Training of Procedural Tasks Through the Use of Virtual Reality and Direct Aids - Virtual Reality and Environments - page 45

There are many ways by which people can learn a new task. People can learn by reading
instructions, by watching a video, by listening to an expert, and of course by practicing
themselves. In the context of procedural tasks, the training involves the learning of the
sequence of the needed steps to accomplish the goal of the task, as well as, the learning of
new motor skills or the improvement of existing ones.
Edgar Dale (Dale (1969)) developed from his experience in teaching and his observations of
learners the cone of learning . He demostrates that the least effective methods to learn and
remember things are by means of reading a manual and hearing a presentation because after
two weeks people remember the 10% of what they read and 20% of what they hear. In contrast,
the most effective method involves direct learning experiences, such as doing the physical task
and simulating the real task because people are able to remember the 90% of what they do.
This approach is called enactive learning or learning by doing .
Learning by doing is the acquisition of knowledge or abilities through direct experience of carrying
out a task , as a part of a training, and it is closely associated with the practical experience
(McLaughlin & Rogers (2010)). The reason to focus on guided enactive training is that it is
direct, intuitive, fast, embodied into common action-perception behaviours, and that it may
be more efficient than other types of training methods for becoming an expert. Besides, if
the learning by doing approach is supervised, trainees not only could practice the task, but
they also could also receive feedback about their actions along the training sessions in order
to avoid errors and improve their performance.
In this way, direct practice under the guidance of an expert seems to be the preferable
approach for both acquiring procedural cognitive knowledge and motor skills associated with
procedural tasks. However, this preferred situation is expensive and many times hard to
achieve with the traditional training methods. Sometimes the practice on the real environment
is impossible due to safety, cost and time constraints; other times the physical collocation
of the trainee and expert is impossible. Consequently, new training tools are requested to
improve the learning of procedural tasks. And here it is where the VR technologies can play
an important role.
2. The use of VR technologies for training
Virtual environments are increasingly used for teaching and training in a range of
domains including surgery (Albani & Lee (2007); Howell et al. (2008)), aviation (Blake (1996)),
anesthesia (Gaba (1991); Gaba & DeAnda (1988)), rehabilitation (Holden (2005)), aeronautics
assembly (Borro et al. (2004); Savall et al. (2004)) and driving (Godley et al. (2002); Lee et al.
(1998)). These simulated and virtual worlds can be used for acquiring new abilities or
improving existing ones (Derossis et al. (1998); Kneebone (2003); Weller (2004)). In general, VR
technologies can provide new opportunities compared to traditional training methodologies
to capture the essence of the abilities involved in the task to be learnt, allowing to store them
and to transfer them efficiently. The speed, efficiency, and mainly transferability of training
are three major requests in the process of design of new virtual training systems.
2.1 Advantages and risks of the VR technologies for training
The use of VR technologies for training provides a range of benefits with respect to traditional
training systems, mainly: