Learning Where to Discover Safety Hazards: Modelling eye-movement to train construction students' hazards-identification ability

Abstract

Hazard identification is the most frequently employed approach to preventing and reducing accidents on construction sites. Hazard-identification is a complex task that requires knowledge of both regulations and experience. To educate the required experience which is a kind of tacit knowledge that is difficult to be described explicitly in the text, this project developed a series of eye-movement modeling examples (EMMEs) that may effectively help construction students learn hazards-identification, and examined the effectiveness of using EMMEs in training hazards-identification. The EMMEs were shot in various construction locations, including building interior, building surrounding, housekeeping area, and rebar yard, covering four kinds of hazards, i.e., falls, fire hazards, electric shock, and struck-by hazards. 70 students were invited to attend intervention experiments demonstrating the learning impacts of the EMMEs. Their original hazards-identification ability were examined in a pre-test, and then they were educated with the EMMEs or traditional slides; after that, they joined two post-tests assessing their hazards-identification ability after learning to examine the instant and lasting effects (one-month interval). Finally, the EMMEs were modified based on the participants' feedback and changes. The results demonstrated that EMMEs helped learners concentrate on hazardous areas and improved their identification accuracy. Its effectiveness also persisted after one month. Compared to educating subjects through slides, using EMMEs was superior in improving learners’ attention and keeping lasting effects. The demonstrated effectiveness of EMMEs suggests that it is a promising approach for educating hazard identification.