Amplifire and Dossier Collaborate to Transform Healthcare Workforce Competency Training

Boulder, Colorado, Feb. 7, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Amplifire, the leading adaptive eLearning and content development platform and sponsor of the Healthcare Alliance, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Dossier, a pioneer in competency management solutions, to revolutionize workforce competency training in the healthcare sector. This collaboration aims to address the unique challenges faced by healthcare institutions by combining Amplifire’s one-of-a-kind, proven adaptive learning algorithm and the Dossier platform.

The collaboration with Dossier brings a critical component to Amplifire’s Workforce Competency offering, strategically designed to meet the healthcare sector’s pronounced workforce challenges, emphasizing the need for competency and skills-based training. Amplifire’s world-class, Healthcare Alliance courses and new AI-driven content development capabilities are transforming how healthcare learns and trains. Dossier enables 100% visibility and end-to-end management, helping Amplifire prioritize speed, efficiency, and thorough tracking to create a powerful workforce competency solution tailored to modern learning environments’ dynamic needs.

This collaboration’s key features include automated and comprehensive tracking of knowledge and abilities, flexible reporting capabilities, web-based access for seamless integration, and brain science-based adaptive learning.

“We are excited to partner with Amplifire, a company renowned for its innovative approach to knowledge enhancement,” said Geir Arnhoff, Founder and CEO of Dossier. “This partnership is a significant step toward our commitment to enhancing healthcare training. By integrating Amplifire’s AI-driven content on our platform, we aim to elevate the standard of training and patient care in hospitals.”

“Partnering with Dossier is a strategic move for Amplifire,” emphasized Bob Burgin, CEO of Amplifire. “Our AI-driven content, focused on improving knowledge and decision-making in healthcare, finds a perfect synergy with Dossier’s platform. Together, we’re not just providing information, we’re creating a powerful tool that can lead to tangible improvements in patient safety and hospital outcomes.”

Based on current use cases, the partnership is already yielding results for accreditation requirement fulfillment, administrative burden reduction, deep insights into learner knowledge, misunderstandings, and struggles, as well as empowerment and guidance for career advancement.

This collaboration is part of a broader initiative by Amplifire to invest in innovative and effective workforce development solutions. By combining forces with Dossier, Amplifire aims to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare workforce training and patient safety.

Amplifire Wins Silver in Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence in Technology Awards

Boulder, Colorado, Feb. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The 2023 Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Awards™ are given for work in Learning and Development, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Human Resources, Sales Enablement, Future of Work, and Education Technology. 

Amplifire, a leader in innovative adaptive eLearning and content development, won two coveted Brandon Hall Group Silver awards for excellence in the “Best Advance in Content Authoring Technology” and “Best Advance in AI and Machine Learning” categories. 

The winners are listed at https://excellenceawards.brandonhall.com/winners/ 

Amplifire submitted for two categories best representing its latest product launch, including its new authoring platform. The new authoring platform offers cutting-edge content creation capabilities to transform development and time-to-delivery of high-quality instructional material with the power of artificial intelligence (AI), enabling users to spend less time on ideation and planning and more time elevating content. This recognition underscores Amplifire’s commitment to eLearning excellence and dedication to staying ahead of the AI curve to provide the best learning experiences. It is the company’s second consecutive year securing multiple Brandon Hall Group Tech Excellence awards. 

Amplifire Chief Product Officer, Nick Hjort, shares, “We are honored to be recognized among the top innovators in the industry. We’ve taken content creation to new heights, elevating the content development process to deliver an exceptional experience. The incorporation of AI is a game-changer, ushering in a more autonomous, intuitive, and expedient course creation process, resulting in the delivery of top-tier educational resources.” 

“In our 30th year, the Excellence in Technology Awards continue to showcase the best innovations in learning, talent management, talent acquisition, HR, workforce management, and sales enablement technologies. We are proud to receive applications from a diverse range of organizations globally, reflecting the ever-evolving landscape of technology solutions” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer Rachel Cooke, leader of the Excellence Awards program. 

Entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts, and executives based upon these criteria: fit the need, program design, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits.  

“Our awards program is distinguished by the thorough evaluation process led by industry experts. Judges meticulously score each entry, and our executive leadership team at Brandon Hall Group reviews and validates the judging and scoring. The level of the award is solely determined by the number of points, ensuring a fair and unbiased recognition of excellence in technology,” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Executive Officer Mike Cooke. 

