Many of the skills required in the practice of human factors are “process-oriented” rather than “product-oriented”; this is challenging for human factors educators because it is often more difficult to teach process-oriented skills and concepts than product-oriented skills and concepts. The Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology [LT3] at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada is involved in developing learning objects (also known as “learnware”) to help faculty overcome instructional challenges associated with teaching processes. The learnware development model used by LT3, which enables learner-centered resources to be developed, for students, and by students, to teach about processes in various disciplines will be discussed. The Task Analysis learning object developed to overcome instructional challenges experienced by human factors professors in the department of Systems Design Engineering, will illustrate LT3's learnware development model. The development of Task Analysis learnware emphasizes how the application of iterative learner-centred design can aid in teaching fundamental concepts in human factors.
This study was undertaken to evaluate the utility of using a force and moment wrench to describe the demand on the distal arm tissues and perceived exertion during static gripping tasks. Five right hand dominant university students, who were free of hand or wrist disorders, completed a total of 87 maximum and submaximum gripping tasks. All trials were completed while standing, with the arm adducted and elbow flexed to ninety degrees. The wrist posture was near neutral in all axes during the exertions. Activation levels for muscles of the forearm and hand and rating of perceived exertion were collected. Participants handled objects using 3 grips (cylindrical grip, lateral pinch and pulp pinch) in 8 different ways. The equivalent force and moment wrench for the tasks were also exerted on a modified pinch/grip dynamometer, affixed to a six degree of freedom force cube. This instrumentation allowed the simultaneous collection of the 3 forces, 3 moments and the pinch/grip force about the grip centre. It was expected that the demands of a task and the instrumented task wrench reproduction would be the same, and therefore the slope of the linear regression for the EMG and RPE scatterplots would be equal to one. The RPE slopes ranged from 0.99 (lateral pinch) to 1.11 (cylindrical grip), with R2 greater than 0.89 for all grips. The mean slope for EMG of all muscles ranged from 0.89 (lateral pinch) to 1.38 (pulp pinch), with mean R2 of 0.61 to 0.68. The force and moment wrench system for the categorization of prehension appears to capture the demands on the distal arm tissues and perceived exertion during standardized laboratory holding tasks.
Purpose Police work includes being exposed to challenging and traumatic situations that can result in physical and/or psychological injuries requiring time off work. Safe return to work (RTW) is critical, yet little is known about current RTW practices in police services. This study examines RTW practices and experiences from the perspective of workplace RTW personnel and workers (sworn and civilian) in police services with physical and/or psychological health conditions. Methods A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit sworn and civilian members in several Canadian police services with a variety of roles who had experienced RTW either as a worker with a work-related injury/illness or those who supported RTW in the service. Interviews were conducted and transcribed for analyses. Qualitative research methods were used to identify themes in the data. Results Five overarching themes emerged. Two themes pointed to the context and culture of police services and included discussions related to RTW processes, injury/illness complexity, the hierarchical nature of the police culture, and a culture of stoicism and stigma. The remaining three themes were about RTW processes of accommodation, communication, and trust-building. Within these themes, recovery from injury/illness, meaningful accommodation, timely clear communication, malingering, and trust were described. Conclusions Our findings point to potential improvements to RTW practices in police services related to flexibility, clarity, confidentiality, and reducing stigma. Future research on RTW practices for psychological injuries is required to help inform policy and practice.
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