Executive Summary of Results

A multi-media project was developed to bring real safety issues in the workplace to the classroom. This involved students making use of digital multi-media to capture ‘real’ examples of workers safety behavior. The resulting footage and images were edited and aligned with existing text within an ‘online’ distributed education course. The benefits to the student’s education and the course content have been enormous. Students’ learning has been significantly enhanced and knowledge retention increased. Although relatively simple to develop and easy for other faculty to initiate, a number of issues needs to be considered before starting.

Need for the Project

The annual costs to the US economy of workplace accidents are some $131.5 billion. Blending three disciplines (Safety, Psychology and Business) a large body of empirical research shows that behavioral safety is one of the most effective methods for reducing workplace accidents. IUB is only one of three academic institutions in the world offering behavioral safety as a course of academic study.

Over the last three years the course has been offered in traditional lecture and online DE formats. In both formats, the course incorporates a personal safety project to give students a sense of how a behavioral safety project would be implemented in industry. Although students gained an appreciation of their own unsafe behavior in their personal lives, the personal project failed to give students a sense of the real implementation difficulties they would face in the workplace. This was primarily due to the text based format of the online DE course, in combination with the student’s limited exposure to industry. The major limitations, therefore, were [1] the limited ability to convey to students the types of safety issues faced by industry on a day to day basis; and [2] the use of only one learning style. These two factors made it difficult for those lacking industrial experience, to visualize typical examples of unsafe behavior, site conditions, and implementation issues

Use of Technology

The instructional goal of the project was to ensure that students gained hands-on learning experience by visiting collaborative partner worksites to obtain digital images that could be incorporated into the behavioral safety Distributed Education (DE) course. Students obtained video images of site conditions and people engaged in their work. The images that were obtained primarily focused on people’s unsafe behaviors and/or on the practical application of the behavioral safety techniques advocated in the course. These images were edited to provide specific examples of behaviors or conditions that matched the text content of the course. In some instances, where it proved impossible to obtain video images of particular scenarios, still images or diagrams were created that conveyed the essence of the learning points.

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

• What student learning outcomes were expected?
• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?
• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)
• Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

Many people learn more from watching and doing, than by just reading and listening to lectures. Obtaining and/ or editing digital images of safety behaviors and the industrial environment in which these take place, has facilitated student comprehension of why people behave in the way they do.

This ‘technological’ approach has also allowed students to obtain a greater appreciation of the ‘real’ workplace issues facing safety professionals in three ways: [1] by providing students with an opportunity to visit industrial sites; [2] by ensuring the images collected closely matched the course content (thereby enhancing learning of the topic), and [3] bringing the ‘workplace’ into the classroom for those following on later courses. Moreover, it has helped to develop a ‘digital’ library of materials for use on other safety courses within the whole safety management program. As such, the project has the potential to facilitate student learning far beyond its original intentions.

In terms of resources used, the major expenditures were related to obtaining the appropriate ‘multi-media’ equipment (Digital video cameras, computers and graphical software) and expertise. In the latter regard, a student who possessed the appropriate knowledge and expertise from the School of Informatics was engaged on a part-time basis. Not only did this enhance the quality of the final product (a course CD) but it also increased that student’s practical knowledge and experience. Thus, a ‘win-win’ situation was created for all concerned.

In principle, the type of project implemented here is relatively simple and easy for other faculty to initiate. However, there are a number of caveats that need to be considered that are discussed in more detail below.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

• Fostered depth of learning
• Supported efforts to improve retention
• Fostered the learning of large numbers of students
• Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments?

Many students have been involved in the development of this project, ranging from those who have visited industrial sites and obtained digital images of safety in the workplace; to those who have digitized and edited existing safety videos; to those who have evaluated the course CD. In each instance, students have been exposed to real world issues that have impacted their learning in various ways. In one instance this project has led directly to a joint- student / faculty research paper on the topic of behavioral safety that has been submitted to a learned journal. In turn, this has led to an interdisciplinary laboratory based study on the impact of observation frequency on the transfer of learning. Another student is in the process of writing an academic paper on the cost-benefit of behavioral safety. Thus, the project has unexpectedly led to serious academic research on topics not previously explored. In turn, this research will influence other researchers and students around the globe.

