Towards Sustainable Training Frameworks: Investigating Collaborative Learning in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) has gained widespread popularity and application across various domains, including industrial and organizational training. This study examines the efficacy of multi-user virtual reality (VR) technology in industrial training, focusing on the differential impacts of collaborative versus competitive VR environments. The study recruited undergraduate students from the German University in Cairo who participated in assembling a rapid cooling conveyor machine within these VR settings, supplemented by comprehensive pre- and post-training assessments. The findings reveal that while subjective measures of training effectiveness showed no significant differences between the two groups, competitive training participants were notably quicker in completing tasks during post-training evaluations. This suggests that competitive VR training may hold an advantage in scenarios where speed is critical. Both training approaches, however, significantly improved the participants’ ability to perform the designated assembly tasks, underscoring the potential of VR as a transformative tool for industrial training. Despite the successes, the research was limited to a homogenous group of undergraduate students and required a simplification of VR scenarios to maintain network stability and user experience. Future research should extend to a more diverse participant pool and explore a wider array of VR tasks and settings to determine better the conditions under which collaborative or competitive training is most effective. Additional studies should consider multi-user setups involving more than two participants and include other training modalities like trainer-assisted scenarios. Longitudinal studies could further elucidate the long-term retention and application of skills acquired through VR training, enhancing the strategic use of VR in industrial and other professional training contexts.