Improving construction apprentices’ health and safety through supportive communication: a digital role-play game

Research shows that supportive communication in the workplace is critical to construction apprentices’ physical and psychological health and safety. This paper describes the process of developing a digital role-play game (RPG) to improve the communication between construction apprentices and their supervisors and co-workers. A participatory design approach was used for developing the RPG. Interviews were first conducted with apprentices and supervisors to explore characteristics of effective and supportive workplace communication, which then became the focus of the RPG’s learning objectives. Three scenarios were developed for the RPG. A unique series of situations were designed, and specific characters were created for each scenario. When playing the game, players would be asked to decide how the characters should respond to an unfolding situation. An advisory committee, comprising apprentices and supervisors, was regularly consulted to seek input for refining the scenarios during the design process. Scripts were developed for the scenarios, which were subsequently filmed and digitalised with motion capture technology. Example situations from one of the three scenarios are introduced in this paper to illustrate the process of developing the digital RPG. The effectiveness of the digital RPG in improving workplace communication is being evaluated using a before-and-after study design among construction apprentices.