Virtual reality is an ever-growing field that is slowly changing the way certain fields work.
Pilots, doctors, construction workers and many others are already being trained using virtual reality.
And such training has shown to increase worker efficiency and decrease human error.
When people experience dangerous scenarios by seeing them first-hand instead of reading about them, they remember them better.
They have a better understanding of how to react in specific scenarios.
This is why pilots go through such rigorous training on virtual machines. They have to be prepared for every possible scenario.
Here’s a list of all pros and cons of virtual reality.
| Pros | Cons |
| Creates a safe learning environment | Physical Side Effects |
| Fun to use | Lack Of Flexibility |
| Helps with skill development | High cost |
| Collects data | Loss of human connection |
| Eliminates Language Barriers | Users get addicted to the virtual world. |
| Conferencing | Technology is still experimental. |
| Effective Communication | |
| Convenience |
Pros of Virtual Reality
Creates a Safe Learning Environment
With Virtual Reality, people can learn how to handle dangerous situations in a safe space, without the fear of death.
VR is a fantastic way for people to learn stuff first-hand they would.
Virtual reality also allows people to learn without the fear of damaging equipment, and that’s also a sign of relief for employers because, in some industries, the equipment can cost millions of dollars (think pilots)
Fun To Use
Virtual reality is just fun to use. Experiencing this groundbreaking technology doesn’t feel like work; it’s more like play than work.
Virtual reality is a really great way to improve worker education. It’s a fun way for them to increase their knowledge.
And virtual reality has been proven to increase retention.
Helps With Skill Development
It’s not easy to develop new skills, but virtual reality makes it much more comfortable.
With virtual reality, you can quickly bring your workers into thousands of situations they wouldn’t have the chance to experience every day, such as scenarios where they would need to use expensive equipment for the first time or dangerous scenarios where their life would be at risk.
These types of training scenarios really help with worker skill development.
Convenience
Virtual reality makes shopping from home a breeze.
Don’t want to go five miles to the nearest furniture store, just take a look at their offers online.
Look at their products in 3 dimensions, place them in your living room, see how they would feel and look there.
Virtual reality offers us many advantages when it comes to convenience, the same way that Amazon provides us with a lot of conveniences when it comes to online shopping.
Collects Data
VR training helps collect robust metrics that aren’t available from in-person training.
From progress reports to usage data, there are many metrics that you can collect with virtual reality.
These metrics are important because they measure how effective your training program is.
You can use those metrics to improve your training program and achieve better results.
Eliminates Language Barriers
When training foreign workers, it can be challenging to get some points across if they don’t understand the language very well, especially if it’s the tricky technical stuff that’s hard to process.
With virtual reality, every possible language can be implemented in the training program. You can more easily train workers and overcome the language barrier.
Conferencing
With the pandemic going on, human interaction is more important than ever before. Virtual reality can help all of us experience at least some form of human interaction through virtual meetings. Seeing one another and interacting in a virtual environment helps keep everyone sane.
Virtual reality makes it feel as if everybody is in the same room.
Effective Communication
Virtual reality truly helps with effective communication. Since most of our communication is contained within body language, virtual communication is the next step towards avoiding miscommunication.
Cons of Virtual Reality
Physical Side Effects
Extended virtual reality use can lead to loss of spatial awareness, dizziness, disorientation, and nausea.
Many users report feeling sick and having a headache after using virtual reality for an extended period.
Motion sickness is also a significant factor that affects people.
You see many movements happening but don’t actually feel any of them.
You might be walking in the virtual environment, but you’re seated in the real world.
However, motion sickness, also known as virtual reality sickness, can be fixed with good software design, so it won’t affect you on all virtual reality uses, depending on how well the virtual simulation is created.
Lack Of Flexibility
While virtual reality can be a great asset for most industry training, it can also be a considerable disadvantage. Traditional education is based on human communication and interpersonal connections. Virtual reality is quite different; it is you and the software, and nothing else.
This can damage the relationships between employees and the overall human communication.
High cost
It’s no secret that virtual reality is quite expensive. In some cases, it can save lives and thousands of dollars, but it’s still a huge upfront investment.
Virtual reality training programs can cost more than $50,000 to make.
The good news is that you don’t always need a custom made virtual reality training program.
Since virtual reality is becoming more and more useful, you can simply purchase a training program for your industry and use it.
But training alone is not the only thing you can do with virtual reality.
You can create a fantastic product demonstration for you and your company, these have shown to improve sales.
Loss of human connection
We’ve all already felt the loss of human connection during the pandemic.
We, as humans require real social connections.
Extended use of virtual reality could create some improper associations that are not a part of real-life.
Users get addicted to the virtual world.
We’ve also seen some fiction scenarios like the movie “Ready Player One” where everyone is so obsessed with virtual reality, that they set their real lives aside.
Dopamine-inducing technology is addicting and virtual reality is no different.
While it can be a robust training and sales promotion tool, there have to be usage limitations.
Technology is still experimental.
Virtual reality is an ever-growing industry.
Things continuously change.
Virtual reality gets cheaper and better, and overall, we still don’t know what direction it will take next.
The technology still isn’t fully developed in most fields, and what’s even worse is that it’s not entirely accepted.
This will undoubtedly change in the future, but for now, it is a roadblock that VR has to overcome.
Conclusion
Virtual reality is an ever-growing field that is constantly showing better results.
As technology develops, the pros of virtual reality will heavily outweigh the cons.
If you want to learn more about virtual reality, we recommend that you check out our article about Virtual Reality in Education
