Virtual reality puts real-life spin on tackling emergencies at KLM
- Summary:
- Reduced classroom time and better retention rates prove worth of mobile-app based VR for airline KLM.
It’s the culmination of a quest by Guido Helmerhorst, head of innovation, technology and learning at KLM, to find a more engaging and effective way of training staff than in a classroom.
Organizing training for its 30,000 employees is a challenge with so many ground and air crew working shifts. Helmerhorst says:
The training for our cabin staff is on the ground – that’s about 10,000 people. So imagine the planning of that whole circus. We have whole departments dealing with the training.
At the moment, most learning happens in the classroom, backed up with elearning. But Helmerhorst was worried about how much learning people were retaining from this style of learning. Would it be better to use simulations with actors, on the job training, something that engaged people’s emotions, as well as classrooms?
What Helmerhorst really wanted was something that could combine the whole lot – the “washing machine” effect, as he calls it:
I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could mix all of this: on the job training, classroom training, emotions, the procedures and the knowledge – get it all in and mix it up.
What came out of the “washing machine”, he says, is virtual reality.
I can put in real environments, I can put in real situations, real people, real learning objectives and put it into the washing machine.
Rather than computer-generated animations, Helmerhorst reasoned that putting people in as lifelike situations as possible would be more powerful:
I think when someone gets angry with you in film I think it’s more powerful than with an avatar.
Real problem
KLM had done some prototyping and experimenting in VR when a manager in one of the hangars came to them with a real-life problem.
The manager had 300 mechanics working in shifts in the hangar. Although there were regular fire drills, the manager was not sure how well people would react in a real emergency situation. The worry was that when they heard the alarm in a fire drill they just followed the person in front of them to exit the building without really knowing what they were supposed to do.
So Helmerhorst created a virtual reality evacuation scenario training as a mobile app for the mechanics. The mechanics simply start the app, insert the phone in a headset and off they go:
The beauty of what we created with the evacuation scenario is if have decent smartphone you can play this and the only thing you need is a headset. It’s just a piece of plastic and lenses.
It may seem simple, but what it creates is very powerful, adds Helmerhorst:
It’s an immersive experience and it’s an individual experience.
Trainees are totally immersed in a 3D video of scenario shows the hangar with smoke and fire in it and the trainees choose from a number of options. For example, do should they try to extinguish the fire yourself, tell colleagues, set the alarm etc.
Based on the choice made they are faced with another set of options. If they’d picked to extinguish the fire themselves, it would ask where the extinguishers are located and then they are presented with six types of extinguisher, which they have to choose from. Helmerhorst says:
Normally you learn in the classroom that there are six extinguishers but the question is what are you going to do when you’re really faced with this situation when your emotions play a part? I think we’ve found a way – and this is a first step – in putting your learning into a situation where you really have to act. And with that I think we have better retention rates.
While Helmerhorst does not believe it will replace classroom learning, he believes it will reduce the time spent in the classroom, and that means:
If we can cut the training time, then that’s the business case solved.
It also provides valuable performance data. They will know every decision someone makes, how long it takes them to make a decision both individually and as a group.
Despite reservations that some of the older workforce might find it hard to use this type of technology, in fact they had no problem adapting to VR.
KLM has since created a VR scenario for CPR training. It’s still early days, but initial analysis shows that there’s a much higher retention rate on remembering the procedure. Helmerhorst is confident that VR, although not cheap to produce, can be used in many different ways to improve the learning experience:
The fact that I can take a smartphone and make it a portal to a whole learning universe is very powerful.