2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

VR (Virtual Reality) which is a new technology, has been used to simulate training that is too expensive and time-consuming to practice in real life. This study aims to find students’ learning improvement on Fall related safety by using low-cost VR technology. This will also help practice survive Fall hazard techniques. In the current study, a well-known VR software was used to introduce participants to Fall safety scenarios. Rather than students being passive viewers where the instructor/trainer only demonstrates, the students were given full control to navigate through the virtual environment and to interact with virtual objects using a headset and a handheld controller. Students identified a simple climbing and Fall hazard example before going to more rigorous training in the virtual environment. Results indicated that students were more engaged by the new game-like learning environment and that they reported that they found the experience fun, interesting, and thought-provoking. Their enhanced enthusiasm for what is relatively standard Fall-safety training demonstrates the promise of using game-based virtual environments for vital but otherwise tedious Fall-safety skills training for students.