WHITEPAPER - Transforming Workplace Behavior With Immersive Learning

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TRANSFORMING WORKPLACE
BEHAVIOUR WITH IMMERSIVE LEARNING.
A guide for innovative organisations on how to leverage Virtual
Reality to create and deploy effective behavioral training
programmes at scale.

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FOREWORD
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Despite a growing body of academic research, successful case studies and extensive media
coverage, immersive learning is still perceived as a complex, costly and unproven solution to the
challenge of deploying soft skills training at scale.
This whitepaper explores the most frequent questions learning leaders have when considering
using immersive learning for soft skills training.
We hope you will find enough insights in there to transform your curiosity into action.

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Satya Nadella,
CEO of Microsoft
THE CHALLENGE OF
DEPLOYING SOFT
SKILLS TRAINING AT
SCALE
Social media, AI, #metoo, the rise of remote
working, etc. The past decade has seen radical
technological and societal transformations
impacting the World of World.
As LinkedIn 2019 Global Talent Trend1
puts it: “thebig
issue organisations will face in the coming years
is about people: how we find and develop soft
skills, how we create fairness and transparency,
and how we make the workplace more flexible,
humane, and honest.”
In an increasingly automated economy,
performance is becoming a function of human
behavior. And therefore HR departments have
inherited a mission critical remit: transforming
workplace behavior, at scale, and cost-efficiently,
to lead their organisation successfully into the 4th
Industrial Revolution. This can be broken down into
4 key objectives:
“Jobs are going
to change, the
nature of work
is going to
fundamentally
change; it
happened in
the second and
third industrial
revolutions.
I’m sure the
same debate
was had and
we somehow
figured it out.2
”
of executives say that soft skills
have become equally or more
important than technical skills.3
92%
• Upskilling employees’ soft skills at all levels
• Delivering lifelong learning strategies to win
the war for talent
• Transforming workplace behavior to
accommodate a global, remote, diverse
workforce
• Inform organisational strategy with relevant
people data
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Stephen Covey,
Author
Soft skills can broadly be defined as a collection of one’s social and
communication abilities. As an expression of emotional intelligence, soft
skills underpin how we interact with others in any given situation. Effective
soft skills training requires deepening the participant’s understanding of
organisational contexts and individual relationships, and the effect of
their specific actions in that context.
That’s why face-to-face interventions, from coaching to roleplay-based
workshops are the gold standard of behavioural training - enabling
behavioral change through practice and self-reflection. But such
programmes are expensive, often fragmented and poorly measured.
Hence why they are difficult to scale across a whole organisation.
On the other end of the learning technology spectrum, eLearning and
mobile learning bring scalability and personalisation. But eLearning is a
mostly passive delivery approach that focuses on optimising knowledge
acquisition. It fails to engage on an emotional level, to allow learners to
practice, self-reflect and build the skills and confidence to transform
their behavior in real life.
In other words, forced to choose between the costs of instructor-led soft
skills training and the inefficacy of eLearning, organisations are looking
for a cost-efficient and measurable learning technology to deploy
impactful programmes at scale.
“You cannot
continuously improve
interdependent
systems and
processes until you
progressively perfect
interdependent,
interpersonal
relationships.4
”

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"Machines
are going
to get
very good
at being
machines,
so we need
to get
very good
at being
human."5
Nicole Bradfield,
Partner, Within People
Immersive learning is not a new value proposition.
Flight simulators for commercial pilot training
have been around since the 1950s. They remain
immensely successful by offering a faster, safer,
more measurable and more cost-efficient
alternative to their real-life equivalent.
Similarly, immersive soft skills simulations,
delivered via new affordable VR headsets,
promise to equip organisations with a better
tool to develop their workforce’s social and
communication abilities. In a nutshell, immersive
soft skills learning combines the benefits of
role-play based training with the scalability,
consistency and measurability of a digital
solution.
THE VALUE
PROPOSITION
OF IMMERSIVE
TECHNOLOGIES
FOR SOFT SKILLS
TRAINING
A reduced reliance on face-to-
face interventions means coach/
trainer costs but also travel,
accommodation and downtime
costs drop whilst learners spend
less but better focused time
training from their location.
Lowered Direct
Costs
Research demonstrates that
immersive, interactive and
reflexive learning drives sustained
behavioral change much faster
than digital solutions. This in turn
translates into faster time to
competency, improved company
culture, lower attrition rate and
ultimately better operational
performance.
Improved Learning
Performance

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AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH
ON EMBODIED VIRTUAL REALITY
AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGE
Academic researchers have been studying the behavioral effects
of Embodied Virtual Reality (EVR) for over a decade. The results
firmly position EVR as a powerful medium for implicit learning and
driver of sustained behavioral change.

