Exploring gamification approach in hazard identification training for Malaysian construction industry

Abstract

In recent years gaming products have increasingly been used to enhance learning and training development in academic and commercial sectors. Games have become more pervasive; they have been adopted for use in many industries and sectors such as defence, medicine, architecture, education, and city planning and government as tools for workers development. In Malaysia, it has been reported that the construction industry holds the third highest record of occurrences of accidents at work. Therefore, safety training is inevitable to reduce the alarming rate of accidents on construction sites. However, currently, available safety training approaches are still lacking in terms of delivering hands-on training and are more theoretical- instead of being more practical-based. This is due to the nature of the construction environment itself in which safety training involving certain hazards that cannot be implemented hands-on as it may bring harm to trainers, trainees and the environment. Gaming is an approach that applies technology to provide an almost real experience with interactive field training, and also supporting the theory of learning by doing with real case scenario. The purpose of this paper is to seek and explore the differences in existing gamification genres such as simulation game, role-playing, action game, strategy game and etc. Data were collected through available literature. The findings of the study show that serious game is a suitable genre to be adopted as an approach in hazard identification training for the construction industry in Malaysia.

Innovating Occupational Safety Training: A Scoping Review on Digital Games and Possible Applications in Agriculture

“…A game as a training method can provide the players, and in this case the employees, an adequate hands-on learning opportunity by means of simulation. Following the principle of “learning by doing” [ 12 ], workers can understand and discover what they have to do and which behaviors to avoid, by experiencing themselves [ 13 ]. Game-based interventions have the advantages to focus players’ attention on specific tasks and they can be used when it is prohibitively expensive or simply too dangerous to allow trainees to use the real equipment in the real world [ 14 ].…”

Potential of Virtual Design Construction Technologies to Improve Job-Site Safety in Gulf Corporation Council

“…Games have the potential to provide a real-life learning experience by both field training and imparting theoretical knowledge using case scenarios. The use of game engines for skill development has become a growing area of interest for the construction research community, and such engines are increasingly being used for capacity-building purposes in different industries, such as defense, medicine, architecture, and education [36]. Serious games can give a chance for users to interact with a construction site and develop skills accordingly [37].…”

Relationship between Medium and Large Grade Contractors on Implementing Safety Management in Construction Site

“…However, when complete the hazard removal or control is not possible, training and administrative controls should be applied to promote best safety practices that limit workers exposures to hazards. CIDB, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and other related agencies through government initiatives provide trainings to increase awareness and enhance knowledge on safety among key players in the construction industry [20]. Various types of training have been carried out such as induction, on-job training, competency, seminar, and forum [21].…”

“…Apart from competency training, other types of training allocate less attention on hands-on approach [12]. Undoubtedly, safety trainings require more hands-on or practical-based approach, but the nature of hazards itself restricts the implementation of practical-based approach in real-life situation [20].…”