About Amplifire 

Amplifire is a next-generation learning platform with more than four billion interactions and is an innovator in high-stakes training for critical roles. The Amplifire platform harnesses advances in cognitive science to create personalized learning and drive successful outcomes. The platform’s adaptive algorithms guide millions of learners to mastery across healthcare, government, and other industries, providing unique analytics that offer valuable learner insights.  

About Brandon Hall Group™  

Brandon Hall Group is the only professional development company that offers data, research, insights, and certification to Learning and Talent executives and organizations. The best minds in Human Capital Management (HCM) choose Brandon Hall Group to help them create future-proof employee development plans for the new era. 

For over 30 years, we have empowered, recognized, and certified excellence in organizations worldwide, influencing the development of over 10 million employees and executives. Our HCM Excellence Awards program was the first to recognize organizations for learning and talent and is the gold standard, known as the “Academy Awards of Human Capital Management.” 

The awards recognize the best organizations that have successfully developed and deployed programs, strategies, modalities, processes, systems, and tools that have achieved measurable results. We are honored to receive applications from organizations worldwide ranging from small, medium, large, and global enterprises to government, not-for-profits, and associations. 

Amplifire Secures a Patent Protecting Brain Science-based Al Assistance in an eLearning Platform

Boulder, Colorado, March 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Amplifire, the global leader in adaptive eLearning, was awarded another patentfrom the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This latest patent expands Amplifire’s ability to leverage advancements in brain science to help people learn faster, remember longer, and apply their knowledge more broadly. 

Amplifire’s existing IP portfolio protects the ability to diagnose a user’s knowledge while simultaneously assessing that user’s confidence in their knowledge, which improves learning and permits powerful insights. The new patent builds upon that capability by introducing a digital tutoring system powered by recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), which ensures that AI uses proven-effective learning techniques to support a learner’s journey. 

“One of the appealing aspects of this patent is its breadth,” said Dr. Matthew Hays, Amplifire’s VP of Research and Analytics. “We’ve built on a tremendous amount of research about how people learn versus how we think we learn.” 

Nick Hjort, Amplifire’s Chief Product Officer, has been keeping his eye on AI for years. “This patent is a continuation of a patent that was awarded in 2017 and maintains retroactive and future protections,” he confirmed. “All the while, our team has been committed to staying ahead of the curve and embracing the AI revolution.”  

The power of AI systems like ChatGPT allows Amplifire’s learning platform to generate new educational content instantaneously and adapt in real time to a learner’s needs. The patented technology also leverages the vast amount of proprietary data that Amplifire has collected, which includes over 4.2 billion learner interactions. 

Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner of Polaris Growth Fund and Amplifire board member, added, “This patent is a testament to Amplifire’s ability to leverage cognitive science, AI, and data to revolutionize eLearning. With science and AI helping to optimize the last mile of delivering information to long-term memory, this isn’t just a patent; it’s a way to shape the future of education.” 

To learn more about Amplifire, reach out here.  

About Amplifire
Amplifire is a next-generation learning platform with more than four-billion interactions and is an innovator in high-stakes training for critical roles. The Amplifire platform harnesses advances in cognitive science to create personalized learning and drive successful outcomes. The platform’s adaptive algorithms guide millions of learners to mastery across healthcare, government, and other industries, providing unique analytics that offer valuable learner insights. 

Metacognitive Management of Attention in Online Learning

Authors

by Matthew Jensen Hays¹ ,Scott Richard Kustes¹ and Elizabeth Ligon Bjork^2
1 Amplifire, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
^* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract

Performance during training is a poor predictor of long-term retention. Worse yet, conditions of training that produce rapidly improving performance typically do not produce long-lasting, generalizable learning. As a result, learners and instructors alike can be misled into adopting training or educational experiences that are suboptimal for producing actual learning. Computer-based educational training platforms can counter this unfortunate tendency by providing only productive conditions of instruction—even if they are unintuitive (e.g., spacing instead of massing). The use of such platforms, however, introduces a different liability: being easy to interrupt. An assessment of this possible liability is needed given the enormous disruption to modern education brought about by COVID-19 and the subsequent widespread emergency adoption of computer-based remote instruction. The present study was therefore designed to (a) explore approaches for detecting interruptions that can be reasonably implemented by an instructor, (b) determine the frequency at which students are interrupted during a cognitive-science-based digital learning experience, and (c) establish the extent to which the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns affected students’ metacognitive ability to maintain engagement with their digital learning experiences. Outliers in time data were analyzed with increasing complexity and decreasing subjectivity to identify when learners were interrupted. Results indicated that only between 1.565% and 3.206% of online interactions show evidence of learner interruption. And although classroom learning was inarguably disrupted by the pandemic, learning in the present, evidence-based platform appeared to be immune.

