Using concept maps to assess learning of safety case studies – The Piper Alpha disaster

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Abstract

The Piper Alpha disaster of 1988 remains the worst offshore oil platform disaster in history. The loss of 167 lives was caused by a range of factors including human error, poor safety training and poor safety management systems. The events that led up to the first explosion and then the subsequent fires and larger explosions provide an excellent context in which to introduce first year engineering students to the importance of safety in an introductory course. The loss of the Piper Alpha platform has been used as a case study in a general first year engineering subject at the University of Melbourne for several years. This paper begins by describing the background of the platform, the events of July 6, 1988 and the lessons that may be learned from the disaster. The learning around this safety case study is assessed in the class room using concept maps. An analysis of 460 concept maps prepared by the class 15 weeks after the material had been presented to them provides an insight into how well the students integrated and retained the material from the case study. Students recalled well the causes of the disaster as well as the consequences and lessons that should be learned from the incident.

Highlights

► Piper Alpha offshore oil platform disaster used as a safety case study. ► Students were required to prepare concept maps using “Piper Alpha Disaster” as the domain. ► Analysis of 460 valid concept maps shows that after 15 weeks students still retained knowledge of the event.

Introduction

The teaching of safety is a critical part of any modern undergraduate engineering program. Today its inclusion in some way within the undergraduate program is a requirement for accreditation by many professional institutions around the world including ABET (2011) in the US, Engineers Australia (2008) and the Institution of Chemical Engineers (2012). The use of safety case studies that present students with real engineering incidents that have led to injury, death and/or property loss are an effective way to reinforce the importance of safety. Shallcross (2013) recently demonstrated how safety case studies may be used in the class room to deliver important information in an engaging and interactive manner.

If a lecture is devoted to going through the details of one particular incident as a case study how can the learning around that case study be assessed? While students might be asked to write an essay on a safety case study or to give a presentation on the topic, this present study suggests the use of concept maps to assessing student and cohort learning around the topic. Concept maps are ways of visually or graphically organising information and the way that it is understood. The technique has been used by others to assess student learning around the topics of sustainable development (Lourdel et al., 2007, Segalàs et al., 2008, Segalàs et al., 2010), basic health science (Jones and Rua, 2008), environmental science (Kwon and Cifuentes, 2009), medical education (West et al., 2002) and nanotechnology (Horton et al., 1993).

In this study a new method is proposed to assess student learning regarding safety case studies through the use of concept maps. A method is proposed that allows the maps to be assessed subjectively, revealing useful information regarding the understanding of the cohort as a whole as well as individual students.

Section snippets

The Piper Alpha disaster

The loss of the Piper Alpha platform in 1988 is the case study used in the present study. The main elements presented to the students in the class room follow.

In the class room

The loss of the Piper Alpha platform is used as a case study in introducing first year engineering students at the University of Melbourne to the importance of safety. All students intending to undertake an undergraduate degree leading to an engineering qualification at Melbourne are required to enrol in two first year, general engineering subjects, Engineering Systems Design 1 and 2, one in each of their first two semesters of study. Engineering Systems Design 1 introduces students to the

Concluding remarks

The loss of the Piper Alpha offshore oil platform in 1988 provides an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the importance of safety in the work place. It allows the role of workers and management and the importance of proper safety management systems to be discussed.

A detailed analysis of the concept maps prepared by a class of first year engineering students 15 weeks after the lecture on Piper Alpha suggests that students still retained an understanding of the key aspects of incident

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