HEARTWOOD
www.hwd3d.com

For years, task training labs have been designed around best practices and ideal circumstances. However, this training approach bears little resemblance to the real-world repair tasks that repair technicians actually face. In fact, a classroom training program may be forced to follow a narrow sequence of correct steps because any errors will cause injuries to learners or damage expensive equipment. Quite simply, learners are protected from making mistakes. That approach can limit a traditional task training program’s success.

If you ask a good parent, you will probably hear them say, “You have to let your children make their own mistakes. They won’t believe something until they learn for themselves.”  While parents still must protect their children from grave dangers, children need room to explore. Throughout our lives, we learn from our mistakes. We also learn from the mistakes of others.

Interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) allows learners to make mistakes. In fact, a successful learning design will encourage learners to explore within the synthetic learning environment which allows several advantages over the traditional task-trainer in a classroom setting. There are three benefits that virtual task trainers offer:

1. Critical process errors, such as the failure to properly use a grounding rod can lead to electrocution in the real world, but in the virtual world it will only produce simulated injuries and equipment damage.
2. Severe consequences can be rendered in 3D with both high-fidelity and high-authenticity. Sometimes you actually want your learners to wince or be rattled.
3. The virtual task trainer requires virtually zero reset time after simulating an error. In a traditional hands-on lab, a process error could put actual equipment out of commission for weeks and require million-dollar repairs.

These practical benefits save time. They also reduce the need for dedicated hardware and instructors (who can be freed from training duties and placed out in the field). However, will 3D simulation training produce improved learning outcomes? Initial research on interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) provides an emphatic “yes,” because simulation training can leverage the principles of error exposure training. Within a training simulation, learners can see and experience the consequences of errors. However, no one gets injured. No equipment breaks.

That’s why Heartwood believes that authenticity matters as much as fidelity within a synthetic learning environment. When creating 3D models, CAD files and photographs can provide a lot of information about what an object looks like. These resources help us create high-fidelity 3D models. However, these files provide only part of the story. We need more information to produce an effective virtual task trainer. Heartwood’s in-house instructional designers frequently work with subject matter experts and even representative learners to uncover the “rest of the story” required to produce an effective task trainer.

Experienced technicians are great (and sometime harsh) judges of a virtual task trainer’s level of authenticity. They can look at a simulation and see key insights that will never appear in the CAD files.

• “That’s nice, but the system really doesn’t work that way.”
• “This bracket here tends to stick. Therefore, you need to apply pressure here to get the board out of the rack without breaking the pins.”
• “The manual assumes you have three hands for this step. That’s why we do it this way.”

Error-exposure training collects the “war stories” of experienced technicians and embeds them within the virtual task trainer. Instead of asking technicians about best-case scenarios, it’s far more interesting to ask them about worst-case scenarios:

• What made this situation less-than ideal?
• Did you miss something that delayed a repair?
• Did a misread of the situation nearly put people or equipment or risk?
• What would have been the consequences of error?

In research conducted in 2006, Australian researchers (Joung, Hesketh, and Neal) examined the training of rookie firefighters. They tested two groups. One group learned through traditional best practices, while the other group received error exposure based on scenarios revealed by veteran firefighters who had faced complex situations. The rookie firefighters who received error exposure training performed better than their counterparts who received only best-practices training. The firefighters who received error-exposure training were able to make situational judgments, because they were able to think and adapt beyond best practices.

Therefore, IMI applications, such as virtual task trainers, offer the opportunity to leverage the power of error exposure training to improve responses where technicians must make complex situational judgments.  A smart design allows people to make errors. It reflects how people actually learn, and it produces a faster route to both task competency and mastery.

If a piece of equipment can provide an electrical shock, then it can and should be simulated within the virtual task trainer. When learners experience these errors within the context of a synthetic learning environment, it creates a strong memory within their brain. It also reduces the risk that they will make these mistakes in the real world.