(302f) Let's Talk about Process Safety: Utilizing an Online Forum-Based Approach to Discuss Process Safety Incidents

Traditionally, the process safety course taught at our University utilized substantial in-class time to watch process safety incident videos published by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB.gov). These videos were followed by extensive, interactive in-class discussions on the particular process safety topics and recommendations covered in the videos. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic made this mode of instructional discussion untenable. In particular, the ability for students to participate in in-class discussions and to express themselves about process safety topics was severely hindered by the virtual nature of instruction. To work around this issue, a commonly used technique for asynchronous-online instruction was implemented to allow the students to interact with this material, albeit on their own time. Utilizing the Canvas learning management system's built-in Discussions tool, students now watch one topical video per week asynchronously and participate in online forum-style discussions about the material. Students are required to respond to a set of prompting questions (supplied by the instructor), and in addition, each student must respond to at least one other student's initial post. This latter requirement ensures that the students are interacting and reading each other's posts. The weekly discussions culminate with a capstone discussion, which requires students to research and analyze historical Ammonium Nitrate accidents and compare them to the Beirut harbor explosion in 2020. These discussions are used to evaluate the students' ability to recognize the social and ethical dimensions of process safety, including the impact of process safety incidents on societal and global scales, pursuant to ABET Learning Outcome 4B.