On Educational Ergonomics

Abstract

This paper represents an effort to establish an inter-disciplinary field of research toward total educational effectiveness. The traditional educational delivery lacks any systems perspective and precision. The application of ergonomics to education has received only limited attention. A systems analysis has identified 5 components for educational ergonomics: (1) learning ergonomics, (2) instructional ergonomics, (3) orgonomics of educational facilities, (4) ergonomics of educational oqutpment, and (5) the ergonomics of educational environment.

Learning ergonomics explores such areas as educational skills of handwriting, roading, drawing, instrument manipulation, class scheduling and school scheduling, research in examinations, management of learning activities, and grading systems. The instructional ergonomics covers textbook design, teaching devices, instruction techniques, classroom conducts, lecture preparation, and educational T.V. Ergonomics of educational facilities concerns educational furniture, laboratory and library ergonomics, classroom and office design, and equipment allocation. Ergonomics of education equipment investigates needs analysis, C/D design, allocation of equipment, performance analyses, and its safety and construction. Ergonomics of educational environment includes such things as illumination, colour, noise, space utilization, and allocation of equipment. Within each variable, research is reviewed and typical studies are suggested. The value of an integrated discipline of educational ergonomics is also discussed.     

The ergonomics of learning: educational design and learning performance

The application of ergonomics/human factors (E/HF) principles and practices, and the implementation of ergonomics programmes, have achieved proven success in improving performance, productivity, competitiveness, and safety and health in most occupational sectors. However, the benefits that the application of E/HF science might bring to promoting student learning have yet to be widely recognized. This paper deals with the fundamental purpose of education - student learning - and with the question of how the ergonomic design of the learning environment influences learning performance. The underlying premise, embodied in the quote below, is that student learning performance to a substantial degree is context specific - influenced and specialized in relation to specific design factors in the learning environment. The basic scientific question confronting learning ergonomics is which design characteristics in the learning environment have the greatest influence on variability in learning performance. Practically, the basic challenge is to apply this scientific understanding to ergonomic interventions directed at design improvements of learning environments to benefit learning. This paper expands upon these themes by addressing the origins and scope of learning ergonomics, differing perspectives on the nature of learning, evidence for context specificity in learning and conclusions and research implications regarding an ergonomics perspective on learning.     

The good, the bad, and the future: on the archaeology of ergonomics

OBJECTIVE: This article places the 50th anniversary edition of the Human Factors journal in a historical context. BACKGROUND: It is appropriate to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Human Factors and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, but in so doing, we celebrate only the recent history of ergonomics. METHOD: By digging into the history of ergonomics, we can better understand the evolution of method, practice, and concepts in the human factors discipline. RESULTS: One develops a greater admiration for early practitioners of human factors and ergonomics, as well as the importance of history. CONCLUSION: Some satisfaction about the rise, evolution, and fall of ergonomic ideas is justified. "If I have seen further..." APPLICATION: We can better define the starting point for the next 50 years.     

Overview of Human Factors and Ergonomics in the OR,with an Emphasis on Minimally Invasive Surgeries

Operating rooms (OR) are where medical teams work to improve the health of a patient. However, because of the complexity of the procedures, errors and unsafe situations are likely to occur. These complications can lead to harm to the patient or medical professionals. Human factors and ergonomic professionals have been working to improve these unsafe conditions in the OR for over a century. However, with advances in technology, increased surgical complexity, as well as an increase in medical team members in the OR, there are still numerous improvements yet to be accomplished. Minimally invasive surgeries require an even more advanced approach to prevent errors due to technology, fatigue, and miscommunication. Human factors and ergonomic techniques provide the ability to greatly improve conditions for patients and surgeons alike. It is imperative that human factors and ergonomics continue to grow and facilitate technological advancements in healthcare. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Five applications of computers in the chemistry curriculum

This paper describes a systematic application of courseware to help meet three educational challenges: provide remedial education for poorly prepared students; provide a stimulating and challenging learning environment for well prepared and highly motivated students: and minimize the time spent by instructors on clerical tasks. Five applications of computers to the undergraduate chemistry curriculum have evolved during the past decade at the University of Pittsburgh as a result of this work: a library of computer-assisted instruction lessons: a computer-assisted test construction system: a library of simulation and data reduction programs: a library of computer-managed instruction programs: and a senior-level elective course. “Numerical Methods in Chemistry”. This paper contains a discussion of this software and its use in several chemistry courses.     