Collaborating to Provide Better Learning Experiences Through Targeted Skills Competency Training

Boulder, Colorado, April 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Amplifire, the leading adaptive eLearning and content development platform, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Kahuna, the leading skills management software, to revolutionize training in a new age of workforce development. Combining Amplifire’s unparalleled adaptive, brain science-based learning algorithm and AI-powered content with Kahuna’s digitized skills management platform, this partnership aims to facilitate seamless skills tracking, elevated educational content development, and faster, more effective training. 

 Amplifire’s collaboration with Kahuna will provide a robust, end-to-end learning and competency offering, equipping organizations with deeper visibility into validated skills data and enabling granular tracking of workforce competence.Jointly, Amplifire and Kahuna reduce the administrative burden associated with tracking requirements, eliminateredundancies and time wasted by respecting learners’ expertise, and ensure individuals are empowered with the right skills to give themselves and the business a competitive edge. 

“At Kahuna we are deeply committed to empowering organizations with the tools they need to navigate the complexities of today’s technical and frontline workforce challenges,” said Jai Shah, CEO of Kahuna. “Our partnership with Amplifiremarks a step forward in this mission, as it allows us to leverage their cutting-edge adaptive learning content alongside our skills management platform to enable more connected and informed workforce decision-making in line with business needs.”

Bob Burgin, CEO of Amplifire, asserted, “In partnering with Kahuna, we’re crafting a powerful tool poised to drive tangible advancements in workforce development. Together, we’re enabling organizations to tackle workforce challenges in a dynamic and unprecedented way, housing the best solutions in one offering. But more than that, we’re opening the door to work together on many key verticals.” 

Based on current use cases, the partnership is already yielding results for accreditation requirement fulfillment, administrative burden reduction, deep insights into learner knowledge, misunderstandings, and struggles, as well as empowerment and guidance for career advancement.

The collaboration with Kahuna is part of a broader initiative by Amplifire to invest in innovative and effective workforce development solutions. By combining forces with Kahuna, Amplifire aims to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of workforce training. 

About Amplifire 

Amplifire is a next-generation learning platform with more than four billion interactions and is an innovator in high-stakes training for critical roles. The Amplifire platform harnesses advances in cognitive science to create personalized learning and drive successful outcomes. The platform’s adaptive algorithm guides millions of learners to mastery across healthcare, government, and other segments, providing unique analytics that offer valuable learner insights. 

About Kahuna

Kahuna is the only skills management software built for operations, learning, and human resources. Kahuna equips enterprise organizations with validated skills data to understand workforce capability, align talent supply and demand, and increase the return on training investment. Across a wide array of industries including healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and aerospace, Kahuna helps organizations build a more skilled, competitive workforce. 

Role of Generative AI in eLearning Content

When delving into the excitement surrounding the integration of generative AI into eLearning content development, perspectives vary depending on who you ask.  The promise of shortened timelines and faster outputs is often thrilling to the C-suite. However, when content authors are asked about the tangible benefits of generative AI in their workflow, their responses might not be as enthused. 

This is because, for content authors, generative AI has yet to significantly simplify their lives. While it aids in cutting corners and expediting development time, it inadvertently demands more time during the quality assurance phase. For generative AI to truly make a meaningful impact on the lives of savvy content authors, it must streamline the development process without introducing unnecessary obstacles. 

Amplifire’s own internal content team is seeing a significant reduction in content development time. Here are the ways we see AI helping authors, rather than adding to the content overload: 

1. Planning 

Authors invest a substantial amount of time meticulously outlining courses and crafting course questions. This involves listing learning objectives, themes, topics, and organizing them in adherence to instructional design principles. Traditionally, this planning occurs outside the platform used for development and entails multiple steps to create the course shell and overview. This is precisely where AI intervention can be transformative. By integrating AI, authors can input their objectives, topics, and source material, allowing AI to construct the shell and streamline the course creation process. This not only provides authors with a significant head start on course creation but also enables them to allocate more time to refine the details. It also reduces reliance on external tools like Excel, centralizing the planning process and improves the accuracy and consistency of course layouts. 

