Students come into a unit with one understanding of the subject and - one hopes - leave with another.

This assessment is therefore interested in your learning journey and the highlights, lightbulb moments or 'turning points' in your early learning about Good Work Design and Human Factors in Complex Systems across the first 2 weeks of term.

Turning points in learning journeys centre on a time when a student experienced a new understanding, a shift in perspective or a deep investment in a particular topic.

In this assessment you will complete two (2) online discussions via the Moodle site. 

Your weekly assigned readings from the Assessment 1 Readings 1 & 2 and Assessment 1 Readings 3 & 4 will be used for your two online turning point discussions. 

You are required to reflect and share your turning point learning experience from your readings via the Moodle site with your class cohort.

You will have until the end of week 4 to complete your readings and post your two discussions.

Week 1

Assessment 1 Reading 1 - Human Factors & Ergonomics Society Australia (HFESA) – Good Work Design

Assessment 1 Reading 2 - Envisaging Regenerative Futures Through Good Work Design

Discussion 1 - Reflect on and describe your turning point learning from your week 1 readings on Good Work Design.

Week 2

Assessment 1 Reading 3 – The Third Age of Human Factors

Assessment 1 Reading 4 - Working for a Better Tomorrow

Discussion 2 - Reflect on and describe your turning point learning from your week 2 reading on the history of human factors and working for a better tomorrow.

There is no need to upload anything in the Moodle assessment area, as this assessment task will be marked using the online discussions that you post.

Marks will be awarded as follows:-

1. Turning point 1 discussion (10%)

2. Turning point 2 discussion (10%)

Approximately 200 words per discussion.

A detailed marking rubric will be provided via the Moodle site.

An important step in the overall Human Factors and Ergonomics discipline is the ability to identify work tasks which might result in Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) risks. This assessment is about developing your understanding of the principles of the assessment of these types of activities using human factors assessment tools.

You are required to choose a two-handed lift manual task activity that might result in a Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) being performed in your workplace or another environment, and which is suitable for analysis by the (1) National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) Revised Lifting Equation and then (2) either the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) or the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool. A total of two tools will be used, one of which must be NIOSH and the other tool will be either RULA or REBA.

You are then required to prepare a written report which: -

1. Describes the context of the workplace or other setting and the role of the person involved;
2. Describes the actual task and physical movement being assessed supported by a task analysis;
3. Describes the MSD hazards or issues, and potential effects which pose a problem;
4. Discusses the assessment results and interprets the MSD risk scores using two human factors assessment tools being (1) NIOSH and (2) either REBA or RULA (whichever is most appropriate to the task being assessed i.e. full body or upper body; and
5. Recommends changes to the task, workplace and/ or environment, based on the assessment findings to improve the musculoskeletal functioning of the person performing the task.

Your report should be no more than 2,000 words and must consider the appropriateness of the fit between the end user (human) and the design of the equipment and task being performed and contain at least five (5) peer-reviewed journal articles to support your writing (i.e. use the journal articles from the Assessment 1 related to Physical Ergonomics research repository and elsewhere).

Your assessment task will be assessed against the depth and accuracy to which you have addressed the following criteria:

1. Identifies the context of the workplace and/or setting and person involved (10%);
2. Describes the actual task and physical movement being assessed supported by a task analysis (10%);
3. Describes the MSD hazard or issues and potential effects which pose a problem (20%);
4. Discusses the assessment results and interprets the MSD assessment risk scores using the two human factors assessment tools being (1)  NIOSH and either (2) REBA or RULA (whichever is most appropriate to the task being assessed i.e. full body or upper body (30%);
5. Recommends changes to the task, workplace or environment based on the assessment findings to improve the musculoskeletal functioning of the person performing the task (20%);
6. Presentation, grammar, at least five journal articles and correct Harvard style referencing (10%)

A detailed assessment rubric will be supplied via the Moodle site.

Your task is to write a report which is an evaluation of an item of equipment or technology with regard to COGNITIVE ERGONOMICS. You are required to conduct an ergonomic evaluation of your chosen item of equipment using a Cognitive Task Analysis and prepare a formal report. The focus of the report will be on both problem identification and solution recommendations including:

1. How the equipment design/introduction does or does not match the cognitive characteristics of the users, including a discussion (key requirement) on the information processing model; 
2. How the equipment design/introduction of technology does or does not match organisational psychological system considerations i.e. mental workloads, environment of use considerations, fatigue management, teamwork, job-fit concepts and safety issues;
3. Other identified problems (i.e. human error) identified from a cognitive task analysis and any other further issues for consideration;
4. Design recommendations (solutions to problems) for improving the match between the cognitive characteristics of the users and the design of the equipment.

Your report should be no more than 2,000 words and include at least ten (10) peer-reviewed journal articles to support your writing and analysis (i.e. use the journal articles from the Assessment 1 Cognitive Ergonomics research repository and elsewhere). Your report should also cover the context in which the equipment is placed within the organisation.

Reports must be submitted as Word documents, not pdf.

Assessment is based on how well the report matches and addresses the following assessment criteria:

• How the equipment design/introduction does or does not match the cognitive characteristics of the users; and answers must include a discussion on the information processing model (20%)
• How the equipment design/introduction of technology does or does not match organisational psychological system considerations i.e. mental workloads, fatigue management, teamwork, job-fit concepts and safety issues (20%)
• Other problems (i.e. human error) identified from the task analysis or any other issues for consideration (20%)
• Design recommendations (solutions to problems) for improving the match between the cognitive characteristics of the users and the design of the equipment (30%)
• Professional report format, and accurate grammar, spelling and Harvard style referencing (10%).

A detailed marking rubric will be provided via the Moodle site during the term.