Using VR to Train Situation Awareness in Road Construction Operators: The Effect of Debriefing

Road construction operators need a strong sense of what is going on around them, a skill termed Situation Awareness (SA). With Virtual Reality technology, it becomes possible for students to train their SA before facing a real-life work situation. In this study we tested a recently developed VR training for the acquisition of SA in asphalting education to assess whether students show progress in their SA performance, and whether variation in learning gains was a function of debriefing. Participants were 55 students from vocational engineering education who took part in four VR sessions aimed at compaction. SA was tested using queries at the end of each session. Participants were distributed over three conditions: a group receiving feedback in a debriefing session with video playback, a group receiving a debriefing without video playback, and a group with no debriefing. Results showed that there was growth in Situation Awareness acuity during the training, which can be fully attributed to a sharp incline in scores between the first two sessions. There was no difference in gains between students taking part in various conditions, from which it can be concluded that debriefing did not propagate gains in performance. Recommendations for future research include an investigation of the roles of expertise and motivation, while practical recommendations include developing the VR to include more interactive elements.