How to choose online display screen equipment (DSE) risk assessment and training

Richard Phelps guides safety and health practitioners through the main factors to bear in mind when weighing up which online display screen equipment (DSE) risk assessment and training system to choose.

Delivering display screen equipment (DSE) training and risk assessments online has become more and more common over the last few years. This is not surprising, given the organisational complexities of training huge numbers of staff, dispersed over many sites, followed by the bureaucratic nightmare of the documentation, collation and analysis of paper-based risk assessments.

Consider also that this process must be repeated regularly in order to comply with legislation, and it is easy to see why so many organisations make use of technology to help them deliver and manage DSE training and risk assessment roll-outs.

But how different are these systems from one another, and what factors should a health and safety department consider before choosing one for its own particular organisation? Surely they must all be very similar, given that they basically carry out the same exercise and achieve the same goal of compliance with the DSE Regulations?

Well, no actually. Systems are made up of three different components: a Web-based training course, an online risk assessment, and a reporting system that tracks, records and manages the data that end-users generate. They can vary enormously in terms of IT construction, ease of use, compatibility, price, and functionality.

Delivery options

Delivery via an organisation’s intranet is possible, but most organisations tend to opt for a hosted service. Adopting such an approach means that no installation or maintenance is required on site, with the software sitting on a remote server and accessed via the Internet. This also eliminates the need for any internal IT support. However, there are potential issues of data security, as it will be necessary to entrust a third party to store and retain information. A reputable provider will be able to supply you with details relating to the management and protection of this data, and offer a non-disclosure agreement to restrict access to it if required.

Licensing models

Given that there is no tangible product distributed to, owned, or maintained by the customer, there has been a shift away from perpetual pricing models towards annual rental and pay-per-use options. They all have their individual characteristics, and an assessment of your anticipated usage will point in favour of one over another.

Annual subscription pricing models require far less commitment from the customer and a lower cost up front. After all, the contract can be terminated at the end of year one should the product and service prove unsatisfactory. It can be argued that providers who offer this type of contract have absolute confidence in their product, as they are prepared to subject themselves to annual scrutiny from their customers, who, in turn, receive good service given the nature of the terms of this type of agreement.

Flexible training credits take this relationship one stage further. Credits can be purchased from suppliers in batches, and the unit costs are based on volume bought at any one time. Credits are redeemed each time a user either accesses or completes a training course, or a risk assessment. As a supplier will only get paid if credits are actually being used, this acts as the ultimate incentive for it to act as a partner in a mutually beneficial business relationship, rather than simply as a software provider.

Credits are suitable for organisations that are unsure of their exact usage requirements, whose requirements vary from year to year, and who are considering rolling out more than just DSE training and assessments. It is extremely unlikely you would train and assess the same number of staff in DSE annually, so credits are a good way to access any course or risk assessment in a supplier’s portfolio.

Course content

Training courses can be HTML, or Flash-based. In the past, the drawback to using Flash was that not all browsers supported it as standard, but this was rectified several years ago with the release of Internet Explorer 5. These days, making use of Flash-based e-learning is often simply a case of getting the IT department to ‘switch it on’.

It is, of course, important to consider providers that endeavour to keep their course content fresh and relevant to today’s modern working environments. In recent years, for example, there has been an explosion in the use of mobile devices, such as Blackberries, which present the safety and health professional with new challenges and conditions to manage and resolve. Is this covered as standard? If not, can it be added quickly and easily?

Studies indicate that users of e-learning struggle to complete courses longer than 40 minutes in one sitting. Consider a package that covers all the basic information required by the user in a timeframe that won’t cause them to lose interest. Many courses contain a ‘bookmark’ feature, which allows them to be consumed in small bite-sized chunks.

Environments, methodologies and procedures all vary from organisation to organisation, so courseware may need to be adapted to reflect this. Some providers will own and charge for this work, whereas others create bespoke screens within the course that a customer can amend and update themselves, slotting in links to relevant in-house policies, contact details of key safethy and health staff, etc.

Course library

While DSE is usually the most pressing area of concern for an office-based organisation, it is prudent to review a training provider’s entire course library.

Firstly, to ensure a good take-up rate for DSE training, it would be beneficial in the first instance to train line managers in their basic health and safety responsibilities to ensure their cooperation with the wider and more complicated online DSE roll-out? After all, if line managers do not have a good grasp of issues relating to DSE, how can you expect them to help drive training take-up rates in their own teams, release DSE assessors to carry out follow-up desk visits, etc.

Secondly, if your initial project proves successful, your organisation may consider offering more health and safety training subjects online. Some suppliers have developed course-authoring tools, allowing you to supplement their generic portfolio by creating your own e-learning modules and tests from scratch, or by converting existing presentations and videos into e-learning content, which can be tracked.

Risk assessment

The delivery and management of the online DSE risk assessment is the most important part of the process. A substandard or overly complicated risk assessment could potentially wipe out any time and efficiency savings expected by implementing one of these systems.

