Safety culture in activities involving ionizing radiation long-distance courses for industrial applications

Abstract

ATOMO is a firm with long experience in the layout and coordination of Radiological Protection courses and, for this reason, has developed long-distance courses, both in Portuguese and in English, using multi-media resources already available for the areas of Gammagraphy, Nuclear Gauges, Accelerators and Large Irradiators. On developing this project, we focused companies and their personnel to be trained, aiming avoiding their relocation and providing the comfortable of studying at their more convenient time. Omicrom, a multimedia firm, our partner in this project, has been responsible for the course program and design. This work consisted in the adaptation of the traditional material for electronic language, through links, hot words and icons especially developed for additional information. Besides images and graphics from the original handouts, animations were developed at Ömicrom studios, explaining the procedures with more details and simplifying the comprehension of more complex subjects. For enhancing the CD ROM, slides were produced, where the pictures move automatically as the explanations are narrated. The CD also comprises some videos, where the students may visualize practically the complex procedures, which are extremely important. At the end of each topic, the students evaluate their knowledge through multiple choice tests, which deal with the subject studied in the related chapter. This and other highly updated resources are utilized for assuring a better learning. The CD is not only an electronic handout, but a long-distance course providing weekly support for the students, through Internet, direct access to the instructors by e-mails or chat, previously arranged, access to a data bank constantly updated for more frequent questions, plus link addresses and pages of interest for radiological protection. The tests are taken at the end of each module, before starting the following one. Each module comprises several chapters, totaling four modules. Each CD ROM is customized, with the buyer company name and one or more access passwords, depending on the number of users requested. The instructor accompanies the development of each student through the Internet, verifying if the course has been concluded, the grade obtained in the tests and the time spent. As the same, the company will receive a supervisor password, which allows the evaluation of its workers in the course. This CD Rom is pioneer in Brazil and Latin America and it is our intention to become a benchmark in this field.