2. Content Generation 

Many authors already leverage generative AI as a tool to overcome writer’s block. While creating course/question shells may be a relatively straightforward task, fleshing out the details can be more challenging. With generative AI assisting the writing process, authors can redirect their focus toward enhancing the content rather than grappling with ideation. Additionally, with the shell generated from source content, the likelihood of factual errors is reduced, thereby minimizing the need for increased quality assurance time. Additionally, Ensures a high standard of content quality and relevance. 

As we navigate the evolving landscape of eLearning content development, the role of generative AI stands out as a transformative force with both promise and challenges. The key lies in the strategic application of AI, particularly in the planning and content generation phases. While challenges persist, these real-world efficiency gains underscore the potential of generative AI to be a valuable ally in creating more robust and engaging eLearning content. As technology continues to evolve, it holds the promise of not only meeting but exceeding the expectations of content authors in the ever-evolving landscape of educational content creation. 

Want to learn more about how Amplifire is harnessing AI to super-charge our authors’ toolkit? Reach out!

Supporting Your Workforce During the Holidays: Prioritizing employee well-being for a healthy work environment through the new year and beyond

The holiday season is a time of joy and celebration, but it can also bring stress and anxiety for many employees. Here are some interesting stats by the American Heart Association:

• The majority of Americans (51%) indicate that it takes them weeks to recover from the stress of the holidays.
• 71% percent of respondents express that their main regret post-holidays is not dedicating enough time to relax and fully enjoy the season.
• 63% of participants assert that the holiday season is more stressful than tax season.
• 69% struggle to prioritize healthy eating, 64% find it difficult to maintain regular exercise, and 56% face challenges in getting enough sleep during the festive season.
• 79% of those surveyed agree that, during the holidays, their focus on creating special moments for others often results in neglecting their own needs.

The numbers have spoken: your workforce needs extra support during this busy time of the year. To promote employee well-being, health system leaders must make a dedicated effort to support their staff in practical ways. Here are some effective strategies for encouraging work-life balance and overall wellness during the festive season and beyond:

1. Make time off a priority

Recognize that employees may feel overwhelmed as the year ends. The above survey by the American Heart Association has a common theme: people feel there’s not enough time to take care of themselves. Prevent this problem by communicating early about priorities and timelines for the upcoming year. This allows employees to plan their time off and enjoy quality moments with loved ones.

2. Foster mental health dialogue

The stress of the season impacts mental health. Employers play a crucial role in fostering open communication about well-being. According to the American Psychiatric Association, which polled adults about holiday stress, a majority of adults who experience stress (70%) said they are comfortable talking with others about their stress during this time — although only 41% said they actually do so. Have an outreach plan, acknowledge potential stressors, and transparently discuss the challenges. Remind them of available mental health benefits to create a supportive environment that reduces the stigma around seeking help.

3. Embrace diversity and inclusion

Holidays have different meanings for different people. Embrace diversity by acknowledging various customs and celebrations. Plan inclusive gatherings that reflect the cultural richness of your workforce. Avoid making celebrations mandatory, ensuring everyone feels a sense of belonging.

4. Rethink gift giving

Mandated gift exchanges can add unnecessary stress. Instead, focus on alternative ways to foster camaraderie, like workplace decorations, exchanging cards, or hosting small parties. This shift not only relieves pressure but also promotes a positive and inclusive atmosphere.

5. Encourage patient conversations

In the healthcare industry, trust plays a vital role in effective patient care. Facilitate meaningful connections between healthcare providers and patients by encouraging small talk. These interactions build trust, provide valuable health information, and enhance overall satisfaction. By understanding patients’ holiday plans and habits, healthcare providers gain insights into their well-being.

Furthermore, these conversations bring immense satisfaction to healthcare providers. Every interaction, whether it’s discussing vacation plans or favorite foods, forms a meaningful connection between providers and patients.

6. Foster personalized professional growth

Despite the challenges of staffing shortages, it is crucial to prioritize professional development for your employees. In the year ahead, acknowledge employees’ aspirations for professional growth and invest in training opportunities that align with the evolving needs of the modern workforce. Learning is never a one-size-fits-all experience, so be sure your learning investment can adapt to the personalized needs of your staff.

