime, and on any device. On top of that – high acquisition costs.

Or said another way, since these simulators are designed to replicate any ‘What-if’ scenario, they need a vast amount of computing power and physical accessories to make them run. So, no surprise, this makes them non-portable. That means training organizations have to align student schedules, incur travel costs and train them in batches.

Moreover, guidelines for most operations & maintenance discourage free-play activity anyways. Steps need to be adhered to in a precise procedural manner, may it be routine maintenance or troubleshooting.

What’s the bottom line? Simulator-based training is an expensive and non-scalable proposition for any company no matter how large.

 

“Standard simulators are a great way to train. But they are expensive. The costs of traditional training are not just the cost of hardware. It involves the cost of travel, the challenges of scheduling, the need for students to leave their families, and others. By making the training available any time – any place and making it fun with video game technology, you make training available and attractive to the learners while at the same time reducing a multitude of costs” – Warren Katz, co-founder of MäK Technologies

17

WHY THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS PORTABLE, SCALABLE & MODULAR CHAPTER 04

4

S I M P L I C I T Y I S A C O M P E T I T I V E A D V A N T A G E c h a p t e r 0 3

Not to mention that each student really only has one opportunity to learn and retain the knowledge while they’re on-site. Once they leave the facility, the opportunity to re-train and refresh their knowledge is quite limited.

Converging technologies hold the key to the future of training

There must be a better way. And there is.

Our vision at Heartwood is that the next phase of training innovation will be directed towards being ‘Portable, Scalable, and in digestible Modular chunks’.

While the ‘what-if’ full capability simulators will always have their place, the time to deploy modular 3D interactive lessons, anytime, anywhere, is now. For example, we deploy 3D Interactive Apps onto tablets as a training simulation alternative for our Operations & Maintenance (O&M) enterprise customers.

Do this and you’ll finally be unchaining your student employees so they can practice training simulations as often as they’d like, and at their own pace… and learn in a way that’s unique to each of them.

Simply put, “rather than deploy a 100% all inclusive training to 10% of the audience, lets deliver a 70-80% inclusive modular content to 100% of them, all the time”.

View this video featuring a Portable, Scalable, and Modular Training Ap-plication in action: https://vimeo.com/85787588

18

WHY THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS PORTABLE, SCALABLE & MODULAR CHAPTER 04

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

14

Also, be sure to check out this conference validating ‘Digital Media Con-vergence in Flight Simulation & Training‘

While we’ll be the first to admit that change isn’t always easy, that doesn’t mean it needs to be hard. Just consider a favorite quote of mine: “A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what it’s built for.”

And don’t you want to use your training as intended – to encourage a safety mindset and prevent accidents? Choosing shortcuts over safety is never advisable, and as we all know – safety doesn’t happen by acci-dent!

19

WHY THE FUTURE OF TRAINING IS PORTABLE, SCALABLE & MODULAR CHAPTER 04

5

S A F E T Y T H R O U G H C H E C K L I S T S T H A T ‘ S H O W, N O T T E L L ’ c h a p t e r 0 4

S a f e t y D o e s n ’ t

H a p p e n B y A c c i d e n t

When a lack of safety training causes things to go wrong in the workplace the results can be catastrophic – even deadly. Ensuring that’s never the case is a decision made by those with the authority to see it through – leaders who understand that safety isn’t something to take for granted or assume it is understood.

Not everyone shares this view, of course. Training is expensive, and there are certainly companies out there who prefer to take shortcuts, leaving employees to learn on the job – often the hard way.

But that’s exactly the problem with cutting corners and shrugging off training; if you don’t pay for it now, you’ll surely pay for it later in OSHA fines, workmen’s comp, or even legal settlements. Training may be a cost center, but nothing hurts as acutely as error-driven hazards.

Just ask BP. They took the brunt of the PR hit when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, the Transocean drilling rig the oil company was leasing, caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and cost the lives of 11 workers aboard the rig. And it didn’t have to go that way.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” - Benjamin Franklin

20

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT CHAPTER 05

S A F E T Y T H R O U G H C H E C K L I S T S T H A T ‘ S H O W, N O T T E L L ’ c h a p t e r 0 4

5According to the New York Times,

“A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.”

