Article Text
Abstract
Background During the recent years there has been a clear increase of foreign non-Hebrew speaking workers in agriculture (mostly citizens of Thailand), with a different safety culture. This situation created the immediate need to teach large groups of workers the safety rules at work. Most employers object to send their employees for outdoor safety training.
Purpose To create a mobile training unit (MTU) with a tutorial in workers' languages, based on an interactive teaching aid.
Methods The MTU comprises multimedia computers with touch screens and sophisticated learning software in Hebrew, Arabic and Thai languages. The software includes the presentation of different safety problems from the agriculture world and imitates a computer game. The participant's answer to questions is followed by detailed explanations. The Learning Management System allows characterising different student's profiles according to the environment in which the session is taking place.
Three workers can practice at the same time.
Outcome The mobility and self-sufficiency of the training unit enable training workers on any agricultural work site. The software allows user friendly training in participant's languages and adjusting the training material to the needs of any specific workplace.
Significance We created a tool for training agricultural workers with minimum loss of work time and provided free of charge (with government funding).