The Four Pillars of a DET Solution: Part 1

In part one of this blog post we explore the four elements we believe are essential for any solution to be considered a Digitial Experiential Training solution and in part two, what a solution might look like in practice.  

The four essential elements are directly related to the limitations of current solutions and are crucial to ensuring new approaches are not just an incremental change but actually represent a fundamentally new way of approaching workplace training at scale.

1. Self-authoring only: 

1. Solutions relying on outsourced effort will never be as cost effective, flexible and responsive as an internal capability.
2. Moreover, easy to use self-authoring creation also makes it faster and easier to create asset specific or customised training content by empowering SME's.
3. Similarly, solutions requiring specialist skill sets or external service input will be less valuable than those which enable organisations to develop internal capability.

2. Future-proofed: 

1. Solutions in this category will need to be 'future-proofed' and recognise the reality of adopting new learning technology; this means allowing for the creation of valuable content today, but ensuring that that same investment is still relevant and impactful tomorrow. 
2. This may take the form of a solution where training value can be extracted gradually, as the organisation moves along the adoption curve. This is in contrast to solutions with large up-front costs and, sometimes more importantly, substantial change management effort requirements before value is realised.
3. This thinking comes to life when considering the most likely technologies in this new category: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality. These are undoubtedly the future gold standard of training and learning delivery, particularly Virtual Reality. However, solutions in the Digital Experiential Training category need to recognise that the reality of providing headsets to all trainees today may not be feasible. Thus, they need to provide a pathway to that gold standard, one that allows an organisation to gain value today and build on this investment over time.
4. We believe that high impact training can be achieved by content that leverages mediums such as 360 degree imagery and 3D model based experiences, even if they are accessed via 2D applications or web browsers: this is something every organisation can start with. If that same content can then be used in XR headsets, whenever the organisation is ready, that's future-proofing.

3. Experiential by Design:

1. Experiential training has a strong background in the learning sciences and it suggests that adults in particular learn best by playing an active part in the experiences they partake in. 
2. This means digital training content must be seen as an experience that the learner: A) feels they are a part of, and, B) has control of key outcomes that occur. Given this requirement, interactivity and immersion become essential to delivering effective training outcomes.
3. This is where traditional eLearning fails, as it cannot create a sense of being immersed in a real life experience, drastically reducing the level of engagement. Nor are the interactions realistic or meaningful enough to allow for active learning to occur. These are both well-known limitations of eLearning.
4. Again, the only training approaches capable of delivering high enough levels of interactivity and immersion is either, In-person or XR based experiences; given that In-person training is difficult to scale and standardise, that leaves XR technologies as the only no-compromise option to delivering experiential training.

4. SME Empowering:

• Our view of the new category sees the empowerment of SME's across an organisation as key to unlocking the complete value of a training solution.
• By empowering lay people to create content, the creation process can move beyond the L&D function and allow SME's to capture expertise across the organisation with ease. This will be of enormous benefit to knowledge management strategies in larger organisations.
• Conversely, any solutions requiring specialist internal skill sets will be of limited value for all but the largest organisations.