vIS: An Immersive Virtual Storytelling System for Vocational Training

Storytelling has been established as a proven method to effectively communicate and assist in knowledge transfer. In recent years, there has been growing interest in improving the training and learning domain by using advanced technology such as Virtual Reality (VR). However, a gap exists between storytelling and VR, and it is as yet unclear how they can be combined to form an effective system that not only maintains the level of engagement and immersion provided by VR technology but also provides the core strengths of storytelling. In this paper, we present vIS, a Vocational Immersive Storytelling system, which bridges the gap between storytelling and VR. vIS focuses on vocational training, in which users are trained on how to use a mechanical micrometer by employing a creative fictional story embedded inside a virtual manufacturing plant's workplace. For the evaluation, a two-phase user study with 30 participants was conducted to measure the system's effectiveness and improvements in long-term training, as well as to examine user experience against traditional methods of training-2D videos and textual manuals. The results indicate that the user's ability to retain their training after seven days was nearly equal for vIS and the 2D video-based technique and was considerably higher than the text-based technique.