ILO/IEA Ergonomic checkpoints : evaluering van inhoud en gebruik in 'n opleidingsprogram

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The question arose with the publication of the ILO/IEA Ergonomic Checkpoints if themanual is going to be of positive use to rectify the poor usage of ergonomics in thepast and to achieve the objectives that were set by the authors of the manual. Theirwas concern that the manual might be purchased by a person not familiar withergonomics at all, which could result in ineffective use. The result could be thatergonomics could be seen as a field of study of little use to the business world.This study concentrates on the evaluation of Ergonomic Checkpoints as it is used inan industrially developing country such as South Africa. The primary objective of thestudy is to find to what extent Ergonomic Checkpoints is suitable to be used as amanual for use in a training program. Various factors were taken in account thatcould possible have an effect on the implementation of Ergonomic Checkpoints in atraining program. The last objective of the study was to determine the usefulness andfrequency of use of the manual. A questionnaire was developed to measure thesefactors. Various seminars on Ergonomic Checkpoints were presented in South Africa during1996. The participants of this study all attended these seminars. Due to the timelapse between the last seminar and the commencing of this study, only 80% of theparticipants could be traced.The evaluation of the training program on Ergonomic Checkpoints were done basedon the evaluation method of Kirkpatrick. This model of evaluation is done on fourlevels: the reaction level, learning level, behaviour level and result level. Thisevaluation was done mainly on the reaction level and to a lesser extent in thebehavior and result levels. The reason for this is that no prior testing could be donedue to the fact that there was no seminars conducted during the period of this study.Suggestions are however made as to how a full study in this regard can be carriedout.The most important results of the study can be summarized as follows:• There are some shortcomings in the subject matter of Ergonomic Checkpoints.• Ergonomic Checkpoints can be used in a training program but will be moresuccessful if it is tied to a systematic model to give structure to the trainingeffort.• The manual is reasonably free of external factors, ego readability, that couldinfluence the outcome of the training.• The frequency of use is not as high as expected, although the users indicatedthat the manual is a useful source of information on ergonomics. Suggestions are presented on how to increase the use of Ergonomic Checkpointscan be in a positive manner. Ergonomic Checkpoints is a good start to prove theworth of the implementation of ergonomic principles to possible users in industrialdeveloping countries.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University