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A conversation with Imran Mouna, Co-founder of InStage, a company who develop VR software to rapidly improve soft skills.
Topics:
Background on launching InStage
How to you use VR in learning
The benefits for VR learning
When is VR most effective for learners vs. when it is not
The impact of the COVID19 crisis on VR
What inStage is working on
The future of VR
Insights:
InStage uses very high quality virtual reality headset to immerse people in ultra believable experiences, thereby improving communication and soft skills
The main interest in VR right now is in the gaming industry because it's an incredibly immersive experience, however it's becoming important in the training space and the education space because we can immerse people in experiences that they don't often get a chance to go through in real life.
VR makes possible the collection of very useful data about how someone perform - for example what percentage of the time they made eye contact with people, or how many times they say words like "um..." when they were presenting.
It is an opportunity to practice much more realistically -- VR is an ideal environment to make mistakes for people that are practicing presentation, communicaiton, job interviews, boardroom presentations
InStage worked with a lot of companies to help their salespersons improve their ability to navigate customer objections or to help employees practice having difficult conversations.
They hvae also seen a massive uptake of virtual reality in recent years in the postsecondary sector; the technology has been valuable to students who are looking to get jobs, as they can practice for their first job interviews.
If we look at the evolution of skills that are in demand in any industry, communication skills are certainly important; however, we all know that if somebody is not comfortable communicating, we might be missing on the potential of that person; by giving that person a chance we are equipping him or her for the marketplace with skills that are in demand and they can show more of their potential rather than triggering some biases that we have (if somebody is nervous, we sometimes think it's because the person isn't competent. The reason could be that s/he is just nervous in public).
VR is useful for training for task with high cost or danger, Any dangerous skill to develop things like a safety training, firefighter training, surgeries for medical professionals.
With the COVID crisis, the interest for VR increased. InsStage observed a new benefit over these past few months: lusing virtual reality as an observational learning experience, learn by watching someone else go through something.
In the next few years, we can think that our phones might be able to provide VR experience. Phone-based VR or a standalone headset do not provide the same experience currently, but in the near future with the right type of engineering a phone will be able to provide an extremely believable VR experience. You will be able to join a virtual meeting with your phone
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