Ergonomic Awareness Tutorial

This eLearning tutorial helps workers stay safe, comfortable, and productive in the office environment.

Project Details

Date
August 30, 2021
Project Type
eLearning
Audience
Department Supervisors; Office Workers
Tools Used
Articulate Storyline, DaVinci Resolve, Inkscape, Audacity, Microsoft PowerPoint, Veracity LRS
Responsibilities
Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Graphic Design

Overview

I built this elearning experience as a means of helping workers practice good office ergonomics.

Ergonomics is the science and practice of how people interact with objects in their environment. Workplace ergonomics aims to “fit the job to the worker” by matching the work environment to the capabilities and limitations of the human body.

Proper application of ergonomic principles can help reduce the risk of work-related injuries and promote safety, comfort, and productivity. In the Ergonomic Awareness Tutorial, learners respond to scenario-based questions to encourage workers to participate in creating an ergonomically-friendly environment.

My Design Process

My design process starts with my objective: Given job aides on ergonomic principles and real-world workplace safety situations, the supervisor will demonstrate proper ergonomics to reduce the risk of work-related injuries and promote safety, comfort, & productivity.

After establishing my objective, I conducted some research on ergonomics. I gathered information from the Environmental Health and Safety committee at the University of Pittsburgh.

In this activity, you take on the role of a supervisor who is currently in a meeting with their occupational health manager. The manager determines your department's risk for work-related injuries based on your reported ergonomic interventions.

This eLearning project is addressed to department supervisors with a team full of office workers. Taking inspiration from Christy Tucker's article "mini-scenarios for assessment", I chose to create a straightforward activity with concrete situations. While this project was made with a target audience in mind, ergonomic principles are applicable to everyone.

Development & Implementation

Storytelling

I applied principles of content gamification by turning your score into a "risk meter". The goal is to keep your risk bar low by answering correctly.

Visuals/Media

After completing the script, I developed the project wireframe in Microsoft PowerPoint. The infographic was created in Inkscape. I wanted to create a professional layout that invoked a strong professional brand. I chose red & blue color scheme to accommodate learners with color vision deficiencies.

Below you will find a screenshot of me emulating Deuteranopia (red-green color blindness) in the Microsoft Edge browser. I also used DaVinci Resolve to make minor modifications to a background video.

Wireframe in Microsoft PowerPoint

Emulating Deuteranopia in Microsoft Edge

RBG Mixer in DaVinci Resolve

Prototyping & xAPI

After completing the wireframe, I transferred the layout to Storyline. I created a series of variables & triggers to perform the following:

  • Adjust risk levels & object states
  • Adjust HTML files to change document background and insert Lottie files as web objects
  • Execute JavaScript to send xAPI statements to Veracity LRS

With xAPI, I can observe how learners navigate through my course. For this project, xAPI was used to track metrics such as course completion, course grade (pass/fail), user ID, and resource views.

There are two resources in this course. One is an infographic, and another is a slide layer that acts as a feedback page. Whenever the learner opens/views a resource, a statement is sent to the LRS. This information allows me to see how often learners access these resources. If a learner completes the course without accessing a single resource, I would like to use that as an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of certain aspects of the course.

xAPI Statement in Visual Studio Code

xAPI statements generated in Veracity LRS

Key Takeaways

This project has challenged me to take a closer look at eLearning development and xAPI implementation. It also encouraged me to learn more about course usability and its revealing insights on course effectiveness. For example, some learners can't view infographic resources due to visiual impairments. They might prefer a body text that cen be read by screen readers. With usability in mind, I sought to improve inclusivity with careful color choices and alt text. I plan to continue to take usability into account with future projects.