Good practices in food handling: online training during COVID-19 pandemic period

Good Practices in Food Manipulation are procedures applied in food services to guarantee the consumer the quality and safety of food following current health legislation. Good practices are essential to reduce the risk of contamination from Foodborne Diseases (FDAs) and, therefore, the training of food handlers must be an ongoing process. Considering the current context resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, alternatives in the offer model for training these professionals should be proposed so that the process is not interrupted. The "Good Manufacturing Practices in Food Handling" course, offered annually by the IFPR - Campus Colombo since 2015, was remodeled to remotely guide food handlers about good hygiene practices and procedures in the workplace. The training was carried out through a free platform and made available on a Youtube channel. The meetings took place weekly for five weeks, totaling a workload of twenty hours. Each meeting lasted three hours, plus one hour for asynchronous activities. Forty students completed the course and thirty-two answered the satisfaction questionnaire. All responded that they would use the knowledge obtained from the course in their professional routine, indicating that, with training, it is possible to improve to ensure the production of food with more quality, safety and with less risk of contamination for consumers.

Real-time COVID-19 Education to Reduce Workplace Risks: Thematic Analysis of a COVID-19 Agricultural Employer Webinar Series.

OBJECTIVES: California's agricultural industry, an "essential industry" during the COVID-19 pandemic, required support to understand and implement changing public health knowledge and regulations in the workplace. The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) transitioned from traditional in-person trainings with agricultural stakeholders to remote engagement, such as webinars. We aimed to assess the use of real-time webinar trainings and identify agricultural employer concerns about reducing the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace. METHODS: We conducted a thematic analysis of webinar chat from WCAHS' "Reduce the Risk of COVID-19 in Your Workplace" monthly webinar series held from December 2020-May 2021. De-identified chat transcripts were analyzed using a deductive approach to assess participant concerns as they related to prevention and response actions, employer responsibilities, and evolving public health knowledge. Codes were identified by an iterative process using semantic interpretation and summarized into four major themes. RESULTS: Our analysis reveals participants' concerns relating to (1) prevention of COVID-19 in the workplace, (2) response to COVID-19 in the workplace, (3) employer concerns, and (4) evolving, real-time knowledge. Participants shared multiple, overlapping concerns. Many also asked for information tailored to specific scenarios in their workplace. CONCLUSION: Providing industry-specific guidance and examples in an accessible means is critical for supporting agricultural employers and their highly vulnerable workers. Virtual trainings will likely continue to be an effective means of outreach with the agricultural industry. Future outreach and education efforts should consider virtual engagement and opportunities to document experiences amid changing work environments, social cultures, and learning activities.

Can a chatbot enhance hazard awareness in the construction industry?

Safety training enhances hazard awareness in the construction industry. Its effectiveness is a component of occupational safety and health. While face-to-face safety training has dominated in the past, the frequent lockdowns during COVID-19 have led us to rethink new solutions. A chatbot is messaging software that allows people to interact, obtain answers, and handle sales and inquiries through a computer algorithm. While chatbots have been used for language education, no study has investigated their usefulness for hazard awareness enhancement after chatbot training. In this regard, we developed four Telegram chatbots for construction safety training and designed the experiment as the treatment factor. Previous researchers utilized eye-tracking in the laboratory for construction safety research; most have adopted it for qualitative analyses such as heat maps or gaze plots to study visual paths or search strategies via eye-trackers, which only studied the impact of one factor. Our research has utilized an artificial intelligence-based eye-tracking tool. As hazard awareness can be affected by several factors, we filled this research void using 2-way interaction terms using the design of experiment (DOE) model. We designed an eye-tracking experiment to study the impact of site experience, Telegram chatbot safety training, and task complexity on hazard awareness, which is the first of its kind. The results showed that Telegram chatbot training enhanced the hazard awareness of participants with less onsite experience and in less complex scenarios. Low-cost chatbot safety training could improve site workers' danger awareness, but the design needs to be adjusted according to participants' experience. Our results offer insights to construction safety managers in safety knowledge sharing and safety training.

Psychological first aid training during COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluation of the training effects of conducting virtual psychological first aid training in Malaysia

Background: COVID 19 hit Malaysia on January 25, 2020, and Malaysian citizen were impacted by the disease and movement control order. Mercy Malaysia aimed to empower local community and NGOs to provide psychological first aid (PFA) to support individuals who are affected by the pandemic. Aims and Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the training effects of virtual PFA program in increasing knowledge, attitude, and skills of participants in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: One group pretest–posttest was used to assess 102 participants from seven virtual PFA training for adult practitioners and 42 participants from three virtual PFA training for child practitioners were conducted. Results: The main findings showed that 2 day virtual PFA training for both adult and child practitioners has significantly increase PFA knowledge and confident level and perceived skills in conducting PFA, with large effect size ranged from 0.65 to 0.81. Conclusion: Our study provides preliminary evidence supporting the impact of virtual PFA training program for mental health professionals to respond to pandemic, disaster, and humanitarian crisis in Malaysia.

