The aim of the UPLOADS Project is to develop reliable and valid incident reporting, storage and analysis tools for the outdoor education and recreation sector in Australia. This involves the development of: 1) tools to help organisations collect and analyse detailed information on near misses and adverse events; and 2) a National Dataset which will be regularly analysed and disseminated so that the sector can understand the risks it faces and take appropriate action.

Progress

The UPLOADS Software Tool has been developed, piloted and revised. The Software Tool now allows organisations to:  1) Track incident and participation data; 2) Analyse their own incidents using a systems analysis framework; 3) Generate automatic reports on the data they collect; and 4) Contribute deidentified data (i.e. names removed) to the National Dataset.

Following the initial pilot, a “Lite” version of the Software Tool was developed. UPLOADS Lite is an online survey which allows organisation to anonymously enter data into the National dataset. Organisations using Lite contribute participation data via an excel spreadsheet at the end of each reporting period. UPLOADS Lite was developed to support organisations that did not want to analyse their own data, but still wanted to participate in the project.

We have just passed the 6 month point for the National trial of the UPLOADS Software Tool and UPLOADS Lite.  43 organisations have signed up to participate (ACT = 1; NT = 2; NSW = 12; QLD = 8; SA = 7; TAS = 2; VIC = 14; WA = 6). At the 3 month point, 23 organisation contributed data (226 incident reports = 211 adverse outcomes, 15 near miss, 153 injuries, 75 illnesses, 19 social/psychological). We are currently collecting the 6 month data from organisations.

We plan to run a workshop presenting the analysis of the first 6 month of data on the 20th March 2015 at the Department of Sport and Recreation in Melbourne. An invitation to the event will be sent out in early 2015.

During the six month trial, we have been running a number of parallel studies to test the reliability and validity of the system. These studies are almost completed, and we plan to report the findings in February 2015.

We have also conducted a study to determine whether we should develop a website that allows people to access and explore the findings from the National dataset. The results indicate that there is a high degree of support from the sector for the website. Therefore, funding will be sought to develop and pilot the proposed website. The ideas and insights gained from this survey will be used to inform the development of the website. The full results are available to download here:

Click here to read the results in full.

New PhD Students

We now have three PhD students working on UPLOADS-related projects:

• Maggie Trotter – safety-critical improvisation during outdoor activities;
• Clare Dallat – development of a risk assessment process for outdoor programs (Click here to read about Clare’s PhD); and
• Eryn Grant – development of an accident prediction process for outdoor organisations.

Clare and Eryn were lucky enough to receive Australian Postgraduate Awards, which are highly competitive scholarships open to all students in Australian universities. Clare started in October 2014, and Eryn will join us in March 2015.

Publications 2014

The full text and summaries of the following papers are available at uploadsproject.org:

1. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M., Lenne, M. & Finch, C.F. (2014). A test of a systems theory-based incident coding taxonomy for risk managers. In Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Marek, T. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 5th Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics International Conference (pp. 5098-5108), The Printing House Inc.
2. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M, Lenne, M.G. & Finch, C. (2014). Trial of a new incident reporting system for the outdoor sector (UPLOADS): initial data and lessons learnt. Proceedings of the 18th National Outdoor Education Conference, Adelaide.
3. Salmon, P.M., Goode, N., Lenné, M. G., Cassell, E., Finch, C. (2014). Injury causation in the great outdoors: a systems analysis of led outdoor activity injury incidents. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 63, 111-120.
4. Goode, N., Finch, C., Cassell, E., Lenne, M.G. & Salmon, P.M. (2014). What would you like? Identifying the required characteristics of an industry-wide incident reporting and learning system for the led outdoor activity sector. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education. 17(2).
5. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M., Lenne, M.G. & Finch, C.(2014). Trial of a national incident database for the outdoor education and recreation sector. Horizons (Outdoor Educators’ Association of Queensland Journal), 97, 7-8.

 The full text and summaries of the following papers will be available in early 2015:

1. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M., Finch, C.F. & Lenne, M.G. (submitted). Looking beyond people, equipment and environment: Is a systems theory model of accident causation required to understand injuries and near misses during outdoor activities? AHFE2015, 1st International Conference on Human Factors in Sports and Outdoor Recreation.
2. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M., Finch, C.F, Taylor, N.Z. & Lenne, M.G. (submitted). Bridging the research-practice gap: validity of a software tool designed to support systemic accident analysis by risk managers. HCI2015
3. Taylor, N., N. Goode, P. Salmon, M. Lenne and C. Finch (submitted). Which code is it? Inter-rater reliability of systems theory-based causal factor taxonomy for the outdoor sector. 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. Melbourne, Australia.
4. Grant, E., Goode, N., Salmon, P., Lenne, M. Finch, C. & Scott-Parker, B. (submitted). How do I save it? Usability evaluation of a systems theory-based incident reporting software prototype by novice end users. HCI2015

 Presentations 2014

1. Dallat, C. & Goode, N. (2014). The Risk Assessment Process; moving from a ‘ticking the box’ compliance exercise to an empowering and inclusive aspect in your overall risk management strategy. OEAQ and QORF Meeting, November 2014. Brisbane, Australia.
2. Goode, N. (2014). Overview of the trial of a new incident reporting system for the outdoor sector. OEAQ Meeting, Brisbane, 2nd May 2014.
3. Dallat, C. & Goode, N. (2014). The Risk Assessment Process; moving from a ‘ticking the box’ compliance exercise to an empowering and inclusive aspect in your overall risk management strategy. Outdoors Victoria Conference, June 2014. Melbourne, Victoria.
4. Goode, N. (2014). Learn how to use the UPLOADS Software Tool and UPLOADS Lite. Outdoors Victoria Conference, June 2014. Melbourne, Victoria.
5. Goode, N. (2014). Learn how to use the UPLOADS Software Tool and UPLOADS Lite. Department of Sport and Recreation WA. 19th June 2014
6. Goode, N. (2014). Learn how to use the UPLOADS Software Tool and UPLOADS Lite. Outdoors WA. 20th June 2014.
7. Goode, N. (2014). A new incident reporting and learning system for the outdoor sector: Overview of the UPLOADS Project. Department of Sport and Recreation WA. 18th June 2014
8. Goode, N. (2014). Learn how to use the UPLOADS Software Tool and UPLOADS Lite. YMCA Victoria, 17th June 2014.
9. Goode, N., Salmon, P.M, Lenne, M.G. & Finch, C. (2014). Trial of a new incident reporting system for the outdoor sector (UPLOADS): initial data and lessons learnt. 18th National Outdoor Education Conference, Adelaide.