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Procedia
Procedia Computer
Computer Science
Science 00
00 (2017)
(2017) 000–000
000–000
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Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260

The 8th International Conference on Emerging Ubiquitous Systems and Pervasive Networks
(EUSPN 2017)

Utilization of Virtual Reality in Education of Employees in Slovakia

Monika Dávidekováa,a,*, Michal Mjartanaa, Michal Gregušaa
aa
Department
Department of
of Information
Information Systems,
Systems, Comenius
Comenius University,
University, Odbojárov
Odbojárov 10,
10, Bratislava,
Bratislava, 851
851 01,
01, Slovakia
Slovakia

Abstract
Abstract

Information
Information and
and communication
communication technology
technology (ICT)
(ICT) enriched
enriched learning
learning in
in many
many ways
ways and
and made
made the
the knowledge
knowledge ofof the
the society
society
accessible
accessible to everyone at any time and everywhere through the Internet. Learning represents a life-long ongoing activity that
to everyone at any time and everywhere through the Internet. Learning represents a life-long ongoing activity that allows
allows
innovation
innovation of
of processes
processes byby establishing
establishing new
new ways
ways of
of execution
execution in in organizations.
organizations. ByBy introducing
introducing dynamics
dynamics and
and interactivity,
interactivity,
education
education and
and acquisition
acquisition of
of new
new knowledge
knowledge became
became more
more attractive.
attractive. Virtual
Virtual reality
reality (VR)
(VR) enables
enables dynamic
dynamic forms
forms of
of learning
learning byby
creating
creating artefacts
artefacts in
in virtual
virtual environment
environment with
with activities
activities triggered
triggered byby learner’s
learner’s interaction.
interaction. This
This paper
paper analyzes
analyzes current
current state
state of
of VR
VR
applications
applications in
in education
education of
of employees
employees in in various
various economy
economy sectors
sectors in
in Slovak
Slovak Republic
Republic based
based onon conducted
conducted survey.
survey.
©
© 2017
2017 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V.
© 2017 The
Peer-review Authors.
under Published
responsibility byofElsevier
the B.V.
Conference Program Chairs.
Peer-review under
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibility ofof the
the Conference
Conference Program
Program Chairs.
Chairs.

Keywords: Virtual
Keywords: Virtual reality
reality (VR);
(VR); innovation
innovation in
in education;
education; learning
learning by
by doing;
doing;

1.
1. Introduction
Introduction

Information
Information andand communication
communication technology
technology (ICT) (ICT) changed
changed thethe known
known way
way ofof living
living beyond
beyond recognition.
recognition. NewNew
discoveries
discoveries and innovative approaches of processing enabled to invent new methods and procedures for
and innovative approaches of processing enabled to invent new methods and procedures for executing
executing
various
various activities.
activities. It
It bolstered
bolstered the productivity1 and
the productivity
1
and uncovered
uncovered newnew opportunities.
opportunities.
By
By storing immense volumes of data, it allowed capturing and collecting
storing immense volumes of data, it allowed capturing and collecting knowledge
knowledge of of human
human society
society much
much faster
faster
than
than it was possible ever before. At the same time, through ubiquitous internet connectivity, flexible mobility and
it was possible ever before. At the same time, through ubiquitous internet connectivity, flexible mobility and
affordability
affordability provided
provided by by the
the omnipresent
omnipresent mobile
mobile wireless
wireless telecommunication
telecommunication networks,
networks, thethe content
content stored
stored became
became
accessible
accessible anytime
anytime everywhere
everywhere through
through the
the Internet.
Internet. Knowledge
Knowledge and and know-how
know-how in in diverse
diverse fields
fields are
are spread
spread over
over the
the
world
world enhancing possibilities of education and enriching learning with new procedures, systems and activities. ICT
enhancing possibilities of education and enriching learning with new procedures, systems and activities. ICT

*
* Corresponding
Corresponding author.
author. Tel.:
Tel.: +421-2-501-17-407.
+421-2-501-17-407.
E-mail address: monika.davidekova@fm.uniba.sk
E-mail address: monika.davidekova@fm.uniba.sk

1877-0509
1877-0509 ©© 2017
2017 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V.
Peer-review under
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibility of
of the
the Conference
Conference Program
Program Chairs.
Chairs.