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of assessment was used?
• How did your approach obtain measures of performance?
• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

Much work is ongoing to assess the effectiveness of the project in enhancing student learning. This is primarily due to the unexpected amount of time it has taken to develop the materials (Discussed below). However, class evaluations have been conducted on the format and presentation of materials on the course CD. Students were asked to rate questions on a ten point scale. These questions probed the ease of navigation of the CD, each of the course texts in terms of their use of fonts, ease of reading & understanding, and their formatting, and whether the digital images and graphics were appropriate for that section. Students were also asked to comment on changes they would make, what they would keep and why. This led to many minor changes that have enhanced the overall effectiveness of the product.

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?
• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
• What tips would you offer?

In principle, the type of project engaged in here has universal applicability to other contexts or disciplines. Proactive student involvement in the development of materials is one of the major benefits as it helps them gain a much deeper understanding of the topic(s) under study. Student involvement also helps to ensure the format and course content is tailored to suit their learning styles. Additional bonuses arise from those students who become so involved with the topic that they conduct valuable academic research.

Notwithstanding the above, it is important to recognize two major issues involved in developing ‘multi-media’ type projects. First, if intending to work with industry, it is important to develop very senior contacts that can and will facilitate your needs, at the feasibility stage. It came as somewhat of a surprise, to discover that some companies, who had initially signaled their support, withdrew. This was primarily due to the sensitivity of the subject matter. Many companies just did not want their employees to be identified on ‘video’ with unsafe behavior or unsafe conditions in any way as this may have resulted in a loss of reputation. Other companies allowed access, but insisted on approving the ‘footage’ before allowing it ‘off-site’ Some companies did ‘in-house’ filming for the project, using their own multi-media’ specialists. This material was then passed to the ‘principal investigator.’ Thus, much of the material was ‘edited’ before being passed on to the PI, which tended to limit its usefulness. In two instances, contacts in the United Kingdom and Australia who are implementing behavioral safety kindly provided digital images of processes that proved to be impossible to otherwise obtain. Thus, the lesson here is to ensure that a comprehensive feasibility study is conducted prior to seeking grant funding. Specifically, [1] ensure that the content of the proposed multi-media project is clear and explicit prior to starting; [2] your industrial partners are fully aware of the material you require; and [3] that access to industrial sites/ companies and permission to use the full range of subject matter materials is negotiated at the highest levels before starting.
           
Second, is to recognize the enormous amount of time needed to obtain, view and edit the materials and develop the final product.  Just obtaining the required footage took almost 12 months. As material was acquired it had to be imported and converted to mpeg format on computer, and then viewed and edited to suit the course text. In addition, the design and layout of the course CD had to be developed, tested and finalized.  It is estimated that each of the 12 course modules took anywhere between 35-45 hours to complete. Given the scope of ‘normal’ duties required of faculty in addition to those attempting to develop ‘multi-media’ projects, it is strongly recommended that faculty seek dispensation, or ‘buy-out’, of at least one teaching course per semester to bring this type of project to a successful conclusion.

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?
• What, if anything,would you do differently?
• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?
• What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

In terms of enhancing student learning the project to date has been very successful in meeting its goals. Students have been exposed to a multitude of real world issues that have enhanced both their theoretical and practical learning and understanding. A positive unexpected outcome of this project was the number and quality of student ‘spin-off’ research projects that will add value to the discipline. In turn, these projects will lead to further research.
I would strongly recommend that colleagues adopt this approach, provided faculty is fully cognizant of the time factors involved in this teaching approach. The requisite support has to be provided so that faculty is released from their normal ‘teaching load’ so that they can fully devote their attentions and actions to bring it to a successful conclusion

Return to Final Reports page

AT&T Fellows Home Page

Last updated: 18 May, 2007

Comments and Questions | (317) 278-4833
Copyright © 1999-2003, The Trustees of Indiana University