Michael Grant, the director of learning design and development at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), directs a team of 50+ diverse professional staff and serves as a member of senior leadership for Member Learning and Competency. During this year’s Registry Summit, he presented on the advantages of using virtual reality (VR) and what the AICPA has achieved, in terms of moving the needle to help CPAs worldwide.

According to Grant’s insightful presentation, this is the experiential age. Consumers appreciate businesses, organizations and technology that consider the experience the public has with their products, brand and services. Learners expect the same. When the AICPA thinks about experiential opportunities, they think about igniting a passion for learning. A few years ago, the organization launched the Future of Learning initiative, and it is currently aiming to execute a lot of its output strategies, such as making learning personal, leveraging technology to enhance experiences and creating and driving value proposition for members worldwide. This is no simple task, as the AICPA currently has 660,000+ members and students worldwide. 

Grant goes on to explain that the AICPA has taken approaches to move and evolve from rapid development tools to interactive exercises and, as such, has developed Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. According to Grant, AR leverages smartphones, tablets and the camera to provide overlays of information. His disclaimer is that, although he is a strong advocate for all effective design and delivery solutions, VR and AR are just a subsect of the AICPA’s ecosystem for learning, design and development. “VR may not be the cure-all for your learning challenges, but it does have strong benefits,” said Grant.  

When storyboarding a concept to create an immersive experience, Grant’s team considers the wide range of emotions associated with the concept. The team contemplates the emotions they can tap into with the audience. The process is all about channeling your inner child. As learning providers, it’s also about channeling that inner child – how can you be creative and imaginative?

The AICPA works hard to include a lot of interactive learning opportunities that learners can apply their understanding in different contexts. With VR, you can provide a creative context to convey technical concepts. Today, large organizations, like Facebook and Walmart, use VR to help prepare staff for difficult situations. As a learning provider, think about how you can leverage technology to ignite a passion for learning and enhance experiences. How may you put concepts into a creative context? Grant encourages providers to go beyond the traditional learning design and delivery methods you are accustomed to and incorporate interactive exercises.