1877-0509 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs.
10.1016/j.procs.2017.08.365
254 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260
2 Monika Dávideková, Michal Mjartan, Michal Greguš/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2015) 000–000

has the potential to increase equitable access to quality learning that is essential for development of skills 2. The
widespread ICT improves active participation3 of individuals by introducing dynamics and interactivity. The education
became more attractive to learners through increased motivation stemming from reactive response and gaming
influence during learning4. The highest interactivity provided by ICT denote virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality
(AR) that are simulating the physical reality in virtual environment. Just like in the surrounding physical real world,
individuals can interact with artifacts and train their skills and abilities. Learning in VR enables simulating of various
situations that may be not attainable otherwise due to danger, high costs, etc. Such situations can be simulated multiple
times and trainees can learn by doing. Furthermore, they can learn from their mistakes also by watching the record of
their performance afterwards. This all without no additional risk to their health e.g. in cases of simulating natural
catastrophes, emergency behavior and health issues.
VR allows training of individuals in new processes in business organizations where the availability of skills has
become the key to achieving innovation5 and assurance of sustainable successful existence of business entities6. Virtual
reality allows creating situations that are impossible or hard to simulate in real world and provide motivation for
individuals to learn topics that would not be in their focus otherwise 7 and developing their skills. The application and
importance of VR for educational purposes is increasing also in business organizations to train their workers in
environment that is close to real conditions present in their future workplace. However, some economy sectors may
be more or less suitable for the implementation of VR in educational processes due various reasons e.g. continuously
changing regulations in law system or accounting working with numbers. For other industries, VR has been becoming
a substantial part of learning, e.g. flying trainings of pilots, simulating surgical interventions in chirurgery, remote
control of robots or in production and assembling8. Thus, economy sectors like production, machinery, health or aerial
transportation are suitable to apply VR in their education. Other sectors like financial or judicial sectors provide more
e-learning or lecture based learning. The reasons seem to lie in the immense number of retrained individuals, the high
speed of changing products with short product life cycles or continuously alternating legislative conditions. Thus,
economy sectors as finance and legislation may represent fields that are less suitable for implementation of VR in
educational processes.
This paper aims to analyze current state of practiced methods for educating employees with focus on utilizing VR
in Slovak Republic. The research was conducted in form of a survey to create overview of used formal and informal
learning methods as well as to identify perceived drawbacks and insufficiency of currently practiced methods that may
be suitable for application of VR based learning.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes used methodology and sample of conducted research.
Section 3 provides research findings overview describing currently applied learning methods in various industries
based on survey results followed by a discussion in section 4. Conclusion summarizes research outcomes and outlines
possible areas of future research.

2. Methodology and sample

a) b)
30% 73%
25%

20%
primary sector
15% male secondary sector
10% female tertiary sector
quaternary sector
5%
6% 19%
0% 2%
18–25 26–30 31–40 41–50 >50
Fig. 1. (a) Sample by gender and age; (b) Sample by economy sectors.
 Monika
Monika Dávideková, Dávideková
Michal et al. / Procedia
Mjartan, Michal ComputerComputer
Greguš/ Procedia Science 113 (2017)
Science 00 253–260
(2015) 000–000 2553

6% 5% 3%
5% Energetics

9% Finance

21% Tourism
5% Transport
ICT
Trade and Services
Education

7% Government
19%
Machinery
4% Production
16% Health

Fig. 2. Sample by industry

Conducted research represented primary quantitative research in form of survey made in form of electronic
questionnaire via Google Docs consisting of various types of questions: single selection, multiple selection and open
questions for arbitrary input. The survey was spread over social network and email to various companies including
private sector (business organizations) and governmental agencies.
The received responses consisted of 106 respondents, however, 6 were filled with nonsense, and therefore those
were excluded from the analysis. The resulting sample consisted of 100 respondents. The sample characteristics are
showed in fig.1 and fig.2.
Based on the content of questions, the questionnaire was divided in a few sections:

 identifying sample attributes like gender, age, industry categories for further analysis;
 finding out the frequency of undergoing a training;
 determining the primary need for arranged training;
 used and practiced forms of training in surveyed organizations with focus on VR and ascertaining whether
the provided forms of training are perceived as sufficiently motivating for learners.

The assessment of survey results is described in the next section.

