Why VILT Is Being Used In The Energy Sector
The energy industry is going through a Learning and Development overhaul. The workers are dispersed on different production sites, and they need eLearning because they can consult such materials when they are free, for any learning activity.
The energy industry is facing pressure because demand has dropped due to most employees working from home, resulting in low fuel requirements due to eliminated travel. However, energy-based companies are also hiring workers all the time to ensure that production is at optimal levels and costs are met. There are both renewable (solar and wind) and nonrenewable (oil and gas) sources of energy. These companies have to train workers in all the aspects of production, including exploration, refinery, and even distribution.
The learning process is quite crucial in this industry because companies can’t afford to undertrain workers. They have to use the drilling machinery, and any lack of training can cause accidents. Hence, the energy industry requires on-the-job training, which implies that they need to be trained on-site for machine usage. So, in such situations, on-the-job training by the superiors is the best solution. But this kind of training is not structured and can cause one team to lag behind another depending on the trainer. The managers who train such workers have to be cautious about teaching them about optimal performance and safety, too. These are the reasons why eLearning is emerging as a successful way of training in this industry:
Attend Synchronous Training
eLearning can be used as a way to teach employees, but it should be synchronous, such as webinars, so that workers can see firsthand the experience of the trainer with the machines. The best way to make the workers attend such training is to get complete information about their workflows from HR and then schedule them for the webinar. In this case, a specific supervisor can teach them about the correct usage of the drilling machine.
Better Assessments
eLearning can help supervisors know about the efficiency of the workers before they are delegated to the site. When workers fail in evaluations given to them after LMS training, this shows that they can’t conduct any real operations. So, workers should be tested through VR simulations to see how they will operate in certain situations.
Real-Time Problem-Solving
Although the LMS's problem-solving solutions provide an opportunity for workers to get an answer to their problems, sometimes real-time problem-solving is needed. Then the LMS must have a search query capability through which workers can immediately find videos regarding their issues or AI-based chatbots can be included in the LMS so that workers can get a faster response. Such videos can be created by the supervisors along with SMEs who know the safety restrictions imposed by OSHA. But the difficulty arises when human interaction is needed to solve problems, and nobody is available either due to different time zones or being busy.
This is when Augmented Reality calling, which allows users to annotate their screen, is useful. Users can highlight the faulty parts of a machine (video annotation). You can place a sticky note, or a pointer draw to highlight the machine’s defective part, which is allowed by Microsoft Dynamics 36 when connected to an LMS. Hence, it’s better that, for situations where the worker needs a more expedited response to his concerns, a video conferencing tool be integrated with the LMS so that he can share live footage of his issue. In this case, the LMS should be accessible on an iPad which can be carried on-site.
Hence, learning is an integral part of this industry, and it does not even need much time because only 1% of the working hours in a week are devoted to it. But eLearning can decrease the possibility of workplace delays caused by improper knowledge of the workers. Apart from this, eLearning can solve the learning issues of such a domain because workers are often traveling. They are working on rigs and can't sacrifice their work for the sake of attending seminars. Also, eLearning services are frequently needed because people with different linguistic capacities are present and hence translation is required.
