29. Jan 2019
LUFTHANSA AVIATION TRAINING AND 3SPIN RECEIVE E-LEARNING AWARD 2019
- Cooperation between Lufthansa Aviation Training and 3spin wins in Virtual Reality category
- Trend-setting VR concept enables immersive training independent of time and location
- Scientific evaluation by psychologists at TU Berlin proves positive training effect
Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) and virtual and augmented reality specialist 3spin receive the prestigious award for the best e-learning tool 2019 in the category Virtual Reality. The award is presented by an independent jury of the industry magazine "eLearning Journal" at the didacta education trade fair in February 2019. A VR training module enables pilot students of LAT´s flight school European Flight Academy (EFA) to experience the route and geographical characteristics up close and immersively before their first cross-country flight. A study at the Technical University of Berlin has proven the positive effects and high efficiency of the training.
The "Visual Flight Rules (VFR)" training module jointly developed by Lufthansa Avia-tion Training and 3spin allows flight students to interactively experience and train the airspace structure and the recognition of landmarks from the air before their first cross-country flight in a VR environment. Using virtual reality glasses developed and provided by Samsung, the student pilots first follow a virtual briefing in which 360° film shots are combined with 3D-animated objects. The new training module allows the students to experience the airspace and its structure immersively independent of time and location. Afterwards a virtual flight takes place around the training airfield in Goodyear/USA, where the students have to recognize and target landmarks.
"Virtual Reality is a trend-setting technology for training, because it addresses not only semantic memory but also episodic and motor memory, and is therefore more quickly and sustainably memorized by the learner," says Thomas Hoger, co-owner of 3spin.
The project was accompanied and evaluated by psychologists from the Technical University of Berlin. The results of the study exceeded the expectations of Lufthansa Aviation Training: Users of the VR tool achieved a 15 percent better overall perfor-mance in subsequent real flight missions while simultaneously reducing the stress level.
"The results of the survey are more than confirmation of our efforts to provide innova-tive and digital support for our training. The use of Virtual Reality enables our flight students to get to know the environment and get a feeling for the airspace before their first cross-country flight", says Udo Link, Head of eLearning at Lufthansa Aviation Training.
The successful implementation of the "Visual Flight Rules" VR training in pilot training is a leading example for further developments in the field of virtual reality. Lufthansa Aviation Training is already examining other possible areas of application in the fields of flight training, simulator training and safety and service training.
Lufthansa aviation training and 3spin receive e-learning award 2019
LAT 3spin VR award - Udo Link (left, LAT) and Thomas Hoger (3spin)
