Developing a Virtual Safety Training Tool for Scaffolding and Formwork Activities

As occupational accidents usually occur due to unsafe human behaviours in the construction industry, safety training is inevitably necessary for site personnel. On construction sites, various training methods including traditional and innovative ones, have been adopted to prevent accidents. In recent years, virtual safety training has been more prevalent because of providing highly engaging practice in a risk-free environment. Although these training tools have innumerable advantages in providing safety knowledge and awareness, they can be further improved. This study introduces a virtual safety training tool, V-SAFE.v2, to provide a more reliable and effective safety training for high-risk construction works. V-SAFE.v2 consists of three main modules; i) Training Module, ii) Testing Module 1, and iii) Testing Module 2. These modules are generated firstly to provide safety training for scaffolding and formwork activities and then to evaluate the safety performance of the trainees. An experiment was conducted with fifteen construction workers and ten engineers to measure the effectiveness of the training tool. The findings showed that V-SAFE.v2 is a reliable safety training tool for high-risk construction tasks as it supports collaboration, provides individual feedback, and repeatable practice. Also, the participants stated that V-SAFE.v2 has a great potential to reduce the falling from height accidents in the construction workplaces.