The survey, commissioned by Transocean, clearly wasn’t taken seriously enough. Not to mention, Transocean’s safety culture had workers worried for the wrong reasons: “I’m petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I’m afraid of hurting anyone (the area is cordoned off), but because I’m afraid of getting fired,’ one worker wrote.”

Simulated Training Allows for Human Error Without Consequence

Safety training is important – as is training safely.

In March 2013 seven U.S. Marines were killed, and eight wounded, during a live-fire training exercise. According to USA Today, the investigation into the incident “…concluded that four factors contributed to the tragedy: inadequate training and preparation for the complexity of the exercise; improper mortar gunnery commands and firing procedures; a ‘perceived sense of urgency and resultant haste’ within the mortar section during the exercise; and a systemic lack of supervision of the mortar section during the exercise and in the months prior to it.”

Tragedies happen, but it’s hard not to think that simulation training in this case could have saved lives.

And though human error is unpredictable, the beauty of simulation training is that is can allow trainees to safely experience extreme conditions and practice the behaviors needed in high-stress environments frequently enough that they become ingrained.

21

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT CHAPTER 05

G A M I F I C A T I O N A N D G A M I N G A R E D I F F E R E N T – A N D C O M P L E M E N T A R Y c h a p t e r 0 5

5Making Simulations Stick

For example, medical facilities like Rhode Island Hospital in Providence have used simulation training to keep medical professionals proficient in life-saving procedures that occur only rarely – like pediatric resuscitation.

This speaks to the real benefit of simulation training: providing ongoing support for skills that are important to keep fresh. Because safety should never just be a “classroom lesson,” but a recurring theme built into everyday tasks.

Checklists are one way that happens. Think of a pilot going through a pre-flight check with the co-pilot. With so much riding on the proper functioning of the plane’s equipment (not to mention their own expertise), nothing is ever left to chance. And it needn’t be in your industry either!

Occupational safety guru Phil LaDuke offers 14 Points of Workplace Safety, and we offer a checklist beyond the clipboard – visual, interactive, and available any time to keep your employees up-to-date on any aspect of their jobs that require review. Here’s a peek at it in action:

Watch: https://vimeo.com/111879492

22

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT CHAPTER 05

5

G A M I F I C A T I O N A N D G A M I N G A R E D I F F E R E N T – A N D C O M P L E M E N T A R Y c h a p t e r 0 5

How’s that for real-time job assistance? That’s the Heartwood way. We view training, evaluation, and daily performance as pieces of a well-balanced puzzle that allows workers to be constantly supported in their efforts. Our “Training, Testing, Checklist” approach offers visual, interactive and portable training that can be adjusted to the skill level of each trainee, while ultimately providing the same required training to all.

And safety is woven in to the fabric of each phase:

1. Training via 3D interactive simulation that means trainees aren’t dealing with reality until they’re ready.

2. Testing of skills at desired intervals to be sure everything is understood prior to practical application.

3. And finally, a visual, real-time checklist to guide workers at every level so they never have to gamble safety against their ability to remember a task.

Time to Rethink That Choice

Make the choice to commit to safety, and explore our 3D Interactive Training solutions as part of that choice. Isn’t keeping your employees safe throughout the learning phase of their jobs, and beyond, worth it?

3D Interactive Virtual Training leaves little to be desired – it’s ready when, where and how you want it; it’s made to your specifications; and it can save you a significant amount of time and money.

But it’s not for everyone. And we’re going to help you sort that out:

23

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT CHAPTER 05

6

G A M I F I C A T I O N A N D G A M I N G A R E D I F F E R E N T – A N D C O M P L E M E N T A R Y c h a p t e r 0 5

Q U E S T I O N S T O A S K B E F O R E C O N S I D E R I N G

3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING

Here are questions and concerns we typically hear, along with answers to help guide your thinking:

1. Why wouldn’t we just train our technicians live and in person?

Training live and in person requires coordination and that comes with a comparatively hefty price tag.

You’ll need technicians and instructors all available at the same time and in the same place for in-person training – and you’ll need equipment available to train on (unless you’re considering merely talking at them about the topic, which is never a good idea!).

If your trainees and trainers are all centrally located and your equipment is cheaply available, then in-person training may still work. But if they’re not, you should consider alternatives for cost and efficiency sake.

