Resources - eLearning on Ergonomics

eLearning, the concept of providing educational services online, is one of the ‘hot topics’ within the European Union. This is reflected by the fact that the European Commission set up an eLearning initiative. It seeks to mobilise the educational and cultural communities, as well as the economic and social players in Europe, in order to speed up changes in the education and training systems for Europe's move to a knowledge-based society.

In addition, eLearning provides many opportunities to promote ergonomics as a discipline. As it touches virtually every aspect of human life, information about its goals, topics, and results is relevant for a wide audience. To deliver corresponding services, the internet is the ideal medium, due to its ubiquitous character. The purpose of the following presentation is to provide an overview of related services currently available.

Free eLearning Resources on the Web

Focussing on services provided in English, here are examples of introductory resources or those designed for a wider audience, including non-specialists:

• Ergonomics4schools: the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain has established this site to encourage learning about ergonomics among secondary school students and their teachers.
• Ergonomics eTools: provided by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor, covering, e.g., computer workstations and loads handling.
• Introduction to Ergonomics: an online course provided by the Department of Human Work Science at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
• Health and safety for display screen users and manual handling: by the Learning Resources Portal for Higher Education, Great Britain.
• Environmental Health and Safety - Safety Training Modules: by Oklahoma State University Environmental Health and Safety Department, U.S.A.
• Workplace Ergonomics: by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), includes information about the design of computer workstations, laboratory workplaces, and industrial ergonomics in general.
• ErgoScenes: developed at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Germany, this application allows to practice the evaluation of work systems, on the basis of interactive 3D-models of computer workstations and utility vehicles.
• Computer Ergonomics: by the Department of Environmental Health and Safety of Stanford University, U.S.A., providing keys to safe computer use guidelines, self-evaluation, and ergonomic accessories.
• Workplace health promotion: a self-assessment questionnaire: by the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP).
• Ergonomics Web: by Cornell University, U.S.A, especially on computer workstations; consult their links page for more resources.

As can be seen from this list, a number of mainly governmental organisations, universities, and research institutes got involved in providing corresponding eLearning services. The spectrum of topics is dominated by occupational safety and health – as the core competency of ergonomics.

Ergonomics on eLearning Portals

International Portals

On an international level, especially the portals initiated by the European Union and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are of importance.

An essential tool to promote the European Commissions’ eLearning initiative is elearningeuropa.info. This portal integrates related information, to enhance co-operation and exchange among all players in the field. It offers various services and resources, including

• European Commission programmes and initiatives
• Institutions, agencies, services, and networks in Europe
• Project funding opportunities
• National policies, strategies, and initiatives
• Databases on existing online universities and other learning resources

As eLearning has a tremendous potential to provide additional learning opportunities, the UNESCO established a Portal on Education & Information and Communication Technologies. Since its creation in 1945, the UNESCO has worked to improve education worldwide through technical advice, standard setting, innovative projects, capacity-building, and networking. Its mission is to promote education as a fundamental right, improve the quality of education, and to stimulate experimentation, innovation, and policy dialogue.

While these international portals provide many references to specialised resources and websites, only a few are related to eLearning services in the fields of ergonomics or occupational safety and health. Better results can be obtained by consulting the national portals described below.

National Portals

On a national level, one example of such an eLearning portal is medien-bildung.net, presenting the results of the funding programme ‘New Media in Education’ of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany. On such portals, several of the applications mentioned above can be found. That is, they actually can be used as a ‘launch pad’ to get an overview of the eLearning opportunities in the field of ergonomics.

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Page created 2005 by Dietmar Gude - last revision 12.05.2010 by Dietmar Gude