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VR BOOSTS ENGAGEMENT AND CREATES NEW WAYS
OF EXPERIENCING KNOWLEDGE WHICH IMPROVES
UNDERSTANDING AND MEMORABILITY
Even at its most basic level, VR improves the learner’s engagement as it
captures 100% of their audio-visual input. Moreover, the spatial and interactive
representation of content improves understanding and memorability.
A 2018 study by the University of Warwick6
compared the learning performance
of students confronted with the same content in text, video and VR. It concluded
that “Virtual reality (VR) is the most engaging and emotionally positive learning
method. VR shows great potential to supplement or replace traditional learning
methods and create new experiences in the classroom”.
VR CREATES THE ILLUSION OF SOCIAL PRESENCE AND
IMPACTS ONE’S IMPLICIT BIASES
In embodied VR experiences, learners are placed in simulations where they have
their own virtual body, synchronised with their real body movements. Those
virtual bodies are often of a different age, gender or race than the user’s.
Research has shown that an illusion of virtual body ownership is created. In
other words, learners subconsciously accept the virtual body as their own, which
affects their implicit biases and behavior.
A 2018 study led by Natalie Salmanovitz7
found, that people who embodied a
black avatar produced significantly lower implicit racial bias and were more
conservative when evaluating the guilt of black defendants in mock legal
scenarios.
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PERSPECTIVE-TAKING VR CAN FOSTER SUSTAINED
ATTITUDE CHANGE TOWARDS OTHER GROUPS
Embodied virtual reality, as a perspective-taking exercise, has a higher and
longer-lasting impact in terms of behavioral change than traditional or
computer-based methods.
This change in attitude towards the group of individuals of which the perspective
was taken can happen at a subconscious level.
A recent study8
published by a team at Stanford University looking at attitudes
towards homelessness showed that a significantly higher number of participants
in the VR condition signed a petition supporting affordable housing for the
homeless, despite little differences between the groups when it came to self-
reported measures of empathy.
BODY-SWAPPING IN VR DRIVES SELF-AWARENESS AND
CAN IMPROVE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
The body-swapping VR format, first developed by Mel Slater and his team in 2014,
is an advanced form of embodied VR. It allows users to essentially converse with
themselves: users embody an avatar and speak with their own voice before
swapping body with another avatar to listen back and answer to themselves
from a new perspective..
When used with participants who had high levels of self-criticism, a body-
swapping experience of comforting a crying child resulted in reduced depressive
symptoms a month after the therapy for the majority of participants, some of
whom experienced a clinically significant drop in depression severity.9
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INTRODUCING A
LEARNING DESIGN
FRAMEWORK FOR
IMMERSIVE SOFT
SKILLS TRAINING
Immersive learning design for behavioral
training is a relatively nascent field with very
few established design principles. The following
framework is a first attempt at developing a form
of playbook to guide the creation of impactful soft
skills training in virtual reality. Like any framework,
it calls for discussion and improvement and we
hope this can be the start of fruitful conversations
between the learning design and immersive
technology worlds.
Developed in collaboration with Egle Vinauskaite, a
learning designer and a Human Development and
Psychology graduate from Harvard University, this
framework is focussed specifically on developing
soft skills in an immersive environment. Based on
the latest research and best practice in the fields
of adult learning and virtual reality, it combines
evidence-based principles and ethical design
practices, all the while taking full advantage of the
immersive medium.

