The potential for using interactive scenarios in the teaching and learning of health and safety

Despite recent improvement in health and safety, possibly stimulated by the Revitalizing Health and Safety strategy, construction still has more fatalities than any other industry. The education sector, industry and government have a clear responsibility to continue to improve the situation and push forward a more safety conscious industry. The Civil Engineering Group at Leeds Metropolitan University has undergone a process of embedding the teaching and learning of health and safety throughout the curriculum. Initially, one change to the delivery of health and safety material was introduced in a paper-based form set around a number of construction site scenarios. The scenarios were real world examples, facilitated and supported by industrial partners and were used with student groups in the identification of potential hazards and risks, and to prescribe control measures. Recently, utilizing web expertise developed on other education projects, work has started to explore the potential to create interactive 360 degree panoramas of construction sites to highlight health and safety issues. Previous experience in the use of interactive virtual training platforms has proved successful and is well received by students. The concept of integrating health and safety information within virtual environments created from 360 degree photographs and videos of real situations is an obvious one, but is not without barriers. Reflections on the experiences and benefits are presented together with methods of evaluating the use and effectiveness of these virtual training platforms.