Saying good bye to simplistic eLearning design with VR
And by design I am (for the most part) talking about Graphic Design.
Think about it for a second, on a standard eLearning module, you usually have a rectangular area in which to put in your content and graphical assets, and if we talk in degrees, it’s around 90 (horizontally and vertically) degrees that you must cover. That is relatively easy, since we are used to that format and you can make a good use of white spaces (for most graphic designers, a very important concept in regards to the emphasis and sophistication it can give to a piece of content).
But why is it any different in VR? Well, for one thing you have to cover 6 times the space you have on a standard eLearning module canvas. I say six, because on the current VR technology, they way projection works is that a camera (representing the user) is place inside a cube, and well, a cube has six sides.
It would be a waste of technology, if we rely mostly on white spaces, and frankly, who would like to look at a 360-degree white space? You wouldn’t even know you are navigating in different directions.
I think this technology forces us to think differently and in a more complex way, because we have now so much more space at our reach, that we can create interesting things. That’s why videos are a really good starting point (in my opinion) since we can have several things happening at the same time in different directions, enabling the user to explore and navigate the whole environment.
Also, with this technology we can apply less linear eLearning modules and create more scenario driven products, in which learners’ decisions can alter the outcome of the module (we can even think about adding some AI to the eLearning modules).
