Immersive Onboarding: A Design and Evaluation Study in Industrial VR Training

Abstract

This study evaluates a virtual reality (VR) onboarding system grounded in digital twin principles for immersive industrial training. Using a mixed-methods approach with 63 participants, it examines how onboarding design features—interactivity, instructional structure, and usability—shape users’ immersive learning experiences and knowledge acquisition. Participants completed domain-specific tasks before and after training, yielding a substantial knowledge gain (Cohen’s d = 3.29), with scores improving by nearly 50 percentage points. Qualitative findings reinforced the role of onboarding in enhancing engagement, orientation, and perceived clarity, while identifying usability limitations and cybersickness as barriers. By conceptualizing the onboarding system as a socio-technical artifact, this study contributes to IS research on human-centered design, experiential system use, and training in Industry 4.0 environments. It offers practical design implications for developing immersive learning systems to support users' onboarding, cognitive processing, and system adoption in digitally transforming workplaces.