Training

This use case pertains to using Augmented Reality to develop any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific workplace competencies and behaviors. There is a gradual migration of terminology away from “training.” Professionals in this domain increasingly refer to this use case as “skill development,” “employee development” or “workforce development” which encompasses skill mastery, knowledge of and experience applying policies, and behaviors. Regardless of what it is called, this use case can be a component of and combined with other use cases, including complex assembly, inspection, maintenance and remote assistance.

Prior to AR Adoption

Training is defined as having one or more of the following characteristics:

• Involves delivery of programs/content designed to increase a user’s skills and competencies, retention of concepts, rules, or changing of attitudes and behaviors or fitness in one or more domains which, when retained, can be used without the support of instructions in the workplace.
• Can be delivered using solely documentation and materials prepared in advance
• Can integrate machine learning, competency tests and situational awareness to generate materials or digital assets customized in real time for the user
• Can be advanced automatically based on assessments of the user’s level of retention
• Can be performed individually or in a group, in some scenarios, while interacting with other users

Increasing employee skills and competencies, retention/application of concepts or rules and  changing attitudes and behaviors or fitness is a continuous process in all industries. Due to everyone having had different life experiences, prior training and different learning method affinities or aptitudes, individualized skill development programs have higher success metrics than general, “one size fits all,” programs. Individualized programs are more expensive to develop and deliver. Consequently, most skill development programs combine group learning and individualized components.   Skill development materials are frequently in digital format, based on standard operating procedures, documentation and business or industry policies, and used in conjunction with a learning management system that tracks individual program progress and completion levels.  When in a training program, an employee is not directly contributing to performance of tasks, hence, businesses must balance skill development with productivity targets. Once an employee reaches a high skill development level, they are more capable of performing tasks without error or waste, and may be qualified to perform a wider variety of tasks or procedures than a less skilled employee. An employee with more skill mastery is a more flexible resource for the business.

Business Challenges AR Introduction Addresses

Material preparation, training and certification of employees can be time consuming, reducing the overall productivity of a workforce. As task and product complexity and diversity increase, the requirements for training and/or documentation to assist an untrained professional to develop skills, competencies and knowledge expand. Furthermore, training in a simulated or classroom environment may not match the real world environment or circumstances in which the employee is expected to use their acquired knowledge or skills.   If an employee needs to perform a process for which they are not trained in advance, they may make errors, waste materials or time. The cost of downtime caused when employees are unable to complete tasks without assistance is compounded with the cost of having a qualified professional travel and be dedicated to one task when there may be other urgent projects or tasks that could also benefit from the expert’s attention.

Use Case with AR

Augmented Reality-enabled skill development can be delivered to groups or individuals. Digital learning materials delivered via an AR-enabled display can re-use learning assets stored in a corporate knowledge base. The user’s interactions and skill mastery can be captured using the AR system and the status stored in the user’s learning management system record.   With AR in an environment which the real machine or products are available, the learner can see and hear the real world circumstances and interact with equipment or other people directly, increasing the kinesthetic learning component. When connected to machines and sensors with live data streams which appear on the AR display in the user’s field of view, the learner can make judgements about the duration of the task, the correct level of tension or pressure needed and other real time metrics, avoiding errors and bad habits while learning.  An AR-enabled system can also be worn or used by an expert to create highly compelling and interactive learning materials for playback as video or by other AR-enabled display users. The expert can use gestures or other tools to annotate/enhance the existing training materials with text, graphics, animations or videos.   The type of AR display used when developing skills depends on many factors:

• Need for use of both hands to practice or perform a skill
• Room in the vicinity where the training is conducted for another screen pointed directly at the work space
• Support for introducing new display devices (e.g., wearable AR, projection AR)

Another capability that an AR-enabled training system can support is the real time capture of the learner’s achievement of competency. Then, the recording or data about the competency level can be stored in the learning management system.

Common roles of Users

Any employee or user that needs to acquire or master workplace competencies, skills and certifications.

Business Benefits:

The benefits of AR-enhanced training include raising the employee’s value to the business through increasing workplace competencies, skills and certifications.  In some situations, having AR-enabled instructions can reduce or remove the need to train a user in advance of performing a skill or procedure for the first time. An AR-enabled instruction delivery system may substitute reduce or eliminate the time that would be required for the training.  In addition, there can be benefits due to lower training time or on-the-spot lessons, which can translate to higher overall productivity of employees who do not need to stop working to acquire new competencies, skills and certifications.