Occupational health and safety (OHS) issues might be considered one of the main considerations among European countries as many employees encounter dangerous workplace conditions during work. Therefore, decision makers in these countries have initiated related projects to reduce the number of occupational accidents. Turkey is one of those countries that training activities have become mandatory due to a current OHS legislation amendment.

In every workplace there are some OHS risks. It is well known that taking required precautions prior to occupational accidents is much more efficient and effective than doing it subsequently. In fact, only 2 percent of these OHS risks are unpreventable, whereas the remaining risks can be prevented easily (Kilkis & Demir, 2012). In Turkey, every year approximately 77.000 occupational accidents occur. More than 1000 employees lose their lives, while more than 5.000 employees become permanently disabled due to these occupational accidents (Korkmaz & Avsalli, 2012).

In the institution, where this study was conducted, approximately 30.000 employees work. OHS training in the institution consists of theoretical and practical parts. In the practical part, when the necessity of gathering thousands of employees in various training centers and duration of those trainings are considered, it is obvious that OHS training activities would cost much and could cause administrative problems for the institution. Hence, the institution has decided to deliver theoretical part of the OHS training online in order to cope with this issue.

Purpose:

In this study, an online learning module on OHS, which had been previously developed by one of the biggest public institutions in Turkey, was improved. As the process of implementing improved learning materials takes much time, only preliminary findings were shared. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to share the results of the impact of previous learning materials and staff’s thoughts about them; and secondly, to discuss features of new learning materials and process of improving them.

Theoretical Framework:

As the theoretical framework, Ricketts’s (2015) nine suggestions pertaining how to write safety stories were chosen so as to help designers write digital stories related to OHS. Besides, Cinar’s (2012) experience-based e-course design model was used to facilitate the process of improving the learning materials.

Cinar, M. (2012). Web-tabanlı derslere yönelik tasarım sürecinin incelenmesi: Biçimlendirici araştırma örneği [Examination of design process for web-based courses: A formative research] (Unpublished master’s thesis). Hacettepe University, Ankara. Kilkis, İ., & Demir, S. (2012). İşverenin İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Eğitimi verme yükümlülüğü üzerine bir inceleme [A review at the obligation of the employer to provide training related to occupational health and safety]. Journal of Labour Relations, 3(1), 23-47. Korkmaz, A.,& Avsalli, H. (2012). Çalışma hayatında yeni bir dönem: 6331 sayılı iş sağlığı ve güvenliği yasası [A new stage in work life: Work Health and Safety law no. 6331 ]. SDU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, 26,153-167. Reigeluth, C., & Frick, T. (1999). Formative research: A methodology for creating and improving design theories. In C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models Vol. 2. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence-Erlbaum Associates. Ricketts, M. (2015). Using stories to teach safety: Practical, research-based tips. Safety Training, 51-57.