To ensure that an individual possesses the knowledge to complete the risk assessment accurately, any software package should deny access to the online questionnaire until the training course has been completed and passed. The risk assessments are essentially multiple choice, but can contain ‘free text’ responses, which invite a user to type a short comment. Depending on the answer selected, the software will attribute a low, medium, or high risk rating. At the end of the process, a list of concerns or issues is generated, which the software has graded and prioritised based on the severity of risk.

Standard question sets are based on the HSE’s own recommended DSE risk assessment. It is usually possible to change the questions and associated risk ratings.

Again, some suppliers may charge for this work, ‘hard coding’ changes into their standard assessments. Questions may prove redundant or become obsolete over time, and will need to be removed or updated. This makes any amendments to the risk assessment after roll-out a somewhat complicated affair.

Other risk assessments, however, are more dynamic, offering the customer the option to amend and update assessments themselves on an ongoing basis, at no extra cost, and with no implications for invalidating data captured from a previous question set. This sort of functionality allows the user to skip irrelevant sections of the questionnaire, while the customer can create risk assessments from scratch on any topic of concern to the organisation.

Functionality

A good online risk assessment will contain some form of user action facility, allowing individuals, firstly, to verify that the risk is genuine and correct any mistaken responses and, secondly, resolve, where appropriate, any concerns generated. After all, employees are not incapable of managing a degree of DSE risk themselves.

This functionality can be embedded in the risk assessment itself. Solutions ‘pop up’ during the assessment stage, whereas other systems may involve logging in again once the questionnaire has been completed to review and implement any suggested control measures. Choosing a product with good user action functionality, and implementing it properly, can save huge amounts of administration time, as it will filter a great deal of the risk without the need for further intervention.

This process will leave only a small number of outstanding DSE concerns and, hence, reduce the workload for DSE assessors. Any remaining risk is clearly indicated and graded, allowing an organisation to devote its physical assessment resources to where they are actually needed. Systems that do this effectively, in tandem with clever management-tool functionality, have the potential to save huge amounts of time and help allocate your human resources far more efficiently.

Management systems

At the heart of any roll-out is the reporting tool that records and manages the training and risk-assessment data that users generate. Learning Management System (LMS) is an e-learning term that describes a piece of software that tracks more conventional online courses (and even classroom courses in some instances) in areas such as management and IT training, for example. In the safety sector, similar systems have been developed and enhanced with the complexities of capturing DSE risk assessment data in mind.

Some will work only with training content from the supplier, while others are compatible with third-party content, and can be integrated with a traditional LMS for the purpose of recording all training records in one central repository, and keeping administration to a minimum. Two main standards govern compatibility in the e-learning industry – Scorm and AICC (see end of feature).

True Scorm integration with an organisation’s main LMS is extremely advantageous. If an online DSE programme is to run in isolation, you are introducing a new system that will require user population and ongoing management and data imports, duplicating work and processes undertaken to maintain the existing LMS. By integrating the two systems, only one set of employee data needs to be managed, and only one employee login is required.

This element of the software will often be the key aspect of any purchase. The time, efficiency and cost savings occur owing to the streamlining of DSE administration through eliminating the paper trail, and prioritising risk, which the back-end reporting tool brings. Costs, functionality and ease of use can vary enormously. Bear in mind the size of your office-based workforce, the culture of your business, and the physical resources available to you when considering the most appropriate management system for your organisation.

Over time, these systems have evolved and become more sophisticated. One of the first developments, for example, was the addition of an automated e-mail feature to improve the introductory and reminder process, and drive up completion rates. Some providers extended this e-mail alert facility to administrators, prompting them to action outstanding tasks related to concerns raised by the risk assessment. The latest versions may use Web 2.0 technology, which allows you to sort and recall information without waiting for pages to reload.

Moving to this type of system for DSE involves a cultural and technological shift, requiring careful management in order to make the project a success. Experienced system providers can supply advice and resource to make the transition as easy as possible. Guidance on ratios of DSE assessor to staff, and internal marketing and roll-out management, are all crucial.

The future

Online DSE programmes can raise coverage and take-up to an unprecedented level, with 90 per cent-plus completion rates common. The last few years have seen a move towards an outsource service, with software providers offering a more holistic approach. This can comprise outsourcing the entire maintenance and administration of the system, or even the risk resolutions and follow-ups.

A good online system has the potential to transform and enhance the way you deliver and manage DSE training and risk assessment, but consider the factors above and make sure you choose the most appropriate product for your business or organisation.

E-learning standards

SCORM

Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of standards and specifications for Web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client-side content and a host system called the run-time environment (commonly a function of a learning management system). SCORM also defines how content may be packaged into a transferable ZIP file.

SCORM is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, a public-private sector scheme sponsored by the Office of the United States’ Secretary of Defence.

AICC

The Aviation Industry Computer-based training (CBT) Committee (AICC) is an international association of technology-based training professionals. The AICC develops guidelines for the aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT, web-based training, and related technologies.

AICC specifications are usually designed to be general-purpose so that learning-technology vendors can spread their costs across multiple markets, and thus provide products needed by the aviation industry at a lower cost. This strategy has resulted in AICC specifications having broad acceptance and relevance to non-aviation users.