As a company, you organise training sessions for your employees and at the end of the day, the trainer asks the employees if they have understood the material. Scenarios are often outlined and everyone answers verbally. But how do you really know if your employees understood all the information and actions?

Objectively testing the ability to act

That is why virtual reality assessments were created. A VR assessment can be compared to a practical exam. For simplicity's sake, we'll compare it to getting your car licence. For this, you take practical training to master it. With us, these are the VR instruction and the VR scenario, in which you first learn the actions and then apply them in a scenario. If you are good enough, you may take your driving test. An examiner drives around with you and checks whether you are capable enough to drive independently. A VR assessment is similar to that exam, yet it is different.

In fact, VR assessments are completely objective. We only look at what a person can and cannot do. This is completely independent of gender, race, age and experience. The computer judges whether someone passes or fails based on the mistakes made. We explain how this works in more detail below. Because there are no human examiners involved, no emotional decisions are made.

How the system calculates whether or not you succeed

All VR assessments are linked to a software programme that can measure everything. A piece of software developed by ourselves that we call Performance Analytics. The software knows exactly what someone can do wrong in a VR training session, which mistakes are not critical and which mistakes absolutely should not be made. Make one of those big, critical mistakes? Then the system immediately drops you. Do you make a small mistake? Then you won't fail immediately, but you will get point deductions.

The system distinguishes between minor errors and critical errors. After completion, the number of errors and thus the amount of point deduction determines whether you have passed or not. Again, we make the comparison with the car driving test: if the examiner has to intervene then you know you have failed. But if you make a small mistake, he will only point it out to you afterwards and you can still pass.

Who are VR assessments of interest to?

VR assessments are very interesting for companies in industry such as mechanical engineering, chemicals, manufacturing and logistics. They often work with many people in the field who need to control important processes well, to prevent errors or dangerous situations. Take the NEN3140, for example. The NEN3140 stands for dealing with electricity in the production environment. For example, it requires you to replace fuses in the production environment. If, in the VR assessment, it turns out that someone in the process forgets to close a door somewhere, it is not a major error, but if the wrong fuse is used, it is really a critical error and you will therefore fail. Many companies in industry work with these kinds of processes that can be very dangerous if human error occurs. People can be trained well in practice using VR and a VR assessment can determine whether they have really mastered the material.

Assessments are also interesting for employment agencies, for example. Say you are looking for someone for a job as an order picker. Have 10 applicants come, give them training on order picking and have them take a VR assessment at the end. If they don't pass the assessment, they don't move on to the next step in the selection procedure. This way, you do a good pre-selection and look at applicants objectively. Additional advantage? The applicant who is eventually chosen is immediately trained and can start working quickly!

The benefits of a VR assessment

Of course, we have already mentioned some of the benefits, but we briefly highlight them again here. The biggest advantage of a VR assessment is the fact that it shows whether someone knows what to do in practice. After successfully taking a VR assessment, you can be 100% sure that people really know what to do. After all, it is not a multiple choice test and you cannot guess either. In addition, a course participant cannot say he got a low grade because the trainer did not like him, because it is completely objective. You are only assessed on your skills.

Furthermore, a VR assessment solves another big problem of practical exams: you no longer have to come to a separate training location, you can schedule it where and when you want and the trainer does not have to be there. That saves a lot of travel time and also precious hours. For example, you can also schedule a VR assessment at times when the workplace is quieter.

Also responsible in education

The system of assessments is, of course, something that has been around in the world of education for some time. However, creating VR assessments was still quite unique. That is why we rolled this out together with trainers, educationists and the University of Twente. As VR specialists, we can come up with things that work well, but it has to be educationally sound and trainers have to be able to work with it.

Meanwhile, VR training is no longer "the new kid on the block" and is increasingly being used. The many benefits are being experienced more and more and the success rate of trainees is also going up. In fact, official certificates are being issued for some training courses. Take the NEN3140, for example. In the groups where VR assessments are not done to properly prepare someone for an exam, we see that 80% pass, but often only after 2 or 3 times. By using a VR assessment, this pass rate at the practical exam goes up. It also saves a considerable investment, as inspectors from the certification institute do not have to visit as often.

Also getting started with smart VR practical training?

We have now told you all the ins and outs of a VR assessment, even though it is only one-third of a full VR training application. As mentioned earlier, trainees always take three training applications with us: the VR instruction, VR scenario and finally the VR assessment. Besides tailoring these practical training applications, we also have a number of generic VR training applications such as the NEN3140. We offer all these training applications for a licence fee per user. You then get access to the full VR training and our Performance Analytics. Would you like more information about this? Then get in touch with us!