Catching attention might be easy, but engaging students throughout the entire course requires knowledge. And when your students repeatedly get distracted or bored, things are getting even more difficult. So, how to solve these problems? The answer lies in understanding what immersive learning is.

Throughout the entire career, pilots, cabin crew and other staff experience continuous training and have to process a vast amount of information.

Many airlines and flight schools keep applying outdated training methods. Partly because they are unaware that some learning methods exist and partly because they don’t successfully identify their students’ needs.

Apply the ‘immerse to learn’ principle within your flight school and maximize your training effectiveness in aviation.

What is immersive learning?

Learning is a part of every human being. In today’s modern age powered by technology, distractions are all-present. These distractions have a negative impact on the learning process.

Larry Rosen, professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, conducted a study about boosting productivity among 260 students. He found that students averaged 6 minutes of studying before switching tasks. This study shows that it is challenging to stay focused, especially if you are studying from lengthy paper manuals.

Not only that, but students experience monotony when they have to sit in the classroom for many hours. For that reason, instructors want to know how to minimize these negative effects and make learning engaging and more effective.

Defined by the eLearning Industry portal, Immersive learning is a technique that uses a simulated or artificial environment through which students can immerse themselves in the learning process.

Even though immersive learning is frequently linked to virtual reality (VR) that provides a complete immersion into an alternative digital world, an immersive learning environment can be used without any VR equipment.

Immersive learning can bring abstract scenarios to life and give opportunities to access the virtual environment. This technique not only eliminates distractions but monotony as well. It is a safe and effective way of training employees.

Immersive Learning vs. Experiential Learning

Even though immersive learning and experiential learning are closely related, they differ. Below are the differences between these two concepts one should be aware of.

Many flight schools are open to applying immersive technologies in aviation training to provide students with more up-to-date learning techniques, higher pass rates, and better training quality.

It is crucial for training managers to understand what immersive learning is and how to apply it in their crew training. By creating immersion within the flight training, you can place students into an interactive learning environment, either physically or virtually. This can be very effective for training specific procedures as it provides a safe environment for practice.

Simulations, role play, and virtual learning environments can be considered immersive learning.

If you, as a training manager, face challenges with providing better and more efficient training, you may want to explore how to implement immersive learning. Find useful tips below on how to create immersive pilot training. 👇

Simulation Training

Simulation-based training usually involves interacting with technology. Instructors can recreate real-world scenarios with basic computer software and editing skills. During simulation training, the student can learn how to perform specific procedures in various real-world scenarios to be better prepared once they enter an aircraft. Simulation training is a great way for immersive pilot training.

👉  Pro Tip: Add playful and explorational real-life scenarios within your e-learning course. By doing this you can simulate a real-life environment and immerse your crew into the training. This will positively affect preparing your students to apply learned knowledge. Once they experience procedures in the simulated digital environment, they will successfully use that in real-life situations. Simulation of real-life scenarios can help to train for emergency or unusual situations in real life.

Role Play

The main goal of role-playing is to teach, improve or develop upon the skills necessary for a specific position. By implementing role-playing, your students can practice or simulate actual working conditions and follow specific tasks their position requires.

👉 Pro Tip: Implement role-playing within your online courses. Create e-courses in such a way that your students can experience what responsibilities their role covers. You can place your students in virtual aircraft where they can get an understanding of airline crew organization and the procedures they have to follow. By doing that, you will encourage your students to get into character and make them feel immersed.

Virtual Learning Environment

A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) typically involves a distance learning platform that holds diverse course materials, exams, assessments, and other external tools to the classroom experience. VLE can be seen as distance, remote learning. Usually, VLE platforms are integrated with Learning Management Systems (LMS).

👉  Pro Tip: Provide your students with virtual trainers that are accessible anytime, anywhere. This can have a huge impact on your students that need to travel in order to pursue classes physically. Accessing virtual aircraft on students’ own mobile devices can improve pre-flight preparation and boost students’ confidence.

Do you want to create immersive e-learning?

Create immersive courses rapidly and import them to any LMS.

Why is Immersive Learning effective? 🧐

You may wonder why immersive learning is important in maximizing training efficiency. There are several benefits that can help with immersive pilot training.

✔️  Distraction-free world
Immersive learning can help to immerse your students into a distraction-free world. By using immersive technologies in aviation training, learners’ attention span will be higher and more information can be processed. 

✔️  Motivation
Immersive learning can have positive effects on increasing your students’ motivation. The more your students are engaged, the higher their motivation will be.

✔️  Playful virtual environment 
Immersive learning provides a highly interactive environment for users. Your students can experience playful and explorational content, which can help them in better knowledge retention.

✔️  Suitable for everyone 
Immersive learning is beneficial for learners in all stages of their life. That means that experienced pilots can experience the same benefits as young future students.

✔️  Safe space to learn
Learning new procedures in real life might involve risk. By recreating real-life scenarios within e-courses and virtual trainers, immersive learning can provide a safe and risk-free environment for practicing new skills. Immersive training environments that are set virtually are a way to go!

Stay current and apply immersive flight training!

Understanding immersive learning is crucial for improving your training program. Applying it in your training program can maximize training effectiveness and prepare your students for real-life situations. Provide your students with digitally created content and virtual environments to learn and improve their skills.

Not only for flight schools

How Sunclass Airlines Manages Crew Training Across 7 Bases?

List of sources:

1. eLearning Industry. 2022. Everything You Need To Know About Immersive Learning. [online] Available at: <https://elearningindustry.com/everything-need-know-about-immersive-learning> [Accessed 27 January 2022].

2. Griffey, H. (2018). The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/14/the-lost-art-of-concentration-being-distracted-in-a-digital-world.

3. Training Industry. (2022). Simulation Training. [online] Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/simulation-training/.
‌4. Training Industry. (2022). The Importance of Role Play in Learning. [online] Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/role-play/.
‌5. Training Industry. (2022). Immersive Learning. [online] Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/immersive-learning/ [Accessed 29 Jan. 2022].
6. Training Industry. (2022). Virtual Learning Environment. [online] Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/virtual-learning-environment/.
7. Future Visual. (2021). Immersive Learning – What it is, Benefits and How to Implement. [online] Available at: https://www.futurevisual.com/blog/immersive-learning/.
8. Apa.org. (2021). Boosting productivity [online] Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/09/boosting-productivity.html.