Personal Virtual Environments display promise as training devices for many areas
such as assembly/disassembly operations, maintenance training, and in situations where
there are environmental hazards that workers should minimize their exposure to.
However, there are several issues with training in virtual environments that need to be
addressed. There is a limited understanding of how individuals learn in virtual
environments and how the environments should be developed so that training is efficient
and effective. Virtual Training Studio (VTS) is a virtual environment based training
system developed by the University of Maryland for effectively training assembly
processes in an efficient manner.
This thesis details the design and implementation of the VTS system and then
investigates and evaluates the use of the various training modes and features implemented
in the Virtual Training Studio to determine their benefits to facilitating learning in the
virtual environment. A model was also developed to predict the average training time
necessary for a new user on a new tutorial. This model was developed using the data
collected in the user study conducted for this thesis.
The data collected and analyzed in this thesis is useful for designing the next
generation of the VTS. Each learning mode and learning feature was investigated to
better understand its use by several demographics representing a large percentage of its
intended users. The study indicated the success of the system and validated the design
objectives. Overall, the system had a 94% success rate for training users on the assembly
of a mechanical device they had not seen before