Cost‐effectiveness of ergonomic interventions in production

Early cost–benefit analysis of ergonomic interventions in manufacturing is in the interest of the production management and the ergonomics specialist. Because of the variety of factors and the complexity to quantify these factors, this task is not an easy one. In this article we present a case study that illustrates that the economic benefits of ergonomics may easily overwhelm the costs because of the gain in productivity and quality, not to the economic gain associated with improved health. Finally, we propose a decision tool that addresses the relevant factors in the cost–benefit analysis of ergonomics. It gives Internet support to company managers and human factor specialists to make an economic analysis prior to the start of an ergonomic intervention project. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ergonomics in Northern Ireland: a survey of knowledge,attitudes, and implementation in industry and the public services

Abstract

In spite of the palpable benefits to organizations of applying the principles of ergonomics, it appears that a majority of employers, whether through ignorance or neglect, fail to do so (Simpson 1990). The present study sought to assess the impact of ergonomics on a broad cross-section of organizations in Northern Ireland from three perspectives: (1) knowledge and awareness of ergonomics; (2) attitudes towards ergonomics; and (3) the extent to which the principles of ergonomics were put into practice in the work-place. In all, 700 organizations were surveyed, representing manufacturing, service, and public sectors and ranging in size from 10 to more than 1000 employees. A total of 417 questionnaires (59·7%) were returned and, of these, 152 (36·5%) claimed no knowledge whatever of ergonomics. The extent to which knowledge was claimed tended to depend on the nature of the organizations. Analysis of the remaining 263 questionnaires revealed that, while only 36 organizations employed ergonomic specialists or engaged outside ergonomic consultants, 163 respondents reported specific instances of addressing ergonomic issues during the previous 12 months. Respondents exhibited generally positive attitudes towards ergonomics, although some cynicism was evident. Principal components analysis of the questionnaire items revealed several factors, most notably a general concern for ergonomic issues, cynicism towards ergonomics and, arguably, an attitude of helplessness concerning the state of the organization. Implications of these findings for promoting implementation of ergonomics within organizations are discussed.     

Development of smart english classroom system based on FPGA software and hardware co-simulation test

Improving English proficiency for professional students is a significant challenge in the AEC and the Renaissance. The problem found in the Polytechnic Gland Shipping Research Institute is the lack of time motivation and insufficient time for students to study outside the classroom lack of time. Therefore developed an Android-based “Technical English” application that supports PPN, English teaching, and learning processes. Development and Smart Classroom List (SCI) Verification. SCI is a learning environment tool that integrates existing technologies, including TROFLEI, TICI and CCEI (ergonomics). SCI is included to learn the functions, materials to describe flexibility, and experience factors in the smart classroom. The information technology detail used in some projects has also been adapted to the elegant classroom environment. Older classmates check the tool and reveal ten balances: body design, flexibility, and use of technology, learning data diversity, inquiry, collaboration, student drive, honesty and learning experience. The results of the Acid Ceasefire Agreement prove that is a simple tool for assessing the learning environment in a smart classroom. Student Differences, Flexibility, Technology Application, and Learning Data Factors There are four significant practical priority differences in the learning environment in a smart classroom. FPGA has received a lot of attention from the nuclear industry as an alternative platform for logical programming controllers for digitalization and control. The FPGA development software feature includes several steps for integration and refinement, and each such step requires a different simulation verification step. This research proposes an integrated software testing framework that simulates all the glitches created by FPGA software and evaluates whether it can work in general, using the standard Oracle programs for all glitches simultaneously.     

An integral system‐ergonomic approach for IT‐based process management in complex work environments by example of manufacturing and health care

Recent trends in manufacturing and health care move these two work systems closer together from a system ergonomics point of view. Individual treatment of products, especially patients, by specialists in a distributed environment demand information technology (IT)‐based support suitable for complex systems. IT‐based support of processes in complex systems is difficult due to the lack of standard processes. IT support also means to rethink processes to use efficiency potentials. Close cooperation of users and software developers is needed to increase the ergonomic quality of the system. Therefore, suitable tools are needed: UML is available as the standard industry modeling language, Zope/Plone as the quasi‐standard for content management systems, SimPy as an object‐oriented simulation tool for event‐triggered processes, and ACT‐R as a powerful cognitive architecture for simulation of human information processes. The integration of these tools enables system‐ergonomic support of processes in the complex work system as well as of the development and deployment process. It is the base of an integral system‐ergonomic approach for IT‐based process management. Knowledge gained during process analysis either enters models or leads to the extension and adaptation of the tool chain. The models serve as basis for discussion among system ergonomists, programmers, and specialists from the work system. Further, they are understood by simulation and process support tools. Transcoding efforts between humans with different professional backgrounds and machines are reduced, and the flexibility demanded by complex systems is met. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The promises and problems of ergonomics application in the People's Republic of China

Ergonomics or human factors, as an applied science concerning the design of interfaces between man, machine and the working environment, has shown its great capacities and potentials for improving working conditions and efficiency during its applications in most industrially developed countries (IC). As a means of improving the economy, industrialisation has been initiated in many industrially developing countries (DC). Knowledge and technology available in ICs have been transferred to DCs in order to increase the process of industrialisation. Ergonomics as a western discipline has also been transferred to many DCs during the technology transfer process. As an example of the transfer and development of ergonomics in industrially developing countries, this paper examines the development of ergonomics and its various areas of application in the People's Republic of China. After reviewing the current ergonomics situation and its applications in China from various points of view — i e, from organisation, research, education and industrial application — promises and problems associatd with the development of this new area of science are discussed.     

