The future of learning: Virtual reality
Virtual reality technology has traditionally been associated with the gaming community, but its use cases can also extend to a variety of other industries, including healthcare, real estate — even training.
JetBlue University is JetBlue Airways’ training department. There is no shortage of people coming through its doors, whether it be a frontline Crewmember going through the College of Flight or a new hire attending orientation. In fact, the Orlando facility regularly hosts hundreds of people every month and accommodates around 350 permanent staff.
When the pandemic hit, JetBlue University was interested in exploring new, innovative ways of instruction. Enter JetBlue Technology Ventures: our team was brought in to identify trends in the training sector that could help improve the overall educational experience.
We first began by scanning the educational technology market, which yielded five main trends in the space:
- Personalization through artificial intelligence
- Extended reality (XR)
- Accelerated growth of systems (like Teams and SuccessFactors)
- Biometrics
- Online learning
From this list, we narrowed our focus to XR technology because of its ease of implementation and low costs. Understanding the sub-categories within XR and mapping them to the needs of the business were crucial to finding the right solution, so we defined it to encompass the following:
Augmented reality (AR): A digital overlay over the real world. One promising use case for this technology is aircraft maintenance, as it is highly technical, hands-on work. Startups like Atheer leverage augmented reality for airline mechanics to perform their role more efficiently with a lower margin of error.
Mixed reality (MR): Technology that merges the real and virtual worlds. Based on our research, mixed reality use cases are still too nascent for JetBlue University.
3D video: Filmed with actors and shot using a special 360 degree camera. We found this technology too limiting, as trainees are confined to the camera’s line of sight and cannot move about freely.
Virtual reality (VR): A fully digital environment with six degrees of freedom.
After thorough research, our team determined that VR has the ideal user experience and technical maturity to be a powerful addition to JetBlue’s current training programs. Our job is to consider the ‘art of the possible,’ and given the speed of innovation in the space, we emphasized that training doesn’t have to involve a single type headset and to aim for a device-agnostic solution.
Moving forward, JetBlue University is conducting a proof of concept to establish if VR is a viable long-term solution for their operation. We also shared this research with our partners, several of which are now pursuing XR for training purposes. This method of startup sourcing is a common way that we deliver value to our internal and external customers. One thing remains certain: this technology is here to stay!
