What is RWE?
In a world of high performance computer game simulators, Logicom have re-engineered one of the world's most successful PC based game engines and configured it into a training environment in which the end user can practice and apply their knowledge and skills.
Almost everything inside the environments that we create (a house, a factory, an oil rig, for example) reacts and changes randomly. What happens will depend on what the learners do - just like the real world. They can't just sit back and let training happen: they are in charge of what happens. Everything they do will have the same consequences as in the real world!
RWE - The next level in technology based learning delivery
Even when technology based training and e-Learning programmes incorporate the highest levels of instructional design, which ours most definitely do, the real test is whether or not the end user is able to transfer their learning successfully into the workplace.
One way of testing the application of knowledge and skills in the workplace has been to use simulations. For many years these have been used to help train key personnel, such as civil and military pilots, but at a tremendous cost. Whilst the use of computer software, technical tools and similar devices are fairly cheap to simulate as part of a technology based training programme, anything else which involves interactions with the 'real world' has, until now, been impossible to recreate with any degree of authenticity and realism, let alone at a price which most training departments can afford.
So, just imagine the possibilities if you could include in a technology based training programme the opportunity for people to apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills in a 'real world environment' at a very reasonable cost.
Five Dimensional Training
People can now experience a full five-dimensional environment in which they can interact with inanimate objects and people, apply specific processes and procedures in 'real time', whilst at the same time being sheltered from potentially costly real-world consequences and other associated pitfalls of learning on the job.
Aspects of the environment can be programmed to react and change constantly in a random manner relative to the trainee's action, just as they would in the real world. Once the 'real world environment' is entered, the end user cannot be passive when it comes to applying their knowledge and skills - this requires a totally different type of interactivity, one which demands total involvement and where all actions and decisions will have consequences!
Five-dimensional training = 3D + live time + randomisation
Real World Environments provide a compelling, effective and cost efficient method of improving the skill set and performance of the work force.
How does RWE differ from traditional technology based training?
The main difference lies in the nature of the learning environment. Traditional technology based training usually takes place in a highly structured learning environment. The instructional designer creates the necessary degree of structure so that users can acquire and develop the required knowledge and skills in order to master the learning objectives. A Real World Environment (RWE) is different because it allows the user to demonstrate in a safe but totally responsive environment their acquired knowledge and skills. Through a RWE users have the opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of specific learning objectives and the extent to which they are able to transfer their learning into the workplace.
This is why we see Real World Environments as the next level in technology based training. We don't see them as an alternative to technology based training but as an extremely powerful development which will transform traditional TBT in so many ways yet at a cost which is not prohibitive.
Significant cost benefits
The first benefit is that we can create a number of different 'scenarios' in the 'real world environment'. Most on the job applications of knowledge and skill take place in a number of different situations. To replicate these successfully, especially in traditional off the job training environments, such as role plays and business games, is an expensive solution yet these become affordable through RWE.
The second benefit lies in the underlying method we use to produce 'real world environments'. As 'real world environments' only require 'assets' to appear in the chosen world, this means that a library of assets is built up over numerous projects. These assets can be re-used in a number of different technology based training programmes shared across departments, which will address quite different business objectives and learning needs.
Feedback
Apart from the 'real' feedback, which is a built-in component of interacting with the assets contained in any 'real world environment', there is also a tracking feature which ensures that all the interactions made by the end user are captured in the form of an audit trail which can then be replayed or analysed, as well as being stored for assessment and evaluation purposes.
What sort of applications can be covered by RWE?
There are no limits to the applications for this delivery method and RWE can reproduce realistic environments from soft skills to technical training.
Irrespective of what type of business you are in, where you have a training need which cannot be totally satisfied through traditional technology based training, then RWE will give you that essential extra at a realistic cost. From technical service provision and health and safety practice, to full product operation and diagnosis, logistically complex or hazardous situations, and customer service implementation, RWE provides you with the means to achieve the maximum training benefit for your organisation.