Conceptions of dentists and dental nurses about ergonomics

Abstract

Sixty-eight dentists and 90 dental nurses, all working in a municipal dental care programme in the city of Helsinki, Finland, were surveyed by a questionnaire about their knowledge of and attitudes towards ergonomics. Thirty-three per cent of the dentists and 36% of the dental nurses were of the opinion that they were at present working according to ergonomic principles. Fifty-one per cent of the dentists and 45% of the nurses could not indicate any ergonomic problem in their place of work. Of the remainder the dental unit was mentioned by 62% of the dentists, and own or counterpart's working posture and habits by 44% of the nurses as the most frequent ergonomic problem. Training in dental ergonomics during undergraduate studies was significantly more general among the nurses than the dentists. Ergonomic knowledge and attitudes were found to correlate with each other, as well as knowledge of ergonomics with training in ergonomics and ergonomic working style, but only among the nurses. The results indicate that a dental team needs functionally-designed dental equipment and instruction in ergonomic principles applied to dentistry.     

Ergonomics concerns and the impact of healthcare information technology

The US healthcare industry is poised on the verge of a massive expansion of its information technology infrastructure. Healthcare information technology (IT) is permeating numerous areas of healthcare delivery and fundamentally changing the nature of many healthcare jobs. When a comparable expansion in HIT use occurred in the office environment in the 1980s, little attention was paid to ergonomic design principles for computer work and the consequence was an increase in work-related musculoskeletal disorders throughout the 1990s. There are already signs of similar problems among certain groups of healthcare professionals. Consequently, it is vital that when the implementation of HIT is undertaken attention is paid to computer ergonomics programs. This review presents evidence that current patterns of HIT use may pose increased risks of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. It summarizes some of the main ergonomic design principles enshrined in standards that mitigate such problems. It points to the future expansion of ergonomics programs beyond the traditional workplace and into the realms of telecommuting. Results from this review can be used to optimize the implementation of future HIT initiatives in ways that will benefit user performance while minimizing their injury risks.

Relevance to industry

This review describes the rapid proliferation of HIT applications and the importance of ergonomic considerations in mitigating injury risks and optimizing the implementation of HIT systems.     

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons learned

By the early nineties a Chilean network on computers and education for public schools had emerged. There were both high expectancies that technology could revolutionize education as well as divergent voices that doubted the real impact of technology on learning. This paper presents an evaluation of the Enlaces network, a national Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and education initiative designed as part of a series of programs to overcome inequity and quality issues of public education in Chile, by integrating teachers and learners into the knowledge society. Data gathered and the results obtained in four major areas of educational policies – infrastructure, digital literacy, conditions of learning, and the impact on school learning of major national and international tests – are presented and fully analyzed. The strengths and weaknesses of Enlaces as a visible component of the educational system and educational reform are also discussed. Enlaces has provided basic infrastructure tools, connectivity, ICTs, and teacher training to a huge number of schools, but critical results are narrow in terms of classroom learning and no additional competencies have been observed. Data and results are limited by structural bottlenecks in the educational and social system. Finally, the lessons learned after more than 15 years of implementing technology in Chilean schools are presented and fully discussed.     

Mobile and ubiquitous learning in higher education settings. A systematic review of empirical studies

Mobile and ubiquitous learning are increasingly attracting academic and public interest, especially in relation to their application in higher education settings.The systematic analysis of 36 empirical papers supports the view that knowledge gains from instructionist learning designs are facilitated by distributed and more frequent learning activities enabled by push mechanisms. They also lend themselves to the activation of learners during classroom lectures. In addition, and as a particular advantage of mobile technology, “hybrid” designs, where learners create multimodal representations outside the classroom and then discussed their substantiated experiences with peers and educators, helped to connect learning in formal and more informal and personalized learning environments.Generally, empirical evidence that would favour the broad application of mobile and ubiquitous learning in higher education settings is limited and because mobile learning projects predominantly take instructionist approaches, they are non-transformatory in nature. However, by harnessing the increasing access to digital mobile media, a number of unprecedented educational affordances can be operationalised to enrich and extend more traditional forms of higher education.     

