Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics
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Medium Of Instructions | Mode Of Learning | Mode Of Delivery |
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English | Self Study | Video and Text Based |
Courses and Certificate Fees
Certificate Availability |
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no |
The Syllabus
Key theme(s): Designing for people, technologies, organizations and environments as systems
- Introduction to the various aspects of HFE
- HFE in relation to technology
- Human Knowing and Acting
- Teamwork and Organizational dimension
- Large-scale systems (safety and accidents)
- Background of HFE
- Meaning of Ergonomics
- Why is it Human Factors and Ergonomics?
- Breadth and scope of HFE
- Brief History of HFE
- Earlier origins of human scale in everyday contexts
- Modern times and the advent of the factory system
- Brief understanding of human relations and industrial psychology
- World War II and human operators
- Nuclear power and the operator
- Product Ergonomics, Cognitive Systems Engineering and beyond
- Next steps in HFE?
- What constitutes essential aspects of HFE?
- Systems approach
- Design-driven
- Performance and well-being (capabilities and limitations)
- Need to link human performance + macro variables (organizational background) + systems design
- Humans as participants in a co-design process
- Example: HFE in Transportation
Key theme: Human Knowing in technological contexts
- Vision and Perception
- Cognition
- Information processing approach
- Attention and memory
- Lapses in attention and memory, Types of memory
- Human decision making
Key theme: Human Acting in technological contexts
- Challenges of different demographics
- Anthropometrics
- How does anthropometrics help in design?
- Body and activity systems
- Lifting, grasping, pushing and pulling
- Occupational challenges and muscoskeletal disorders
- Workplace injuries
Key theme: The physical context of human knowing and acting
- Varieties of work environments
- Issues related to lighting and sound
- HFE outside in everyday world
- Everyday environment and risks
- Social environment
- Safety-critical environments
- Work Space design based on HFE principles
Key theme: The sociocultural context of HFE (Organizational dimension)
- Organizational culture
- Group and teams dynamics
- Personality and management styles
- Leadership styles
- Job Characteristics and design
Key theme: HFE and large scale systems (safety, risk and accidents)
- HFE and large scale systems
- Complexity and systems: dynamism, complexity, uncertainty
- Uncertainty as a fundamental challenge in human performance; coping with the unexpected
- Dynamic Challenges in large-scale systems not typically present in simple systems
- Challenges of human behavior in large scale systems, complex interlinkages with technology.
- Human errors in complex systems
- Moving beyond human error: beyond the blame game?
- HFE in relation to safety, risks and accidents
Key theme: HFE integration
- Recap of the last 6 modules: Cognitive; Physical (and physiological); Organizational
- HFE integration with design, systems and management – the road ahead
- Step-by-step integration
- Worker involvement
- Catering to operators, managers and end users
- Building an organizational culture for Human factors improvement
- Understanding work from a human perspective
- Systems approach + Design-driven + Performance and well-being
- Reinforcing key themes from each session of the course
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