VR Simulators Create Hands-on Practice
There’s a reason Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger was able to successfully land his commercial airliner in the Hudson River, saving every life on that jet. It wasn’t because he had practiced this before in a real jet – obviously not possible. But, he had practiced emergency landings in the flight simulator major airlines use for training.
Simulators and Simulations in virtual reality provide hands-on practice in a 3D world designed to replicate the real thing. The best thing for you, is that the cost of creating simulators and simulations has plummeted, especially with the VXRLabs platform.
Five Key Notes as You Consider a Simulation for Your Institution:
- Simulations can include the replication of a) a machine, like a medical device, b) an environment with human beings and moving parts, and c) actual human beings (think engagement with a customer or employee).
- Adding in artificial intelligence has allowed for human beings to very closely replicate the real thing and remove the need to script out responses for conversational avatars. Think in terms of patient with a disease who has arrived at the clinic, or an instructor who is teaching inorganic chemistry.
- Simulations should in most cases be synchronous, meaning that when in a 3D generated work with a simulator, multiple people should be able to access the simulation to allow for an instructor as well as a student (or a classroom of students). Ultimately, students can enter in by themselves later to practice with the simulator, but for teaching purposes, it helps for it to initially be synchronous.
- Outcomes need to replicate the real world. Under older technology, we were able to build simulations that would always have the same outcome because the machine was nothing more than a 3D animation. What we can do now is build a machine that has different outcomes/results based on the inputs received. So, if a student is using a factory machine or conversing with a customer, the response from the machine needs to be different depending on the actions taken by the user. If you push the wrong button, the machine should provide the appropriate outcome.
- Simulations and simulators should be able to record student usage for corrective instruction or assessment grading.
VictoryXR has built many simulations and simulators for student use. Here are five that have been successful:
1. Chemistry LabWorking with Alabama A&M, a chemistry lab was created in a classroom to give students access to robust chemistry tools that simulate actual chemistry experiments.
2. Crime Scene Investigation Working with The University of Maryland Global Campus, a CSI simulation was created replicating various crimes committed in a particularly unfortunate neighborhood.
3. OSHA Warehouse Training OSHA regulations can be complex. The OSHA warehouse simulates a workplace with multiple violations requiring students to learn to identify issues.
4. Therapy Counseling Seton Hall University chose to create a paitent simulation for counseling students. In this case, the patient has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and needs to visit with a therapist about this situation.
5. Forklift Driving Simulator Forklifts are responsible for more accidents in the workplace than any other machine. Just like the pilot who learns to fly a simulated plane, workers can train on a simulator before loading pallets onto shelving.
So, what does it cost to build a simulator?
The cost – as you probably expect – varies with the complexity of the project, but to be helpful, here is a range to consider: for a simple simulator, the cost is usually in the range of $10,000 and up to $20,000. Complex simulators that require hundreds of hours out of modelers and coders will usually cost $25,000 to $50,000. If it includes a full warehouse with multiple machines, the cost could exceed $100,000. We generally price it out at $125 per hour and make an estimate of the number of hours it will take. In some cases, VictoryXR will split the cost of the simulation if we are allowed to include it in our library available to VXRlabs subscribers.
Quelle:
