Didactics and Technical Challenges of Virtual Learning Locations for Vocational Education and Training

This paper presents an immersive Virtual Reality App for vocational training of assembly electricians and installation electricians. The app was designed on a didactics first principle and with a strong human-centric approach. The motivation for such an app is the heterogenous situations of the apprentices within their companies that prevents a fair and equal chance at the final exam. With the app apprentices have a tool available that enables them to prepare for the final exam independent on their individual situation in the local company. An evaluation based on A/B testing at several sites was preformed which showed a significant impact on the learning success. However, VR is today hardly used systematically in vocational training, which can be attributed to a lack of experience and research, among other factors. This example shows the potential and a promising approach for VR developments. Finally, it shall serve as a motivation to introduce VR for other use cases.