Interactive authoring of outcome-oriented lesson plans for immersive Virtual Reality training

TL;DR

This paper introduces FlowTrainer, an LLM-assisted system that simplifies authoring outcome-oriented VR training lesson plans for educators, reducing technical barriers and aligning training with desired learning outcomes.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel interactive system that leverages LLMs and backward design principles to enable educators to create VR training lesson plans without extensive technical expertise.

Findings

System enables outcome-based lesson planning in VR training.

Reduces time and technical skills needed for authoring.

User study shows effectiveness with welding experts.

Abstract

Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) applications have shown immense potential for skill training and learning in manufacturing. However, authoring of such applications requires technical expertise, which makes it difficult for educators to author instructions targeted at desired learning outcomes. We present FlowTrainer, an LLM-assisted interactive system to allow educators to author lesson plans for their iVR instruction based on desired goals. The authoring workflow is supported by Backward design to align the planned lesson based on the desired outcomes. We implemented a welding use case and conducted a user study with welding experts to test the effectiveness of the system in authoring outcome-oriented lesson plans. The study results showed that the system allowed users to plan lesson plans based on desired outcomes while reducing the time and technical expertise required for the authoring process. We believe that such efforts can allow widespread adoption of iVR solutions in manufacturing training to meet the workforce demands in the industry.