Demonstrating commitment to the growth of your employees shows that your organization is dedicated to supporting long-term goals. Whether employees are upskilling, trying a new path, or brushing up on critical knowledge, the whole organization benefits.

By implementing these strategies, employers can prioritize employee well-being, fostering a positive workplace culture throughout the year, not just during the holidays.

New Analyst Report Profiles Amplifire’s Remarkable Learning Outcomes and Unique AI Capabilities

Analyst firm Brandon Hall Group recently profiled Amplifire, digging into healthcare outcomes like measurable increase in proficiency, 79% reduction in CLABSI incidence, and millions of dollars in cost savings as well as its unique use of AI to transform course content development. At a time when health systems are facing steep challenges that require innovative, efficient, and effective solutions, technology that improves margins, boosts clinician satisfaction, and enhances patient safety makes all the difference.

Read their Solution Provider Profile to learn how Amplifire:

• Expedites learning by cutting training time
• Boosts retention through embedded, cutting-edge cognitive science discoveries
• Measurably improves performance following training
• Offers industry-disrupting content authoring capabilities with AI and best-in-class, peer development opportunities

Addressing the Nursing Shortage By Reimagining Support Role Training with Online Learning

The Nursing Shortage and Filling the Gaps

As much as hospitals and health systems may fear the implications of the word “burnout,” their peers are right along with them — no one is immune to the devastating ripple effects of the pandemic. And the widespread result of healthcare worker burnout — among other factors such as increased demand for healthcare services — has created a staff shortage, particularly at the nursing level. This shortage has been exacerbated by the lack of incoming nurses (the United States would need to more than double the number of new graduates entering and staying in the workforce for the next three years straight to accommodate the existing gap). Feeling the pressure of a nursing gap this large, over 300 hospital CEOs ranked personnel shortages as their number-one concern in 2021, with 94 percent ranking the registered nurses deficit as the most pressing category.

Most importantly, this shortage is leaving a major gap in patient care and the situation is becoming increasingly urgent. Will this be the catalyst health systems need to get innovative and reimagine clinical education and develop new care delivery models to reduce workload burden?

Benefits of online learning for workforce development

Modern problems require modern solutions, and hospitals are discovering that online learning can be a faster and more effective way to develop more nursing support roles as solution to address the staffing shortage. Prioritizing nursing support roles enables health systems to develop candidates with little to no healthcare experience, but who are interested in the field. With online learning, hospitals can train candidates efficiently, getting care providers on the floor faster and better prepared to provide top-notch patient care. For example, UCHealth took a creative approach with their care model innovations and developed courseware to rapidly grow their Patient Care Assistant program, supporting their nursing personnel and diversifying their workforce.

Hospitals across the country embrace online learning as part of a blended learning program to make training accessible to more candidates but maintain a positive and effective learning experience. This approach allows for more personalized pathways, making it easier for learners to balance work and education. Here are the benefits to using online learning for both health systems and learners to train nursing support staff:

Flexible for learners with different backgrounds

Health systems are finding that care models that disproportionately rely on registered nurses (RNs) are no longer sustainable. Online learning offers flexibility that allows them to meet the diverse needs of candidates who are interested in the healthcare space but may not have experience, English isn’t their first language, are balancing responsibilities, or who struggled in traditional learning settings.

The learning experience is personalized

Online learning with adaptive functionality creates a more personalized learning experience than traditional learning. Adaptive learning platforms can modify the content and pace of learning to the individual learner’s needs and skill level. This can help to ensure that the learning is more effective and engaging — this often results in higher learner satisfaction levels, too.

Faster than traditional learning

When learning is tailored to individuals and their own knowledge levels, online learning via an adaptive platform is faster than traditional learning because it only focuses on what they need to know. Hospitals can train nursing support staff efficiently, getting them on the floor faster — which is crucial in addressing staffing shortages.

Learner data enriches in-person instruction and clinical practice sessions

Additionally, in-person instruction and clinical practice sessions can be enriched by the learner data captured by the online learning system. This data identifies areas of strength and weakness, allowing for more targeted training. Insights collected during online learning are useful for instructors leading hands-on training and clinical sessions.

