The Future of Corporate Training - Metaverse
Ever since Facebook announced the changing of name to Meta and laid out its vision for the metaverse, this construct has generated excitement and elicited interest in how it might impact the future of digital interaction.?
The concept of metaverse first emerged in Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel Snow Crash, which depicted a digital world parallel to the real world. People control avatars and compete with each other to improve their social status. Lately, a science fiction film Ready Player One has illustrated a form of metaverse where people enter a virtual game space (Oasis) through VR headsets. In Oasis, infinite digital content is found in the vividly realistic online world. It is considered as a visual form of the idea of metaverse in Snow Crash.?
Metaverse is defined as a mega digital community offering an immersive experience in the virtual environment.?
Not only could it mirror objects in the real world, users can self generate content on the collaborative platform, making its possibility unbounded.
It is indeed not necessary to enter the world with VR or AR.?
Considering VR and AR have been on the scene and a fashion in video games, mobile games and online shopping, seeing the advancement of technology and the unprecedented pandemic affecting the global economy on an ongoing scale, metaverse has started to earn a reputation in the corporate world. It is anticipated to take storm in the L&D realm.
Some corporations and education institutions have ahead of time been leveraging the digital experience and engagement capability of metaverse for their cross-region collaboration, freshman orientation, employee training, etc. to eliminate the feeling of isolation during the COVID outbreak. Let me share with you a few examples.?
Deloitte University has virtualised itself during the pandemic. A digital space was developed where colleagues from around the globe meet and interact online in a “realistic” way, like being in a physical campus. The connectivity, simulation, communication and sharing in the space made Deloitte believe that meta-universe would be the next big change, just as how the Internet erupted the world. They have also established an original and immersive onboarding experience for new hires in Deloitte Studio.?
Stanford University initiated a VR-based course to draw remote classmates together in metaverse, giving students first-hand experience of networking virtually and learning in cutting-edge technology. The heightened social interaction and demonstration enacted in the virtual space have strengthened students’ attention in class and ability to connect with each other despite being physically apart.
As many may have heard, the Workrooms in Horizon Worlds of Facebook presents a brand new way of online interaction and collaboration for corporations in the VR space. No matter how far you are separated in the offline world, the personalised avatars allow employees to communicate and have real-time gestures congruent to interacting in person. Sounds are directional, which take into account the distance to make it more realistic than ever. Avatars can work in the same virtual room and display materials and videos on the screen, enabling group discussion, presentation and social activities to be as constructive as getting together physically.?
While the ongoing pandemic has made virtual training inevitable, it has been challenging for trainers to effectively engage learners in webinars.
With its immersive and community nature, metaverse empowers us to gamify learning in ways that go beyond imagination. It entails learners to actively participate in the virtual world, thus the learner-centric methodology drives engagement.
The 3D collaborative space also motivates learners to create learning content on their own and share with each other, making the training session fully engaging and dynamic. This fresh and eye-opening experience is what makes a digital learning session impactful and unique from the beginning to the end.
Metaverse fundamentally clears our concerns that face-to-face training is undetermined under the erratic circumstances in the lasting pandemic and exhibits the feeling of being present in a lively way. But it is undeniably far more than that. The things we can do with corporate training in metaverse are just surfacing. With the rapid advancement of technology and the time people spend in the digital world today, learning ventures in the metaverse are meant to be explosive. If you would like to evolve with the new normal and lead an irresistible learning experience, metaverse is the keyword you should never miss!