Doctoral Dissertations

Author

David Nutakor

Abstract

"The need for development of better training techniques for underground rock bolters is signified by the fact that a large number of experienced miners (Baby Boomers) will be retiring soon. This means that there will be very little interface time between the new miners and the experienced miners, which could have been used for training the new inexperienced miners. A new generation of workers (Nexters), who have grown up with computers and video games will replace the Baby Boomers, and the most efficient way to introduce them to the safety and health issues of the mining industry is to use a new form of training to take advantage of their technological skills. MinerSIM is an augmented virtual reality system with integrated hypermedia that is suitable for training underground miners in the basics of using a jackleg drill to install rockbolts. The first part of MinerSIM, which is a Web tutorial on underground rockbolting consisting of text material, three dimensional images, animations, and videos was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Usability experiments performed underscore the need to evaluate a new product to ensure that it meets the requirements of users. Statistical results from comparative experiment to investigate the effectiveness of computer based training versus the standard or traditional method indicate that a task must be sufficiently complex in order to render a traditional paper based method less effective than a computer based method. Additionally, participants in the computer based group (n = 25) rated the task more positively than those in the paper based group (n = 25)"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Tien, Jerry C.
Apel, Derek

Committee Member(s)

Hall, Richard H.
Summers, David A.
Grayson, R. Larry

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Mining Engineering

Sponsor(s)

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2008

Pagination

xv, 235 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-234).

Rights

© 2008 David Nutakor, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Human-computer interaction -- Case studies
Mine roof bolting
Mining engineering -- Computer-assisted instruction
Rock bolts
Virtual reality

Thesis Number

T 9459

Print OCLC #

356064527

Electronic OCLC #

367676800

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