Enhancing Occupational Safety Teaching Through OSHE Quest Analogue Gamification: A Cross-Sectional Perception Study

Knowledge of occupational safety is essential to ensure the well-being of the entire workforce. Hence, imparting occupational safety knowledge, especially to business and management students, is crucial, as it will prepare the students early before joining the industry. However, the needs of the present generation of higher-learning students transcend the current conventional teaching pedagogy. Therefore, higher learning institutions need to be creative in their teaching and learning approach. In line with this development, gamification has received recognition as a transformative approach in higher education, especially in enhancing learners' participation and inclusiveness towards complex fields like occupational safety, health and environmental (OSHE) management courses. This study examines the pedagogical effectiveness of OSHE Quest gamification, a safety-aligned board game designed to simulate real-world industrial safety scenarios. Sixty-three undergraduate students from one public higher learning institution in Klang Valley, Malaysia, participated to provide insights into their perspectives on the OSHE gamification board game. The study found that factors like personal traits, enjoyment, ease of use, usefulness, and acceptance play an integral part in influencing students' acquiescence to use gamified educational resources. The study also found that well-designed board games like OSHE Quest can serve as innovative tools for transforming OSHE teaching, bridging the gap between conventional classroom learning and interactive professional learning and practices.