COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCTION AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL FOR SAFETY TRAINING OF MINE WORKERS

Abstract

The most recent federal mandate in mine health and safety was the Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendments Act of 1977, Public Law 95–164, which amended Public Law 91–173. The impact of the 1977 Act is not specifically in the areas of regulating and enforcing health and safety standards, but rather in mandatory health and safety training. The current research explores the effectiveness of computer-based instruction as an instructional tool and medium, and evaluates the situations in which it can be integrated into mining industry training programs to enhance their effectiveness. As an example, this study addresses certain aspects of annual refresher training to judge the suitability and acceptability of computer-based instruction as a training-and-diagnostic tool for the safety training of mine workers. The program design and development phases, along with implementation experience at two underground coal mines, will be discussed; cost-effectiveness of such a computer-based training aid will be examined. Overall, the computer-based approach of this study is important and relevant to miner training programs and can be successfully integrated into mine safety training programs to enhance the effectiveness of such endeavors.