THE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE OF ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION “THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN”

Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death by injury, the eleventh leading cause of all deaths and the ninth leading contributor to the burden of disease worldwide. Human error is a major contributory factor in road accidents, and road safety education directly aims to influence the road user by changing his knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. However, previous research has shown that children do not benefit from road safety education if this is limited to classroom activities. Most specifically, problems exist with many widely used traditional methods of road safety education.
On the other hand, the possibilities provided by ICT, combined with contemporary theories about learning, have opened up new design opportunities for educational programmes of road safety education. However, there have been few studies exploring the use of ICT in the prevention of road accidents, especially those targeting children.
The aim of this paper is to present the methodology of design, development and evaluation of educational software “The Chariot of the Sun” for the primary prevention of road accidents among a childhood population. It was aimed at a target group of 8-13 year-olds and was intended to provide Greek teachers and students with information, interaction and activities to stimulate learning about road safety. “The Chariot of the Sun” includes two main parts to raise road safety awareness, enhance knowledge regarding street signs, influence pupils’ attitudes and behaviours and to provide opportunities to integrate road safety into the curriculum of primary and secondary education.
This software was developed through seven stages on the basis of learning theories and empirical research findings. The problem analysis of road accidents was the first methodological approach in the design and development of the Chariot of the Sun in order to identify the target groups which are intended to benefit from the use of it (Stage 1). Stage 2 was the curriculum and teaching analysis. The purpose of this stage was: a) to describe the inadequacies or the insufficiencies of the current curriculum regarding the road safety education, with particular attention to the shortfall in student learning and b) to describe and justify the teaching/learning assessment process likely to bring about the desired learning outcome (i.e. knowledge, attitudes, behaviour) in regard to road safety education. Stage 3 aimed to study the theories of learning in order to find the most appropriate theory for the design of the educational software “The Chariot of the Sun”. The results of the previous three stages formed the context and the interface of the software in Stage 4. In Stage 5 the development of a first version of the educational software “The Chariot of the Sun” began. This version was improved in Stage 6, by formative evaluation. The aim of this evaluation was to gather empirical information that were used to design and redesign the educational software of road safety education “The Chariot of the Sun”. Finally, in Stage 7, the summative evaluation was considered very important process, since it provided information about the outcomes of the Chariot of the Sun in terms of improvements in pupils’ traffic knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.