A Framework for Effective Construction Safety Training using Flipped Learning

Abstract

The effectiveness of safety training practices is an important part of safety management on a construction site. In order to promote construction worker safety on a construction site, a sound safety training regime has to be inculcated. Lack of importance given to safety training and high cost of training has adversely affected the safety landscape in the construction industry. Flipped learning has become popular across the world as a new form of teaching. It is a pedagogical approach in which the conventional concept of classroom-based learning is altered, so that students are introduced to the learning material before class in the form of web-based informational videos, power point presentations, and assigned readings. The first stage of the study involved detailed literature about safety training issues and inefficiencies. Subsequently, benefits of Flip Learning were identified, and the link between them and inefficiencies of safety training was found. Some benefits of flip learning can, in theory, mitigate the inefficiencies of safety training. A case study comparing two groups of trainees showed a higher understanding of concepts by those taught with the Flipped Classroom Model. This study after conducting a comprehensive analysis of both approaches, traditional and Flip, concludes that the latter cuts cost and improves learning outcomes in construction safety training education. Workers are able to pause, rewind, and replay the lectures in the proposed flipped learning model. It saved the time of both workers and trainers, thus improving safety on site in an affordable manner.