3. Survey findings

For the convenience of the reader, this section provides survey results followed by brief discussion to each analyzed
questionnaire aspect.
8% 2%
12% Self-education
Couching
34%
Mentoring
17%
Consulting
Briefing
Job rotation
13%
14% Nothing from above mentioned
Fig. 3. Types of informal educational methods practiced in surveyed organizations
256 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260
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As it can be seen in fig. 3, the most common form of educating in business organizations if self-education denoting
34% of all trainings underwent in companies and institutions. This means that the development of employee skills is
consigned to individual self-development and self-improvement in 1/3 of all cases when the employee has to acquire
the necessary skill level by himself/herself.
The support of the organization through a leading expert for instructing, couching, mentoring and briefing is
provided in 42% of all trainings where a more experienced employee schools less experienced ones.
The job rotation practice is not practiced in education, machinery and health sectors, nut in energetics and transport
whereas the self-education is included in each industry and denotes the prevalent form of educating employees.
The composition of practiced methods in individual economy sectors differs (fig. 4), yet in all sectors represents
the self-education the most utilized type of training in organizations. The highest share of self-education is used in
tourism, education, government and health sectors whereas the job rotation is spread in energetics and Transport at
most.
100% Nothing from above
80%
Job rotation
60%
40% Briefing
20% Consulting
0% Mentoring
Couching
Self-education

Fig. 4. Composition of education per industry with focus on informal educational methods

12% 4% Lecture
6%
E-learning
7% 27%
Simulation
Case study
16% Assertiveness training
Role play
28% Nothing from above
Fig. 5. Types of formal educational methods practiced in surveyed organizations

100%
80% Nothing from above
60% Role play
40%
Asserivity training
Assertiveness training
20%
0% Case study
Simulation
E-learning

Fig. 6. Composition of education per industry with focus on formal educational methods

Among the mostly used formal educational methods in employee trainings in organizations belong: e-learning,
lecture and simulation whereas trainings focusing on soft skills development together in know-how acquisition like
case studies, assertiveness trainings and role paying are less exploited (fig. 5, fig. 6). Those trainings develop the
 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260 257
Monika Dávideková, Michal Mjartan, Michal Greguš/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2015) 000–000 5

communication skills and the mutual social relationships among participants. Yet, for them to work, the number of
participants is expected to be low whereas lecture and e-learning represent schooling of large number of learners by
one lecturer or by a small group of teachers.
The respondents indicated that the practiced traditional methods of formal and informal education are insufficient
for demonstrative purposes of the taught content in overall (fig. 7).

yes
no
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Fig. 7. Sufficiency of demonstrating processes by text and picture in overall

The analysis of the sufficiency of applying traditional learning methods per industry (fig. 8) identified the gaps and
drawbacks of those forms in production, transport and health to the greatest extend. These findings are in compliance
with the outcomes of literature review suggesting the exploitation of this room for improvement through the
implementation of VR in those to achieve reality close learning approach.
100%

50%
no
0%
yes

Fig. 8. Sufficiency of demonstrating processes by text and picture in surveyed industries

The analysis focused on drawbacks of traditional methods (fig. 9) indicates the time consuming, monotony aspects
and unattractiveness of learned content that are demotivating the learners and hampering the whole training and
prevent efficient development of skills of employees.

No new know-how acquired 13%

Unactractivness of learned content 49%
Time consuming, protractive 54%
Monotony and deadness of trainings
67%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Fig. 9. Disadvantages of currently used forms of education

20%
15%
Time consuming, protractive
10%
5% Unactractivness of learned content
0%
Monotony and deadness of trainings

Fig. 10. Disadvantages of currently used forms of education in surveyed industries

258 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260
6 Monika Dávideková, Michal Mjartan, Michal Greguš/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2015) 000–000

The drawback analysis in surveyed sectors showed significant insufficiency in demonstrativeness and monotony in
teaching in the area of finance, ICT and services (fig. 10). These fields are affected by unattractiveness of learning that
may hinder further personal development of employees and lead to aggravation of the knowledge base in given field
of the particular organization.
Surgeries in health, aerial transport, production and machinery were identified by literature as areas suitable for
application of VR and simulations in education of employees to get used to new processes. The survey results (fig. 6)
indicate that the simulation approach is mostly used in energetics, finance, transport, ICT and machinery to imitated
emergency situations for training of processes in critical situations. In many cases, simulated scenarios are perceived
too theoretically not creating the impression of real situations and therefore, people can behave differently in real
situations than in trained scenarios. The implementation of VR is reducing the gap between the played circumstances
and the real condition perceived very close to a real experience.
The survey findings confirmed the application of VR in educational processes to 23% in overall (fig. 11), in
particular in finance, ICT, education and health. Despite the literature review implications suggesting finance and
government not being suitable for VR implementation, the survey results recorded deviation of the reality from awaited
expectations (fig. 12).