The Double-Edged Sword of Safety Training for Safety Behavior: The Critical Role of Psychological Factors during COVID-19.

Safety training (ST) is the primary means of avoiding unsafe behaviors, but it has not achieved the expected impact on improving workplace safety because of the high psychological stress it brings to workers. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) further threatens workers' psychological conditions, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of ST. However, the existing literature has mainly laid emphasis on the bright side of ST and neglected examining its impact on safety behavior (SB) from detrimental psychological factors. Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, a novel two-staged model was established to understand how these psychological factors mediate and moderate the association between ST and SB. We incorporated resource consumption (e.g., role overload (RO) and COVID-19-related task setbacks) and resource generation (e.g., psychological resilience) into the model to consider both detrimental and protective psychological factors against ST. We then implemented a time-separated, three-wave data collection on a sample of frontline workers to validate this hypothetical model. Consistent with our hypothesis, RO played a significant mediating role between ST and SB, that is, ST leads to RO, and in turn, holds up SB. Surprisingly, contrary to our hypothesis, COVID-19-related task setbacks weakened the negative and indirect impact of ST on SB via RO. This is one of the first empirical studies to highlight how detrimental psychological factors caused by ST constrict or amplify SB. In practice, the efficacy of ST can be enhanced by cultivating psychological resilience and clarifying employees' job responsibilities to reduce the ambiguity of roles.

User Movement for Safety Training in a Virtual Chemistry Lab

Virtual Reality (VR) has become a large area of focus especially after the effects of COVID-19. During the lockdown students had to partake in different methods of learning outside of the traditional face-to-face classroom setting. In this paper, we focus on the type of locomotion that students would utilize when traversing in a virtual environment. We studied the effectiveness of two types of movement the first being Embodied Movement, or movement through the Head Mounted Display (HMD) device such as the Oculus Quest, or the HTC VIVE, and the second form of movement being Joystick Movement through the use of a thumb stick on an attached controller. To test these movements, we implemented a scenario in a virtual chemistry lab, where the user’s vision is impaired, and they would need to navigate throughout the scene to reach a safety shower that once activated would restore their vision. Our results show that using the joystick controller was more suitable for this type of experiment in terms of user preference and the speed of which the user completed the task. Our results also show that for some subjects when partaking in the study, mild cyber-sickness was prevalent and further investigation is needed on how to mitigate its effects. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Guest editorial: Enabling the development and implementation of digital twins

[...]they proposed a framework focusing on facilitating the information exchange and interoperability for existing buildings. [...]semantic Web technologies and standards, such as Web Ontology Language and existing AEC domain ontologies, were used to enhance and improve the proposed framework. [...]four levels of awareness were developed based on Endsley’s situation awareness model. Furthermore, they addressed the lack of an organised digital content asset dedicated to producing VR site scenarios that emerged as one of the most limiting factors for implementing BIM and VR for construction workers’ safety training. [...]a dedicated site object library was proposed to improve this critically time-consuming process.

The Road Safety Education Program for Adolescents Using Social Media, Proving Increasing Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes, Intentions and Behavior

Deaths due to road traffic accidents (RTA) accounted for 2.46% of deaths out of the total deaths in Indonesia. Road safety education (RSE), as an effort to prevent RTA, focuses on increasing knowledge;however, variations of techniques, methods, and media are less used. This study aims to analyze the application of RSE innovations that have been compiled based on interests and needs of adolescents, which are expected to be able to increase knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and safe driving behavior. This research used a quasi-experimental approach with a non-randomized pre-test–post-test control group design approach. The Zainafree Program intervention model was conducted for 6 weeks on 362 students who were selected using purposive sampling technique at two schools with the same characteristics. The bivariate analysis was conducted to observe the effect of the model on changes in knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior. We analyzed multivariately using GLM-RMA to determine the effectiveness of the model from various confounding factors. The Mann–Whitney test in the intervention and control group demonstrated a significant difference in the average post-test score of two on all dependent variables (p = 0.000). The results of the GLM-RMA test demonstrated the effect of the Zainafree Program on knowledge (p = 0.000;ETA Square = 35.1), beliefs (p = 0.000;ETA Square = 32.0), attitudes (p = 0.000;ETA Square = 50.9), intentions (p = 0.000, ETA Square = 20.7), and behavior (p = 0.000;ETA Square = 28.2), after adjusting for involvement between confounding variables (p = 0.000;ETA Square = 16.2), which demonstrated that the intervention was able to explain 16.2 changes that occur in the scores of five aspects together. The RSE program was proven to be successful in increasing students’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior compared to those who did not receive the program.