The pressures of the nursing shortage will not be easing up any time soon. However, online learning has emerged as a practical solution to address the staffing gap by providing personalized, efficient, and flexible training for nursing support staff. The benefits of online learning not only help develop the workforce that enables new care delivery models, but also have the potential to improve the quality of patient care by leveraging learner data to enrich in-person instruction and clinical practice sessions. As healthcare continues to evolve, innovative care models and blended training supported by online learning will play a crucial role in meeting the workforce development needs of the industry and ensuring excellent patient care.

Using Adaptive Online Learning to Optimize Your Immersive Learning Investment

As we continue to shift out of traditional classroom environments for training, more emphasis is placed on creating opportunities for active learning, even in virtual settings. Adaptive online learning has many benefits, but sometimes, real-world simulation is still necessary, especially in critical professions where lives are at stake. However, this doesn’t mean virtual solutions cannot suffice. In fact, professionals can train with immersive learning technology — like virtual reality augmented reality, 360-degree video, and more — to gain valuable exposure to high-stakes scenarios without associated risk. It’s a win-win situation. 

Immersive learning is booming. In 2020, the immersive training market was valued at $26 billion. And the overall immersive technology market size is expected to reach nearly $300 billion by 2024. Not only is this market exploding, but it’s taking its users to the top. According to PwC analysis, virtual reality and augmented reality have the potential to boost the global economy by ~$1.7 trillion by 2030. Augmented reality is forecasted to provide the biggest benefits to global GDP, accounting for ~$1.2 billion of that total. With all this growth and earning potential, immersive learning is no longer a fringe solution. It’s the new reality in the learning and development space. 

What is immersive learning? 

Immersive learning uses augmented, simulated, or artificial environments for learners to experience scenarios and simulations, delivered through virtual reality (VR), augmented reality, 360-degree video, and other technologies. Founded in behavioral and cognitive science, immersive learning provides an experience that accelerates employees’ proficiency in their roles through an immersive training environment.  

The approach is based on the theory that the brain treats immersive learning experiences just like it would treat real life. A popular hypothesis known as predictive coding “suggests that the brain actively maintains an internal model (simulation) of the body and the space around it, which provides predictions about the expected sensory input and tries to minimize the amount of prediction errors (or “surprise”) (Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine).” One could postulate how this is selectively beneficial. This simulation not only evaluates action, but emotion as well, making it uniquely beneficial for training those working in critical professions. 

Types of immersive learning 

Depending on your training needs, your program may benefit from one or more types of immersive learning.  

Virtual Reality — Virtual Reality is an artificial environment in which the user is fully immersed in an experience. Totally immersive, this option allows the user to virtually pick up and move objects, turn on or take apart a device, walk around a room, and interact with virtual characters. 

Augmented Reality — Augmented Reality (AR) places virtual objects in real-world space. Think of AR as adding layers on top of the real world through the lens of your phone, tablet, or headset. Using individual headsets or AR-capable mobile devices, images appear in front of the user.  

Mixed Reality — Mixed Reality (MR) is a combination of VR and AR. Like AR, it overlays digital content with the real world. This lets digital and physical objects co-exist and interact in real-time. A major difference between mixed and augmented reality is that in MR, digital assets can be obscured by “real” objects. 

360 Film — Video Learning captures scenarios and training environments with 360-degree video to lead the learner through a process or location that can otherwise be difficult, expensive, or dangerous to visit. The employees can view the 360-degree video by dragging with their mouse or finger on desktop or mobile devices while also providing immersive experience using any VR headset.  

Immersive learning in action 

Benefits of immersive learning:  

A safe learning environment 

Immersive learning is a safer way to practice skills that carry a high degree of risk in the real world, whether involving people or expensive equipment (and in some cases, both). For example, flight school often requires hours of simulator training before pilots take the skies to ensure the utmost safety for passengers. Moreover, healthcare has also been implementing immersive learning to supplement medical education as a practice stage before interacting with patients or medical equipment and machinery. 

Better learner data 

Robust analytics are another added advantage to technology-based learning tools, as we in the online learning world well know. These analytics not only report performance data and engagement levels, but also give a keen insight into learner behavior. The data informs intentional instruction and intervention when needed. Learning and development teams can also use analytics to make changes to their training programs as needed. 

Enhanced comprehension and retention 

Immersive learning aligns with a key tenet of adult learning theory — that adults learn differently than children and retain more information under conditions that approximate real-world scenarios. Brain science-based learning is always more effective. Many immersive learning methods involve gamification, emotion, curiosity, and more — all known cognitive triggers that promote faster learning and better retention. 

