Presentation 1: Virtual Reality in Professional Training: An Example from the Field of Bank Counselling (Short Paper #26)
Authors: Michael Kickmeier-Rust, Michael Leitner and Philipp Hann
>>Access Video Presentation<<Virtual Reality has become a mature and widespread technology in many application fields, including design, industry, defense, health care, and gaming. Also in education, the potential of immersive technologies is acknowledged more commonly. Evidence-based insights in the mechanisms and impacts of VR trainings are still sparse, however. This paper introduces a VR-based professional training solution for bank counsellors, where soft skills, communication skills, attention, and awareness are in the focus. In a study we compared the VR-based training solution with elements of a face-to-face presence training covering the same domain. The results show that the VR solutions excelled the expectations of participants and that learning motivation was significantly higher as opposed to the conventional presence training. In the perceived effectiveness, the VR condition achieved equal results than face-to-face training condition. The results provide some evidence that VR solutions are an appropriate and effective solution in professional training. Moreover, the study revealed distinct characteristics that make VR-based training more accepted and satisfying than conventional trainings.
Presentation 2: Demo – VR and AR for Energy Industry Training (Practitioner Presentation #53)
Authors: Jeremie Seanosky and Vivekanandan Kumar
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This session provides participants with a detailed exposure to AR/VR technology employed in immersive energy industry training environments. Participants will be introduced to a) design aspects of immersive training environments, b) formative and summative data types collected in training sessions, c) learning traces inferred from these raw data, d) techniques leveraged to facilitate displacement and object manipulation in immersive environments that also minimizes motion sickness, e) pedagogical training strategies to optimize learning benefits, and finally f) big data that drives the generation of adaptive content. The author wants to acknowledge the contributions of Marilyn Kelloway, the Lead Trainer at Canadian Natural Resources Limited, as well as Prof Vive Kumar from the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University, who is supervising this research effort.
Presentation 3: Barbershop Simulator VR: How Hard Can it Be to Cut Hair? (Practitioner Presentation #102)
Authors: Kenechukwu Umelo, Ryan Barthelet, William Varsalona, Alexander Woodrow and Elena Bertozzi
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Description: This presentation discusses the challenges encountered in the development of: Barbershop Simulator VR: a VR experience for the Oculus Rift S. This project is the work of a group of undergraduate students in the QU Game Design and Development program. We will demonstrate a playable version of the game in which a client walks into a barbershop and presents the player/barber with a 2D image of a desired haircut. Players can use three tools to change the client’s existing hair. They have a razor, a trimmer, and colored hair spray. The razor is for general hair cutting. It lacks the ability to do many fine movements but will be the main tool for getting hair off of the client’s head. The trimmer is smaller and therefore able to do the fine movements the razor lacks. The colored hair spray allows the player to change the color of the client’s hair. As the head of hair is cut, bits of hair fall from the client’s head and the shape of the head reflects the changed hair. Player success is measured by how closely they are able to match the client’s desired haircut. While this is how players will be assessed in terms of “winning” the game, they are also able to move around freely within the space of the barbershop and can have all the fun they want with the tools at their disposal.
