Innovating the future at the intersection of gaming, virtual reality, and corporate learning
You wouldn’t step on a plane if the pilot learned to fly in a Zoom class, would you?
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Why would you train your own people that way?
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Industry leaders like Walmart and Pfizer elevate performance with immersive virtual reality (VR) and game-based training scenarios. Their students and instructors from all over the world interact as avatars while practicing hands-on skills in hyper-realistic manufacturing plants, pharma labs, retail stores and construction sites.
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Our next generation of “flight sims” serve a wide range of learning missions. Moving seamlessly from real-world workplace to our virtual reality learning space is already upending learning as we know it for our clients:
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Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis staff learn life-saving skills in 3D pharma labs
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Daikin distributors visualize competitive advantages with X-ray vision inside its equipment
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Walmart associates hone their business acumen in a SIMS-style store environment
The business impact is real, even if the high-fidelity 3D environments aren’t: customized VR sims reduce training costs, improve job performance and boost engagement at scale.
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See for yourself. When you have a few minutes, let’s meet up in our corner of the metaverse for a demo in VR. All you need is a $299 Oculus/Meta Quest. You’ll be staggered by the level of social presence as students and instructors congregate in a virtual performance simulator. Experience, in detail, how we help students hone skills and build mastery by breaking down learning tasks into small, achievable and deliberate practice steps with tutorials, feedback loops and unlimited do-overs. (Pro tip: never buy VR service from a vendor before you’ve met with them in their learning simulations.)
We’re one of Training Industry’s Top 20 Experiential Learning Technologies Companies, recipient of multiple Brandon Hall Group Awards, a Learning in Practice Award from Chief Learning Officer, and numerous other industry accolades. Located in the booming Denver/Boulder tech corridor, our dynamic development, technology, business and educational team marries the artistry of virtual reality and game design with the vibrant science of learning design. Nothing is outsourced – all work is executed by our unrivaled team of designers and developers.
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We’re a single-source partner, managing piloting, enterprise-scale VR deployment with device and content management platforms, advanced analytics and LMS reporting. Developed in the same real-time game engines that render Hollywood-quality special effects and the massive hit videogames, our simulations can be accessed via VR headsets that cost less than an airline flight, as well as augmented reality (AR) headsets, phones, iPads and PCs. We employ fully open platforms and our tailored learning solutions are as powerful as they are malleable. You own them, source code and all. No reoccurring fees. No proprietary tech. No vendor lock-in.
Gronstedt Group has been a thought and practice leader in the training industry since the late 1990s. We’ve come a long way from the metaverse learning prototypes we pioneered in Second Life more than a decade ago, but the embodied VR simulations we’re developing right now completely engulf the senses. Let us know if we can meet up at one of the industry’s top conferences, where we regularly speak.
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Learn about our story
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See our speaking schedule
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Read our latest articles
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Find out about our agile development method
Our Story
Leader and innovator for a quarter-century.
Founded in 1997 by Dr. Anders Gronstedt in Boulder, Colorado, the Gronstedt Group has long been a pioneer in immersive learning. We cut our teeth with podcasting, multi-path e-learning, and video-/animation-based simulation training for clients like Dell, Ericsson, Emerson and Avaya.
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In the quarter-century since, we’ve blazed a trail for Fortune-100 companies and government entities seeking more effective ways of engaging their learning audiences. By integrating emerging technologies and innovating think-forward practices, we’ve helped clients cultivate superior learning programs that drive bottom-line business results for their organizations.
2006: “Be the Reason,” our online Customer Experience program for Dell was completed by 70,000 team members. The program was translated into five languages and helped transform Dell into a more customer centric company.
2007: Gronstedt Group won our first Brandon Hall Gold Award for our Ericsson story-based video simulation. The John Cleese-inspired video program explained how the company was transitioning from a hardware to software focus.
Also 2007: We launched Train for Success, a weekly conference series in Second Life (the original metaverse!) that explored the use of 3D virtual environments for training and collaboration. Train for Success, which featured speakers and experts from Fortune 500s and consulting giants like IBM, BP and Accenture, ran for seven years and typically attracted several dozen business and learning professionals each week.
2010: We developed an award-winning 3D multiplayer emergency management simulation in Second Life for the City of New York (built on a 3D model of an actual Brooklyn school building). The virtual rehearsal and training simulation helped City employees practice emergency shelter management skills and practice problem-solving in a realistic environment.
2016: With the launch of consumer VR we began developing virtual reality experiences for clients like Novartis, DaVita and AAA.
2019: We develop learning games and simulations for all screens and devices. Our Spark City mobile Sims-style game for Walmart is now available on the App Store and Google Play.
Our Team
The Gronstedt Group brings game and VR sensibilities to corporate learning. Our team consists of talented game industry veterans, including key contributors from AAA titles like Lego. We combine this with deep instructional design expertise.
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Our expertise and pool of knowledge is informed by many years of playing thousands of different games and hundreds of VR and AR experiences. We apply this expertise to ensure that your learning programs are well designed to meet their goals and objectives while being technically robust.
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We are based in Colorado and occasionally escape our developer cave for the Rocky Mountain outdoors.
Our Method
Gronstedt Group methodology is highly collaborative, placing the utmost emphasis on tailoring solutions around client-defined business goals.
Phase 1: Problem Definition, Research and Requirements Analysis
We begin by helping clients define their business and training requirements, developing a digital transformation strategy and then analyze what’s needed to accomplish their goals.
Phase 2: Learning and Experience Design
Next we distill and synthesize the learning and performance information and ideate a simulation design. Our approach to learning is constructivist, with a focus on active real-world problem simulations. We care less about what learners need to know, and more on what they need to do.
Phase 3: Prototyping and Iterating
Our process prototypes early and iterates fast. The client will test design iterations on a weekly basis and we also involve end-users to play-test every stage of development.
Phase 4: Quality Assurance Testing
We track and resolve bugs until we’ve arrived at a final, deployable “release” version.
Phase 5: Deployment and “Hyper-care”
Gronstedt Group frequently helps clients acquire devices and we provide on-site “hyper-care” support during the launch. We’re available for first- or second-line support during the lifetime of the program.
Phase 6: Enterprise Deployment and Analytics
We can implement enterprise-grade VR and game platforms to enable safe deployment behind the client firewall (integrated with LMS and LRS through Scorm or xAPI). We help our clients evaluate the business impact of our programs at all four Kirkpatrick levels and provide a dashboard of analytics that can be integrated with client systems.
Clients
Valued Partnerships
