DEMO
Salah Issa, Sahar Yousefi, CharlieMitsdarfer, George Takahashi
This project aimed to evaluate whether agricultural technicians find VR acceptable, usable, and valuable as a supplementary safety training tool. Agricultural technicians participated in a VR-based safety training delivered using Meta Quest 3 headsets following a brief orientation. Participants completed pre- and post-test surveys. The pre-test collected demographic information, job characteristics, and self-efficacy measures. The post-test assessed user engagement, immersion, usability, satisfaction with VR training, and included open-ended feedback. Data quality was assessed using two contradiction-check items to ensure attentive responding. Nonparametric statistical tests were used to analyze engagement differences across groups. Participants who rated the VR training as valuable reported significantly higher engagement (M = 3.84) compared to those who rated it as not valuable (M = 2.78; p = .001). Participants with no prior VR experience reported higher engagement (M = 3.52) than those with previous VR exposure (M = 2.72), supported by both group comparison (p = .035) and Mann–Whitney U test results (p = .016). Findings suggest that VR is an acceptable and usable supplementary safety training tool for agricultural technicians, particularly when perceived as valuable by users. Higher engagement among VR-naïve participants highlights the importance of thoughtful implementation to sustain engagement over time.