Increased engagement  

Engaged learners learn and perform better, engaged employees stay at a company longer. Immersive learning is often inherently engaging due to the nature of the technology and becomes even more engaging if it is developed with brain science principles in mind.  

Sustainable training  

Immersive learning presents an initial cost barrier. However, a 2019 study showed that immersive learning, in the long run, can be very cost effective. The researchers compared the cost of training intensive care workers in hospital evacuation procedures using mannequins to the cost of providing the same training virtually. The cost of virtual training was higher initially, but within three years it became the more cost-effective option. So, once acquired, immersive learning technology can be used to train large numbers of people over many training cycles. 

How to maximize your immersive learning investment via adaptive online learning  

Immersive learning is an investment. And for critical professions, it’s an integral part of the training program. So, how do you know this type of training is working and exactly how well it’s working? What if you could enhance your immersive learning program by knowing exactly when to implement it to achieve maximum information retention in your trainees without any wasted time? Here’s an example of how Amplifire’s adaptive learning platform helped an aviation client maximize their immersive learning program. 

Flight operations were training pilots for the 737 MAX, which requires specific flight crew training and awareness. Moreover, flight operations needed to have proof of learning while also gaining insight into which concepts were difficult for pilots to better support continuing education and reduce time spent training. Simulation training is an essential component of pilot training, so they get practice in real-world scenarios without risk to passengers.  

Pairing simulation training with a brain-science based adaptive learning platform is the best way to ensure learning sticks. In practice, the Amplifire course was layered in between the aircraft manufacturer’s computer-based training modules and learning literature to act as a knowledge check and provide evidence of learning. Amplifire training acted as a pretest primer for simulator training; pretest, or priming strategies, are proven to enhance retention over time.  

In addition to brain-science based learning, the Amplifire platform’s algorithm watches learners for knowledge gaps, uncertainty, and misinformation, identifies these cognitive risks that pose a threat to future passengers, and mitigates future mistakes. Confidently held misinformation occurs when a learner thinks they are correct but are, in fact, wrong. This type of cognitive risk is particularly dangerous because confidence is a strong leading indicator of action, that in this case could be a catastrophic mistake. Through the platform, instructors gained insight into learners’ minds that would otherwise be invisible. This behavior, if undetected, would only be reinforced in subsequent simulator training, but was instead preemptively corrected in adaptive platform learning. 

The learner data collected through platform learning was used to optimize simulator time, showing instructors where learners should focus more time, or confirm where they have mastered concepts. While average knowledge across all pilots was good, the Amplifire platform revealed that knowledge variation among individual pilots was worrisome. By the end of the initial Amplifire training, knowledge variation was eliminated, and all pilots were proficient (both confident and correct) on all the material moving into simulator training, ensuring only best practices were carried over into critical real-time training. 

Pilots took a refresher two months after their initial training in Amplifire. Refreshers represent an opportunity to measure how well the material was remembered. The refresher data showed that pilots retained their training across the organization. In both modules, pilots were more than 80% closer to knowledge mastery of the 737 MAX, with about 60% reduction in misinformation that otherwise would have remained undetected without adding Amplifire training to the immersive learning experience.  

Absent the resources for a major investment in technology, L&D teams can still begin introducing immersive learning in these ways while developing a business case for building future immersive technology capacity with the data to back it up from adaptive online learning.  

Examples of immersive learning without a large up-front cost: 

• Simulations that include branching determined by the actions and decisions of learners 
• On-the-job training with the opportunity for hands-on practice 
• Role playing with a coach or mentor who offers actionable feedback 
• Job shadowing while observing real-world interactions with clients 

Online learning unlocks unlimited combinations of capabilities that are optimizing training for critical professions, from pilots to healthcare professionals. Immersive learning is a great way for such professions to gain real exposure to scenarios they may encounter on any given day, without the potential of endangering real lives in the process. This type of exposure during training — although virtual — has been found to improve “postintervention knowledge and skills outcomes of health professionals when compared with traditional education or other types of digital education such as online or offline digital education,” reported a literature review. Therefore, considering immersive learning options in tangent with adaptive online learning can yield exceptional training results, and inevitably, better customer and patient outcomes.  

From the beginning, Amplifire has relied on innovative brain science to guide its product development to create the most effective learning and training solution, perfectly tailored to the way the human brain works. Learn more about how Amplifire helps people learn better and faster with online learning by requesting a demo.