A model to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual construction safety training tool

Construction projects have become more complex. Due to this complexity, construction projects are exposed to more risks and the probability of occupational accidents on the site increases. So, the provision of safety on the construction field becomes more challenging, and the number of occupational accidents and fatalities remains high all around the world. The literature highlight that human-related factors play a crucial role in the safety management process, so, improving behavior-based skills of workers by adequate safety training method has become important to provide on-site safety. Previous literature states that an effective safety training method should cover (i) information transfer, (ii) instructio-nal feedback, (iii) knowledge development, (iv) hands-on practice, (v) behavioral modeling and (vi) hazard identification. Due to the low level of engagement, conventional safety training methods fail to provide an effective safety training. In order to bridge this gap, a high level of engagement between the safety training method and the participant should be provided. In this regard, the main aim of this study is to quantitatively analyze the effectiveness of virtual construction safety training tool entitled Virtual Safety Analysis For Engineering applications (V-SAFE). To evaluate the effectiveness of V-SAFE, eye tracking technologies have been also used to test the attention level and safety awareness of participants. Five analyses were conducted to test the effectiveness of V-SAFE in the process of safety training. Analysis results show that V-SAFE provides all the essential features of effective safety training. The present study makes a significant contribution to the field of safety training, since it is the first and only study that evaluates all safety training parameters rather than focusing on a single parameter. It has also developed a conceptual model that examines the effectiveness of safety training methods. This model offers great insights for future studies on how to measure the effectiveness of safety training.