Abstract:
The construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in New Zealand, historically
having high worker injury and fatality rates compared to other industries. These high incident
rates are caused mainly by human error, which is strongly influenced by management’s safety
policies and climates. Depending on training provided by employers and supervisors, workers
sometimes do not have knowledge of safety behaviours due to a lack of training. Workers have
also been found to behave unsafely regardless of safety knowledge due to a low perception of
the risk associated with the unsafe behaviour. This makes perceived risk an important target
for safety interventions, and it has been found that perceived risk increases when workers or
their peers experience negative consequences from a hazard. Virtual reality provides a safe
platform for workers to experience events and practice actions without the risk of being seriously harmed. At the same time, gamification of educational environments has been proven in
many studies to increase players’ engagement and motivation to play, subsequently also having
a positive effect on knowledge retention. This paper describes the design and implementation
of a game model that allows players to practice what they learn and experience the negative
consequences of not following appropriate safety behaviour and its testing on a sample of 8 participants. No statistically significant results regarding risk perception could be inferred from
the findings due to having a small sample size. However, findings look promising for additional
testing with more participants, and the model was well received, with all participants indicating
they would play it again.