Simulation-based electrical safety training

Electrical safety has rapidly risen in prominence in industrial applications due to increased awareness of hazards and risks. There are numerous occupational health and safety organizations around the world that now mandate practices and procedures to maximize electrical safety in the workplace. Training workers to meet these requirements typically follows the standard methods based on seminars and short courses which have been widely used for many years. Maximizing electrical safety, however, cannot be achieved by simply memorizing facts or procedures taught in this environment. The critical aspect of electrical safety lies in the actions of the worker in the workplace—what people do in certain situations when given particular information is based on their higher-level thought process and their sequential decisions and actions. It is not possible to fully train workers in this skillset in advance, and the needs in this area are normally addressed on the job by direct observation and personal interaction. In this paper, a simulation-based electrical safety training module is described that allows the participant to move through a simulated environment while making observations and decisions and taking actions. The ability of the participant to recognize key facts and take appropriate actions when faced with simulated electrical safety scenarios can be scored and evaluated in the same manner as a typical computer game with the total score based on the accumulated choices of the participant. A score threshold can then be used to indicate the level to which the participant has mastered the training scenarios. Determining such a total score is exemplary of the necessary changes in assessment required when using virtual learning environments for training purposes.