Using serious games to prime safety students for occupational noise exposure risk assessment
Date
2023-08
Authors
Yrjo, Tavion
Major Professor
Advisor
Keren, Nir
Stone, Richard
Simpson, Stephen
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Altmetrics
Research Projects
Journal Issue
Series
Department
Computer Science
Abstract
Ensuring the safety of our workforce requires substantial training and education of
workers. This thesis investigates the potential of priming students with gamification and
entertainment techniques in a virtual environment to enhance the training for occupational noise
risk assessments. A simulator titled AssessVR, a PC-based application was created to enhance
the learning experience of students and safety workers in identifying hazards and assessing risks.
This simulator enables students to engage in hazard recognition, develop evaluation strategies,
and perform risk assessment and analysis by utilizing the data generated within the simulation.
Two studies, a pilot and an enhanced study, were conducted to assess priming learners'
effectiveness in enhancing occupational noise risk assessment. The results of the pilot study
point to the need for enhancing the gamification of the simulator.
Consequently, AssessVR was redesigned as a serious game. In the second study, the
gamified AssessVR was used to prime students before they engaged in the risk assessment with a
non-gamified, AssessVR. An additional group of students was primed with a non-gamified
AssessVR as a benchmark or the assessment of the gamification approach.
The results demonstrated that the gamified-based priming significantly improved
students' exposure assessments, a critical component of risk assessments. In their assessment,
students primed with a gamified approach referenced exposure standards more frequently than
those in a traditional utilitarian group. However, not all risk assessment dimensions were
improved through gamification.