24

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CONSIDERING 3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING CHAPTER 06

6

G A M I F I C A T I O N A N D G A M I N G A R E D I F F E R E N T – A N D C O M P L E M E N T A R Y c h a p t e r 0 5

2. What is the cumulative cost of our training (rough order of magnitude) the way we conduct it today?

Consider your cumulative training costs today, from creating through implementation and all its associated costs. New technology sometimes seems like an additional expense till we realize how much we’re spending on traditional training methods and how it would augment or replace a part of that.

3. What would be the life of this interactive training course and how many users could take it annually?

The life of the course depends on how often your training will change – and even then, it can be updated. And the amount of users that can benefit from this training is limitless, really – constrained only by the extent of your implementation.

Amortizing the cost of the development over the life of the course and number of users is an important exercise to run through, as it will help prove the business case and ROI (see #6 and #7 where we speak to maximizing the life of your training and ROI, specifically).

25

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CONSIDERING 3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING CHAPTER 06

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

164. We are already conducting classroom instructor-led training – but what is missing from the existing course? Do the students seem engaged or do they appear bored or like they’re being forced to sit through it?

Our clients report (and our experience bears this out) that students demand more participation and the ability to explore, but when taking instructor-led courses this isn’t usually an option as courses are pretty rigidly designed.

Instructors want students to practice what they’re taught, as ‘Learning by Doing’ is the most effective way to retain information – and this is especially true when it comes to Operation & Maintenance procedures, but a one size (or one pace) fits all approach doesn’t suit all trainees.

And in keeping with the field technician saying, ‘If there is no practice, there is no training,’ 3D Interactive Training gives techs the ability to practice and explore in ways that maximize individual learning.

5. Do we want to distribute this as self-paced lessons?

We often hear that training managers want the ability to refresh their courses and have students practice at appropriate intervals, since training is not something you do just once.

6. Do we have a mobile and/or web strategy?

A common answer we hear is, “no, but we know we’ll need one in two years.” To avoid paying for this twice, our team at Heartwood makes sure mobile and Web are part of your training and technology roadmap, and not just an afterthought. So even if you don’t need it today or your customer is not demanding it, you’ll be prepared for what the consumer world already knows.

26

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CONSIDERING 3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING CHAPTER 06

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

167. How do we calculate ROI to justify a business case?

Every scenario is different, so we have a separate post where we explore some examples that may assist in crafting a business case: Securing Training Budgets With A Better Business Case.

3D Interactivity looks expensive – and possibly unnecessary at first – much like early cars must have looked to folks used to walking from point A to B. But in both situations, once the time and money saved per trip (or training) is amortized over the life of usage, it is not only affordable, but the best way to arrive at point B efficiently.

8. Is the objective to impart knowledge (training) or to assess the level of retention (testing and evaluation) – or both?

Our customers often require testing and evaluation as part of the course, so we architect the application in such a way that one leads into another. This way, users are not merely tested using multiple-choice questions (which are not that effective), they are required to actually perform the procedure themselves (whether on a PC or tablet).

From there, we can collect data about mistakes made, about hints requested and pass/fail results for each step in the training. This provides valuable feedback that helps improve the training while training the users!

27

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CONSIDERING 3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING CHAPTER 06

M A K I N G Y O U R T R A I N I N G S T I C K – L E A R N I N G B Y D O I N G c h a p t e r 0 1

1

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CONSIDERING 3D INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TRAINING CHAPTER 06

28

69. Would we want to re-purpose this into some sort of job performance aid or OJT (on-the-job) training?

If the answer is yes, then we have exciting news! Please contact us and ask us about our ‘Checklist App’, specifically designed to assist technicians on the field, while they are performing procedures. It uses voice and gesture recognition and will reduce errors by walking them through the steps live.

Are there any questions we missed? We’re pretty sure you’ve thought of a few as you were reading and we’re happy to answer them. Reach out!

The overarching understanding one should take away from this eBook is this: When it comes to 3D interactive technology – the potential is limitless; the recall – exceptional; and the necessity of adopting it – inevitable. Are you ready?

We’re ready when you are. Interested in MRO Training and its 3D interactive future? We have an eBook on that as well. Sign up for our mailing list so you don’t miss it (and other 3D Tech training resources we regularly publish.)