Green Construction CoP: Using Immersive Stories/Case Studies to Address Silica E

描述(由申请者提供)：这个SBIR项目，绿色建筑实践社区：使用身临其境的故事/案例研究来解决绿色建筑中的二氧化硅暴露问题(绿色建筑COP)，旨在设计和开发一种创新的高级培训技术(ATT)，以满足对可访问和最新的最佳实践信息的需求，以减少绿色建筑和传统建筑项目中的有害材料暴露。SBIR项目的第一阶段将侧重于培训，以减少运营工程师暴露在可吸入二氧化硅粉尘中，这是绿色和传统建筑项目中最普遍和最有害的暴露之一。暴露发生在各种各样的施工任务中，从砖石和混凝土研磨/拆除到橱柜施工。接触不安全水平的二氧化硅与患矽肺(Ng和Chan，1992)、肺癌(Heckoway，等，2005)和类风湿性关节炎(Stolt，Kallberg，Lundberg，Sjogren，Klareskog和Alfredsson，2005)的风险增加有关。鉴于健康风险的严重性以及大量暴露在风险中的人，显然有必要进行有效的培训。此外，随着大量公共资金投入创造“绿色”工作岗位--估计每4个工作岗位中就有一个是建筑工作岗位(哥伦比亚特区，2009年)--这一需求变得更加紧迫。考虑到这些问题，我们建议开发绿色建筑COP，这是一个由三个主要组件组成的网络平台：1)绿色建设情景，这是一个ATT学习解决方案，利用基于情景的学习方法、嵌入的资源、媒体和学习活动；2)绿色技术专家Wiki，这是绿色建设情景中的一个公开可访问和嵌入的资源，将包含关于减少风险策略的审查和更新信息，并为授权用户提供一个社区论坛，以提供个人案例研究；以及3)教师指南，将帮助危险物质和健康与安全培训人员有效和高效地将绿色建筑COP整合到现有的培训中。通过使用用户参与式设计、半结构化访谈、焦点小组、可用性测试、在线调查和学习收益/态度变化分析，这一阶段的工作将审查与绿色施工COP的技术和实施可行性相关的问题，包括：1)关于绿色施工安全和硅基建筑材料以及减少暴露对运营工程师来说最关键的内容是什么？2)需要哪些特性和功能来支持轻松获取和检索信息？以及，3)混合和情景驱动的学习方法的使用是否对学习者的知识、技能、与培训前的知识和态度(KSA)进行比较？ 与公共健康相关：通过设计和开发绿色建筑实践社区-一个创新的、基于背景和社区的培训计划，提供关于绿色和传统建筑的意识水平的健康和安全培训以及信息-整个SBIR项目将提高建筑工人的安全工作实践知识，减少个人接触危险材料，从而改善工人的健康和安全。第一阶段的内容将侧重于控制和减少接触结晶二氧化硅粉尘，这是绿色和传统建筑项目中发现的一种常见危险材料，第二阶段将扩大涉及的危险材料的数量，并探索使用移动设备作为额外的传播媒介。我们还将制定讲师指南，允许危险物质培训师/讲师轻松地将此培训解决方案整合到现有课程中，以满足学员的特定需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This SBIR project, Green Construction Community of Practice: Using Immersive Stories/Case Studies to Address Silica Exposure in Green Construction (Green Construction CoP), seeks to design and develop an innovative advanced training technology (ATT) to address the need for accessible and up-to-date best practice information to reduce exposure to hazardous materials in green as well as in traditional building projects. Phase I of this SBIR project will focus on training to reduce operating engineers' exposure to respirable silica dust, one of the most prevalent and harmful exposures in both green and traditional construction projects. Exposure occurs through a wide variety of construction tasks, from masonry and concrete grinding/demolition to cabinet construction. Exposure to unsafe levels of silica has been linked increased risk of silicosis of the lungs (Ng and Chan,1992),lung cancer (Heckoway, et al, 2005) and rheumatoid arthritis (Stolt, Kallberg, Lundberg, Sjogren, Klareskog, & Alfredsson, 2005). Given the seriousness of the health risks as well as the large numbers of persons exposed to the risks, the need for effective training is clear. Moreover, with the infusion of significant public funds into the creation of "green" jobs-with 1 of 4 estimated to be a construction job (District of Columbia, 2009)-the need becomes even more pressing. With these concerns in mind, we propose to develop the Green Construction CoP, a Web-based platform comprised of three main components: 1) Green Construction Scenario, an ATT learning solution that leverages context-based learning methods, embedded resources, media, and learning activities; 2) Green Technology Expert Wiki, a publicly accessible and embedded resource within the Green Construction Scenario, which will house vetted and updated information on risk exposure-reduction strategies and provide a community forum for authorized users to contribute personal case studies; and 3) Instructor Guidelines, which will assist HAZMAT and health and safety trainers in effectively and efficiently integrating Green Construction CoP into existing training. Through the use of user participatory design, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, usability testing, online surveys, and learning gains/attitudinal change analysis, this Phase I effort will examine questions related to the technical and implementation feasibility of Green Construction CoP, including: 1) What content on green construction safety and silica-based building materials and exposure reduction is the most critical for operating engineers?, 2) What features and functionalities are needed to support easy access and retrieval of information?, and, 3) Does the use of a blended and context-driven learning approach produce a net positive increase in learner knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) as compared with KSAs before the training course? PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: By designing and developing Green Construction Community of Practice-an innovative, context- and community-based training program that provides awareness-level health and safety training and information in green and traditional construction-this overall SBIR project will improve construction worker knowledge of safe work practices and reduce personal exposure to hazardous materials, thus improving worker health and safety. Phase I content will focus on containing and reducing exposure to crystalline silica dust, a common hazardous material found in both green and traditional building projects, and Phase II will broaden the number of hazardous materials addressed as well as explore use of a mobile device as an additional vehicle for dissemination. We will also develop instructor guidelines to allow HAZMAT trainers/instructors to easily integrate this training solution into existing courses in order to meet their learners' specific needs.