Immersive 360° video (360°VR) shows potential in enhancing learners’ professional vision (PV)—the ability to identify and interpret relevant aspects of professional situations. Despite this opportunity, the effectiveness of 360°VR for supporting PV in vocational education and training (VET) remains underexplored. This study examines the integration of 360°VR in a training session aimed at supporting two main competencies required to develop PV: noticing—identifying and focusing on the crucial aspects of a situation—and knowledge-based reasoning (KBR)—connecting and interpreting these observed aspects using theoretical knowledge. The main research question is: how can we support learners in applying their PV abilities to a professional situation depicted in a 360°VR? To address this question, we designed a 4-hours training session for healthcare assistants (HCA) consisting of two consecutive PV tasks, designed in progressive order of difficulty. We sought to assess the extent to which learners (N = 21; Mage = 17.33, SDage = 0.796) could transfer their PV performance from a "scaffolded" task to a "non-scaffolded" one.

The two progressive tasks are the following:
1. First task: learners analyzed a 360°VR (duration: 7’30’’) of an expert HCA correctly performing the blood sampling procedure. The goal was to identify (notice) macro-aspects of the procedure, specifically the steps required to perform a blood sampling. After identifying these steps, learners had to describe how to prevent potential errors in each corresponding step (KBR). This task was facilitated by an interactive menu within the 360°VR environment, which highlighted four out of the seven procedural steps.
2. Second task: learners analyzed a 360°VR (duration: 5’35’’) showing a novice HCA performing the blood sampling procedure, during which typical errors were committed. Learners had to identify (notice) micro-aspects of the procedure, specifically all the errors committed by the novice HCA. After identifying the errors, learners were required to interpret them based on theory (KBR). The second task is considered more difficult because it involves identifying micro aspects instead of macro aspects and there were no signaling aids to support noticing.

Noticing scores were assigned counting the number of elements correctly identified, based on a teacher-developed checklist of elements (1 point for accurate, 0.5 for partial descriptions). KBR scores were assessed for explanation consistency (1 point for correct, 0.5 for partial, and 0 for incorrect explanations).

Results indicated higher noticing performance in the first video (80% of elements correctly identified) compared to the second video (20% of elements correctly identified) with no correlation between noticing performance in the first and second videos. KBR performance was also higher in the first (49.42%) than in the second video (39.17%), with no correlation between KBR performance in the first and second videos.

Our findings indicate that while PV performance, particularly noticing, is effective in a scaffolded context, students struggled to generalize their performance in a non-scaffolded task. This suggests that 360°VR can be used to support PV training, especially when noticing is facilitated through a form of signaling. A gradual reduction of such signaling may be necessary as trainees progress. Future research should explore optimal strategies for fading out signaling in PV task supported by 360°VR.

Keywords: Immersive 360° video, professional vision, vocational education, analysis, reflection.