LEARNING DESIGN
PRINCIPLES
VIRTUAL REALITY
PRINCIPLES
1. REFLECTION BY DESIGN
Reflection is the secret ingredient
in learning from experience. It
activates several key learning
processes at once and bridges the
ever-elusive gap between training
and work.
2. AFFECT THROUGH EXPERIENCE
Emotional resonance is one of the
primary drivers of engagement
and retention. Living through
an experience makes learning
personally meaningful and truly
enduring.
3. APPLICATION OVER EXPOSITION
Performance is more powerful
than consuming content. Practice
with well-timed feedback corrects
misconceptions and helps embed
new skills, all ready for recall at the
point of need.
4. ADAPTIVE PRACTICE
True learning requires effort.
Variations in practice, especially
if adapted to prior performance,
increase cognitive effort and create
a more complex, nuanced mastery
of a skill.
1. DATA
Collection of VR and AI-enabled data
points throughout the experience
helps provide meaningful feedback
and create unique learner paths.
2. EMBODIMENT
The illusion of presence takes
learning personalisation to another
level through visceral, lived-in
experiences.
3. IMMERSION
High fidelity immersive environments
enable learners to practice skills in
situations that closely resemble the
look and feel of real life.
4. EXPLORATION
Thoughtful, dynamic scenarios
encourage us to explore realistic
consequences of one’s actions time
and again.
SELF-REFLECTION
BEHAVIOURAL DATA
AFFECT THROUGH
EXPERIENCE
EMBODIMENT
APPLICATION OVER
EXPOSITION
IMMERSION
ADAPTIVE PRACTICE
EXPLORATION

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BEST PRACTICES
FOR DEPLOYING
IMMERSIVE
LEARNING
PROGRAMMES
Designing great content is only the first
part of the challenge. Until immersive
learning becomes standard in soft skills
training, it is recommended to adopt an
agile, iterative approach to deployment.
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1. FIND A CHAMPION
AND GIVE THEM
RESOURCES
3. START WITH A BIG
CHALLENGE ON A
SMALL SCALE
4. MEASURE
PERFORMANCE
2. FACILITATE
THE INITIAL
DEPLOYMENT
Immersive Learning comes with a number of typical innovation-related challenges:
getting buy-in from budget holders more used to traditional approaches, managing
procurement-related issues around hardware, dealing with the logistics necessary for
on-site deployment, etc. Successful deployments require the client to be hands-on
and a dedicated point-of-contact with the resources and decision-making power to
move the project forward.
Tempting as it is to justify launching an immersive learning programme by its cost-
efficiency at scale, it is recommended to focus first on a small number of stakeholders
for whom the training topic area is mission-critical. This will speed up buy-in, facilitate
ad-hoc deployment and greatly help with the collection of feedback.
Ultimately, immersive learning through VR lends itself to a self-service solution that
will allow learners to practice and learn at the point of need. But an initial facilitation
period is highly recommended to get users acquainted to the technology. The first
contact (at least) with VR learning should be facilitated in a face-to-face intervention
to allow for immediate feedback.
A minima, the facilitator should conduct a survey at the beginning and end of the
facilitated event. Ideally, a longitudinal study following the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model
involving before and after interviews with line managers will help build evidence of
behavioral change and improved operational performance.

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CASE STUDY
BODYSWAPS
SAFEGUARDING VR
How BODYSWAPS
works
BODYSWAPS is a complete training
environment that uses VR and AI to
provide adaptive behavioural training. It
works by simulating realistic workplace
scenarios where learners can role-play
with virtual characters using their own
voice & body language and explore
problematic and challenging situations.
Uniquely in BODYSWAPS, learners get to
trade places with virtual characters to
hear and see themselves back from their
perspective.
WithBODYSWAPS,weappliedthelearning
design framework presented above
to develop a unique body-swapping
learning format with one objective: to
release the full power of empathy and
reflection that underpin all powerful
learning experiences.
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In BODYSWAPS®, the learner has a virtual body and participates in a simulated social interaction
with a virtual human. Being embodied in a virtual character allows for an emotional, personal
and highly memorable experience for each individual, informing their responses and giving
learning personalisation a new meaning.
BODYSWAPS® simulations are designed to be experienced individually without other participants
or external evaluation. The psychological safety awarded by virtual environments encourages
exploration without fear of failure, leading to repetition and variations in practice that embed
information in new, more durable ways.
In BODYSWAPS®’ scenarios, professional actors have been motion-captured to give life to virtual
humans that talk, move and react like real people. Moreover, the learners get to interact with
those virtual humans using their own voice. The combination of social presence and participation
unleashes the benefits of hands-on practice usually reserved for face-to-face roleplaying.
BODYSWAPS®’ analytics dashboard leverages behavioral and semantic data to provide highly
personalised real-time feedback. This encourages self-awareness and enables powerful
moments of reflection. Moreover, by aggregating behavioral data at scale, BODYSWAPS®
provides organisations with a real-time map of their workforce’s competency around a specific
topic .
EMBODIMENT + AFFECT = EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
IMMERSION + APPLICATION = REAL-PLAY NOT ROLEPLAY
EXPLORATION + ADAPTIVE PRACTICE = PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
DATA + REFLECTION = SELF-COACHING
APPLYING THE
IMMERSIVE
LEARNING DESIGN
FRAMEWORK TO
BODYSWAPS

