Can Digital Games Be Adopted as a Learning Method to Engage Farmworkers in Training Sessions? Perspectives and Possible Applications

Safety training programs help to increase farmworkers’ knowledge on the risks and the correct operational behavior in the workplace. To be more effective, training interventions should be engaging and make trainees emotionally involved. A game-based training can achieve this objective. However, few studies used games as a safety training method in the agricultural context. The present study aimed to show what is available in the literature concerning safety game-based training in different industries and which elements can be used to proceed with the “Safety! Is a serious game” ongoing project, which intends to develop an engaging and usable safety training game addressing farmworkers. The literature review allowed to identify the available technologies, the most used game mechanics and the addressed topics, considering the relationships between the worker and the components of the working system as defined by the SHELL-model (Software-Hardware-Environment-Liveware). The results showed that previous interventions focused on eight macro-topics regarding the interaction with machinery/equipment, work procedures, environment and other workers, that can be encountered also during farmworking. Although different game mechanics exist, “points”, “levels”, “challenges” and “discovery” were preferred; whereas computer-game was detected as the most adopted, followed by virtual and augmented reality. Moreover, to be realistic and satisfying the game should recreate the decision making processes that operators encounter in hazardous situations. Proceeding with the project and adopting a participatory approach, the game mechanics, degrees of complexity and goals leading to greater players’ engagement, satisfaction and knowledge will be identified and evaluated with the users.