Utilising VR yes
no
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Fig. 11. Utilization of VR in education in overall
100%

50%
no
0%
yes

Fig. 12. Utilization of VR in surveyed industries for educational purposes

100% Other

50% Design
Marketing
0%
Finance ICT Services Education Government Health Training

Fig. 13. Purposes for utilizing VR in selected industries

The purpose analysis (fig. 13) of VR application indicate the use for education in health, government, education
and finance sector. In ICT and service fields it is mostly used for design.

35%
Creative possibilities
37%

Better demostrativness

Accelerating learning process

28%
Fig. 14. Advantages of implementing innovative technology into education of employees
 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260 259
Monika Dávideková, Michal Mjartan, Michal Greguš/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2015) 000–000 7

16%
14%
12%
10%
8% Creative possibilities
6%
4% Better Demostrativness
2%
0% Accelerating learning process

Fig. 15. Advantages of implementing innovative technology into education of employees in surveyed industries

Survey findings identified the greatest benefits of applying innovative technologies in learning as increased
creativity and better demonstrativeness (fig. 14) that contribute to faster comprehension of taught content by learners
and accelerate the whole learning on that way. Through the real life close impression provided by VR, the learning
process transforms into collecting of experiences through own handling and facilitating the empirical “learning by
doing” effect. These effects are mostly appreciated in ICT, finance and service sectors (fig. 15).

4. Discussion

Based on literature findings, the suitable areas for the implementation of virtual reality are health, production,
machinery, transport and ICT. The results of the questionnaire survey show that there is almost no VR applied in
organizational education of employees in these fields. At the same time, the survey findings are highlighting the room
for improvement in education and identify the drawbacks of currently utilized methods of education. Through
inclusion and implementing VR into learning processes as an addition to existing educational methods, better clarity,
demonstrativeness and attractiveness for learners can be achieved. Respondents of conducted survey research
complained about inconvenient and inadequate state of currently utilized educational methods stemming from
insufficient attractiveness. Traditional methods are perceived as too time consuming, boring and lacking
demonstrativeness that discourages from learning instead of supporting motivation.
The application of innovative technologies allows better visualization supporting demonstrativeness and fostering
development of creativity. The possibility of dynamic interaction with virtual artefacts is close to empirical and
experimental handling in real physical world and provides the “learning by doing” effect. These factors are
significantly contributing to the comprehension of taught content and accelerate the learning process on that way.
At the same time, the assessment of currently used traditional learning methods is insufficient for the understanding
of some processes and procedures when learning from books containing static text and pictures. This identifies room
for implementation of digital technologies with 3D visualization that allow virtual manipulation with artificial objects.
Such handling provides features of gamification that supports human curiosity and playfulness leading to creative
solutions, learners’ satisfaction and increased motivation in acquisition of new knowledge.

5. Conclusion

The development of ICT allows new ways of processing of various processes. The digital world enables repeated
iterations and executions of tasks without noteworthy effort by lower cost. These aspects are very important in
education where ICT enabled the access to the know-how of the whole human society for everyone anytime from
everywhere. The immense amount of knowledge stored in the virtual world accessible through the Internet represents
an endless source of wisdom and its unrestricted spread allows advanced progress of knowledge development.
This paper presented results stemming from survey research conducted in Slovak republic analyzing current
utilization level of innovative technologies in employee education of organizations with focus on applying virtual
260 Monika Dávideková et al. / Procedia Computer Science 113 (2017) 253–260
8 Monika Dávideková, Michal Mjartan, Michal Greguš/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2015) 000–000

reality. It identifies the attitudes and perception of workers towards currently used educational methods, their
impressions and their experiences with innovative technologies in education.
Traditional formal and informal educational methods are perceived by respondents as monotonous, protractive,
time consuming and lacking demonstrativeness leading to insufficient or wrong understanding of taught content that
make the learning unattractive, demotivate the learners’ from acquisition of knew knowledge and self-development.
Virtual reality creates close digital visualization of the physical artefacts and surroundings that are very close to reality.
It allows interactive manipulation with objects where the action of the learner triggers events and learns from empirical
experience, thus by doing. Virtual reality allows simulating dangerous and emergency situations or rare circumstances
and fosters the development of necessary skills to handle such conditions.
The importance of virtual reality in education is increasing due to its attributes and features and its application may
foster creative and lateral thinking, accelerate the learning process and motivate employees to sustainable personal
development and development of skills necessary for success and innovation of organizations.

Acknowledgements

The support of the Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia is gratefully
acknowledged.

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