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CASE STUDY
SAFEGUARDING VR
ReleasedinDecember2019,SafeguardingVRis
a BODYSWAPS scenario designed to empower
aid workers to practice conversations with
safeguarding survivors.
The training module was co-developed with
the Humanitarian Leadership Academy with
the support of Lucy Heaven, a renowned
expert on safeguarding.
The simulation recreates realistic interactions
with a volunteer looking to discuss a
safeguarding incident. Throughout the
module, the trainee learns to identify bad
practices and gets to build self-awareness
and confidence to report by enacting a
conversation with a survivor.
Safeguarding VR is currently being piloted by
Save The Children, the UN Agency for Refugees
(UNHCR), the International Labor Organisation
(ILO) and the Norway Refugee Council.
The experience has won Virtuality Paris’ award
for “Best XR project in Education and Training”.

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89% of learners reported looking to apply what they learned in
the simulation to their work.
of learners reported being likely to recommend the
training to their colleagues.
of learning managers reported looking to roll the training
further into their organisation
With every BODYSWAPS scenario, we are capturing data from learners
and HR partners. The data below has been gathered from 108 learners
immediately after completing a single scenario.
A full case study can be found here.
90%
82%

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The 4th Industrial Revolution is rapidly shifting the training needs of the global workforce towards soft
skills. Yet, budget constraints make face-to-face training unrealistic to scale and current eLearning
solutions are failing to deliver behavioral change.
On the other hand, research points towards Embodied VR as a powerful medium for behavioral
change and the technology is rapidly becoming more affordable and user-friendly. Bringing
together scalability and learning performance, the use of immersive technologies in soft skills
training appears to be a promising solution.
Immersive behavioral training requires a fresh approach to learning design. The framework
presented above sets out the key principles of such an approach. After that, the deployment phase
demands a hands-on agile approach in the initial stages and a sharp focus on measuring results.
In a not-so-distant future, immersive behavioral learning will help organisations transform their
culture at scale rapidly, improve workforce well-being, and drive operational performance.
CONCLUSION
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REFERENCES
1 LinkedIn, Global Talent Trends Report, 2019 https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/recruit-
ing-tips/global-talent-trends-2019?trk=bl-po#
2 Satya Nadella, Transformation of Tomorrow panel at Davos, 2016
3 Wall Street Journal, Soft Skills Survey, 2016 https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-find-soft-skills-like-
critical-thinking-in-short-supply-147254940
4 Stephen Covey, The 7 habits of highly effective people, 1999
5 Nicole Bradfield on Leadership at eLN Connect, 2019
6 Allcoat, D., & von Mühlenen, A. (2018). Learning in virtual reality: Effects on performance, emotion and
engagement. https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v26.2140
7 Natalie Salmanovitz (2018). The impact of virtual reality on implicit racial bias and mock legal decisions
https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsy005
8 Herrera, Bailenson et al. (2018), Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional
and virtual reality perspective-taking https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204494
9 Falconer, Slater et al. (2014). Embodying Compassion: A Virtual Reality Paradigm for Overcoming Exces-
sive Self-Criticism. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111933

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BODYSWAPS®
87-91 Hackney Road
E2 8ET, London, United
Kingdom
www.bodyswaps.co
hello@bodyswaps.co
+44 (0) 7917 735 078
2019
SHORTLIST
FUNDED
START-UP
CHALLENGE
WINNER 2019

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