Product Code: ILSC2009_802

Making Laser Safety Training More Cognitively Effective: Making Training Videos Interactive and Adaptive
Authors:
Tom Cherrett, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
James C. Gates, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
Pearl John, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
Laura Holdaway-Salmon, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; - Great Britain
Joseph Price, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
Gary B. Wills, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
Itiel E. Dror, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; Southampton Great Britain
Presented at ILSC 2009

The cost of health and safety failures to UK industry is currently estimated at £6.5 billion per annum. Better health and safety education (particularly re-training) across all skill levels is seen as an integral part of any solution. Traditional lecture-based courses often fail to re-create the dynamic realities of managing health and safety on-site or in-lab, and therefore do not sufficiently engage the students in deeper learning (which results in remembering and using what was learned). Current training regimes also have to adapt to increasing numbers of immigrant students/employees who often display different attitudes towards health and safety and the perception of risk.

The use of video as a training aid is common place, but passively observing a video is not cognitively engaging and therefore learning is not as effective as it could be. This paper will describe the development and testing of an interactive video designed to help students understand the risks involved with the set-up and operation of lasers in a laboratory setting. The software allows students to interact and engage with the subject matter by requiring them to identify and describe risks through the technique of video hot spotting coupled to multiple choice question sets.