Incorporating Virtual Reality in Construction Management Education

Education in the United States (US) has come a long way over the past few decades. Now, learning institutions are combining traditional educational tools with newer technology such as virtual reality (VR) as well as augmented learning spaces. In light of the recent COVID-19 global pandemic, internet-assisted virtual classrooms are often preferred over traditional teaching - this reduces in-person contact while delivering lessons on time in a safe space. The construction industry has adopted virtual reality (VR) in safety training, design, and field management, and to coordinate installations as it helps in visualizing decisions. Despite the benefits, it has found limited application in construction management (CM) education. This study introduces CM undergraduates to a virtual jobsite and investigates the efficacy of VR as a knowledge transfer pedagogy. Using data and construction documents from an ongoing project, we deploy state of the art technology to convert them into a virtual space using TwinMotion, which in turn is viewed by students with the help of Oculus Rift headsets in a controlled environment. This research propels the learner into an immersive environment to learn about building systems through VR instead of using two-dimensional construction drawings. The subjects' understanding of the materials is gauged using an online pre- post quiz. With a design-based research approach, we assess the impact of VR tools on construction student knowledge, how students respond to this hybrid model of instruction, and whether it holds any value compared to other traditional methods of instruction. Incorporating such educational tools and practices can increase the prevalence of more focused educational knowledge transfer while protecting the students' health by reducing personal contact at the same time. We plan to further investigate VR across several course iterations and are optimistic that these immersive tools will help to better train young construction professionals before they join the industry. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Employers and H&S Services in Relation to the COVID-19 System in Polish Manufacturing Companies.

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies had to adapt quickly to survive in the market. During this time, employers played a key role, along with employees involved in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) activities, as they were responsible for implementing the recommendations of the European Commission. There is no unambiguous definition of OHS in Polish legislation. It is assumed that it is a set of rules defining the manner of performing work, and above all, a method of providing employees with working conditions so that their performance is safe and hygienic. Responsibility for the health and safety in the workplace is imposed on the employer by the legislature. Thus, effective health and safety training is an essential element of the success of any properly operating company. In the literature, no studies have been identified that evaluate the effectiveness of actions during the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of the article is to present the actions of Polish employers along with their effectiveness assessment related to the protection of employees during the COVID-19 outbreak. The article presents a proposal for conducting remote OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) training using the platform Moodle. The created course was implemented during OHS training conducted in a selected manufacturing company. At its end, an evaluation of the course was carried out, and the collected opinions of training participants allowed the formulation of interesting conclusions, which became the contribution of this paper. The authors pay special attention to three main points of the work. The first is the form of training, which gives the possibility to conduct training at a distance while maintaining its effectiveness. The second important point is the mandatory feedback of the trainees, ensuring the possibility of continuous improvement and quality enhancement of both the program and the form of training. The evaluation was developed on the basis of the extended Kirkpatrick model, which is a completely new approach to OHS training evaluation. The third point emphasized by the authors is the possibility of precise adaptation of the training to other plants and even industries. Therefore, it can be concluded that the course developed by the authors is a very interesting and practical didactic tool with great implementation potential.

A Body Tracking-Based Low-Cost Solution for Monitoring Workers' Hygiene Best Practices during Pandemics.

Since its beginning at the end of 2019, the pandemic spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) caused more than one million deaths in only nine months. The threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases exists as an imminent threat to human health. It is essential to implement adequate hygiene best practices to break the contagion chain and enhance society preparedness for such critical scenarios and understand the relevance of each disease transmission route. As the unconscious hand-face contact gesture constitutes a potential pathway of contagion, in this paper, the authors present a prototype system based on low-cost depth sensors able to monitor in real-time the attitude towards such a habit. The system records people's behavior to enhance their awareness by providing real-time warnings, providing for statistical reports for designing proper hygiene solutions, and better understanding the role of such route of contagion. A preliminary validation study measured an overall accuracy of 91%. A Cohen's Kappa equal to 0.876 supports rejecting the hypothesis that such accuracy is accidental. Low-cost body tracking technologies can effectively support monitoring compliance with hygiene best practices and training people in real-time. By collecting data and analyzing them with respect to people categories and contagion statistics, it could be possible to understand the importance of this contagion pathway and identify for which people category such a behavioral attitude constitutes a significant risk.

Workplace health and safety training, employees' risk perceptions, behavioral safety compliance, and perceived job insecurity during COVID-19: Data of Vietnam.

This paper presents the dataset of a survey on workplace health and safety training, employees' risk perceptions, behavioral safety compliance, and perceived job insecurity in Vietnam during COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected through an online questionnaire completed by Vietnamese full-time employees between April and June 2020. Using E-mail, LinkedIn, and Facebook, the online questionnaire was sent to respondents who filled it out voluntarily. A two-wave survey was conducted in order to lessen the common method bias. Totally, we received complete matched data for 732 full-time employees. All data were processed through SPSS 22.0, AMOS 23.0 and Smart PLS 3.0. Besides descriptive statistics, the results of the explanatory factor analysis and the confirmation factor analysis were included in this paper, which may serve as a good reference for future studies.