This article presents four emerging findings from a recent study about the talent learning and development professionals needed to adopt mobile AR in the industry.
by Yao Huang Ph.D.
December 12, 2022
Over the past two decades, mobile and augmented reality technologies have been introduced into the design, assembly, maintenance, quality and logistics sectors to assist job performance.
Mobile AR technology is used to assist training and support job performance during a task. For example, mobile AR was used in training technicians’ maintenance and assembly skills, such as a worker using AR on a tablet to perform tasks with a piece of a machine.
Meanwhile, mobile AR can also support mobile workers in completing job tasks by accessing and processing information during their work and with the minimum help from others. For instance, according to a study on AR in warehouse operations, warehouse workers reduced errors in operations such as receiving, storing, picking and shipping with AR on wearable devices.
Additionally, many pilot studies and field tests revealed the positive results that mobile AR brought to companies and organizations, such as improved job performance, reduced time on tasks and errors, and increased confidence. However, the talent required for learning and development professionals to successfully adopt mobile AR in the workplace remains unknown.
This article presents four emerging findings from a recent study about the talent learning and development professionals needed to adopt mobile AR in the industry. The participants came from North American companies and organizations, representing industries such as supply chain, biomedical, utility, electronics engineering, manufacturing and AR consulting services.
Instructional design knowledge and skills
Instructional design knowledge and skills are usually required when developing training programs in different modalities, such as face-to-face, online or blended. When adopting mobile AR technology to drive job performance, both industry and consulting service participants recognized the importance of “good instructional designs and learning development capability.”
Furthermore, instructional design knowledge and skills are interpreted in two types: The first type refers to the ability of developing the content to design effective learning or job performance with AR. A CEO from an AR consulting service suggested that it was necessary “to identify a clear performance objective and to break down” based on the criterion to avoid creating a “lot of content, a lot of media and stuff, and then it’s not well received.”
The second type refers to the ability of understanding needs and business problems. A learning director from the supply chain industry commented that “most of the consultants are coming to us with technology without understanding the problem.” He viewed that “technology should be the enabler. It should not be the driver of the solution.”
Mobile AR technical skills
Mobile AR technical skills refers to the ability to use a tool or a system to develop AR content and deploy it to end users. It is similar to a content development tool or learning management system in the e-learning industry.
The views about mobile AR technical skills were very mixed. A project manager from an electronics engineering and manufacturing industry thought the current AR tool was very powerful but complex. She suggested spending time learning the AR tool. However, several participants from the industry and AR consulting services viewed the current AR tools as easy to use, just like developing PowerPoint.
Overall, participants agreed that the better the AR authoring tool, the less L&D professionals should worry about AR technical skills. More attention should be focused on design, such as whether to develop content for learning or supporting job performance.
Knowledge of training versus performance support
Whether offering training or performance support received much attention in L&D. According to a study comparing training and performance support tools to improve job performance, providing performance support tools with or without training can be more effective than just training alone.
Therefore, when adopting mobile AR to improve job performance, L&D professionals need to shift their mindset from offering training with AR alone to offering performance support with AR in the middle of the workflow.
The learning director from a supply chain industry pointed out that “70 percent of the information needed to build performance support systems already exists. The problem is it is all over the place and is available on different systems.”
It is the learning and development professional’s job to design a solution with the capability of the technology and present it in a way that most benefits the end users.
Changes management skills
In mobile AR adoption, the capability to implement the changes is another talent that most L&D professionals must develop. According to a case study about adopting a performance support system, the role of the change agent is critical to the success of the implementation.
In a mobile AR project, L&D professionals often play the roles of change agents to drive the implementation. A CEO from an AR consulting firm corroborated with the literature, “you need to be willing to change how you do your job,” and “part of the change management for adoption is to identify where attitude needs to change, [what] needs to shift and then, how are you going to lead that.”
All participants revealed that mobile AR adoption in L&D is still new, but growing rapidly. L&D professionals face many opportunities and challenges. Understanding the benefits, challenges and opportunities of mobile AR used in the workplace is imperative.
While most use cases about mobile AR are in training, mobile AR has great potential in performance support. L&D professionals need to continue developing skills and knowledge to adopt the new technology well. Meanwhile, more studies are needed to help them adopt mobile AR efficiently and effectively.