Fatigue evaluation in maintenance and assembly operations by digital human simulation in virtual environment

Virtual human techniques have been used a lot in industrial design in order to consider human factors and ergonomics as early as possible, and it has been integrated into VR applications to complete ergonomic evaluation tasks. In order to generalize the evaluation task in VE, especially for physical fatigue evaluation, we integrated a new fatigue model into a virtual environment platform. Virtual Human Status is proposed in this paper in order to assess the difficulty of manual handling operations, especially from the physical perspective. The decrease of the physical capacity before and after an operation is used as an index to indicate the difficulty level. The reduction of physical strength is simulated in a theoretical approach on the basis of a fatigue model in which fatigue resistances of different muscle groups were regressed from 24 existing maximum endurance time models. A framework based on digital human modeling technique is established to realize the comparison of physical status. An assembly case in airplane assembly is simulated and analyzed under the framework in VRHIT experiment platform. The endurance time and the decrease of the joint moment strengths are simulated. The experimental result in simulated operations under laboratory conditions confirms the feasibility of the theoretical approach: integration of virtual human simulation into virtual reality for physical fatigue evaluation.     

Ergodynamics: theory and applications

Abstract

Theory and dynamics in ergonomics (ergodynamics) is being proposed for ergonomic design, improvement, and studies of dynamic work in a dynamic environment. In a more narrow sense, ergodynamics is an application of the transformation dynamics theory in ergonomics. A foundation of ergodynamics is being suggested as the three laws of: (1) mutual adaptation; (2) plurality of work functional structures; and (3) transformations. Practical applications of ergodynamics are discussed with regard to ergonomic design and mutual adaptation in human-machine-environments, professional training, control systems safety, prediction, planning and optimizing efficiency dynamics during implementation of ergonomic and engineering projects, transfer of new technologies, environment, work functions and skills, management structures, software, products, changing economic strategy. Ergodynamics helps to predict and minimize losses in productivity, quality, and safety during all these transformation periods.     

浅析虚拟现实技术在座椅设计人机工效分析中的应用

针对当前座椅设计时进行人机分析时存在的周期长、投入大的不足,将虚拟现实技术应用到座椅设计当中。井以JACK软件为例。对虚拟现实技术在座椅设计人机工效分析中的应用进行实例验证。结果表明：虚拟现实技术能够有效地加快座椅设计的开发进程,提高了人机分析的效率,满足了座椅设计人机研究的需求,具有较高的先进性与实用性。     

如何在中专计算机课堂教育中融入生本教育观念

郭思乐教授提出的生本教育理念对传统教育理念形成巨大的冲击,成为新时期现代课堂教育理念的必然发展趋势,也是附合社会经济发展对教育新需求的教育理念。中专教育是以人的个性发展和能力发展为目标的教育,生本教育理念的提出和应用对中专教育的发展和改革有着极高的价指。本文以中专计算机课堂教育为基点,对生本教育理念的应用进行了探讨。     

Hidden in plain sight: low-literacy adults in a developed country overcoming social and educational challenges through mobile learning support tools

Illiteracy is often associated with people in developing countries. However, an estimated 50 % of adults in a developed country such as Canada lack the literacy skills required to cope with the challenges of today’s society; for them, tasks such as reading, understanding, basic arithmetic, and using everyday items are a challenge. Many community-based organizations offer resources and support for these adults, yet overall functional literacy rates are not improving. This is due to a wide range of factors, such as poor retention of adult learners in literacy programs, obstacles in transferring the acquired skills from the classroom to the real life, personal attitudes toward learning, and the stigma of functional illiteracy. In our research we examined the opportunities afforded by personal mobile devices in providing learning and functional support to low-literacy adults. We present the findings of an exploratory study aimed at investigating the reception and adoption of a technological solution for adult learners. ALEX^© is a mobile application designed for use both in the classroom and in daily life in order to help low-literacy adults become increasingly literate and independent. Such a solution complements literacy programs by increasing users’ motivation and interest in learning, and raising their confidence levels both in their education pursuits and in facing the challenges of their daily lives. We also reflect on the challenges we faced in designing and conducting our research with two user groups (adults enrolled in literacy classes and in an essential skills program) and contrast the educational impact and attitudes toward such technology between these. Our conclusions present the lessons learned from our evaluations and the impact of the studies’ specific challenges on the outcome and uptake of such mobile assistive technologies in providing practical support to low-literacy adults in conjunction with literacy and essential skills training.     

浅谈信息技术与学科整合

如今,人类社会已经进入了信息时代,整个社会都在发生着巨大的变革,机遇和挑战也面临着我们这些新世纪的教育者。利用信息技术,在网络环境下进行课堂教学已经成为大势所趋,这样才能使我们的教育跟山社会发展的步伐,也就是通常我们所说的"加快教育信息化的步伐"。在这里,我就信息技术与其它学科的整合,谈几点在平时教学过程中总结下来的几点经验和思索,请各位提出宝贵的意见。