key: cord-257213-ukr5a4g3 authors: Garcia, Davide Astiaso; Groppi, Daniele; Tavakoli, Siamak title: Developing and testing a new tool to foster wind energy sector industrial skills date: 2020-10-06 journal: J Clean Prod DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124549 sha: doc_id: 257213 cord_uid: ukr5a4g3 The wind energy sector has seen an increasing growth in the last decade and this is foreseen to continue in the next years. This has posed several challenges in terms of skilled and prepared professionals that have always to be up to date in an industry that is constantly changing. Thus, teaching tools have gained an increasing interest. The present research reviewed the state of the art in terms of digital interactive training tools pinpointing that the existing options do not feature the user involvement in the development of the training material. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to develop and test an innovative method based on gamification to increase wind energy sector industrial skills, providing a digital interactive environment in the form of a new user-friendly software that can allow its users to train and contribute to the teaching and learning contents. The first methodological step deals with the associated background studies that were required at strategy implementation and development stages, including market analysis and technology trade-offs, as well as the general structure and the implementation steps of the software design. Obtained results pinpointed that with minimal use of web-based database and network connectivity, a mobile phone application could work in the form of a time-scored quiz application that remotely located staff at wind energy farms could benefit from. The technological innovation brought by this research will substantially improve the service of training, allowing a more dynamic formative management contributing to an improvement in the competitiveness and a step towards excellence for the whole sector. The importance of GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction has been widely assessed by researchers 25 from all over the World (Li et al. 2018; Zeng et al., 2018a) . Consequentially, several measures have been 26 studied and applied to increase the energy efficiency (Sun et al., 2018; Zeng et al., 2018b ) and the energy 27 production from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) (Pfeifer et al., 2018) . Thus, the energy industry has 28 gained a key role in tackling Climate Change. In this framework, training professionals is essential to face 29 today's changes in the labour market and to support a competitive economy (Stanitsas et al., 2019) , 30 particularly in renewable energy (RE) sectors since the energy transition to decarbonized systems is speeding 31 up the innovation processes of these technologies (Lin et al., 2017) . Moreover, both in developed and 32 developing countries there is a lack of studies that deal with stakeholders and professionals' awareness level 33 about RES (Kacan, 2015) and energy efficiency (Ciriminna et al., 2016) . 34 As regard the wind industry, meeting the expectations of 2030 horizon is translated into an increase of 175% is also important to keep in mind the progressive ageing of maintenance workers who have difficulties to 41 work in the harmful and narrow conditions of the old turbines. Consequentially, a continuous turnover is 42 needed and will offer potential opportunities for new professionals and green jobs. If we also consider the 43 ageing of European wind farms and the tendency to increase their operating life, the European wind energy 44 sector is clearly facing a challenge: the very limited availability of skilled operation and maintenance 45 (O&M) staff and the future lack of it in the medium-term considering also the actual growth of the industry 46 and the future projects needed to achieve the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) of each EU member state. 48 On one hand, the topic of safety is being dealt with globally by the Basic Safety Course of the Global Wind 49 Organization (GWO), an international organization linked with the safety training, and is becoming a global 50 standard. On the other hand, few initiatives have been carried out in the RE technology manufacturing 51 industries to train technicians and mechanics working on both installation and O&M or RE devices (Kandpal 52 and Broman, 2014). Consequentially, new approaches for the training of technicians able to supervise 53 installations and O&M interventions specifics for wind and for other renewable technologies are essential to 54 foster the development of each RES (Kandpal and Garg, 1999; Tsoutsos et al., 2013) . Several 85 for energy saving and management, a number of digital interactive tools exist that allow engagement of the 86 users in the process of learning in full digital format, such as Udemy (Udemy, 2016) , Litmos (Litmos, 2016) 87 and Docebo (Docebo, 2016) to mention a few of the recent and popular ones. 88 Udemy is one of the pioneers in supplying web-based environment for building new course in digital 89 format with course material and course attendance facilities able to exchange most of the elements of an e-90 learning environment, developing an Android application to enable users to follow their courses directly 91 from their mobile phones (Udemy, 2016) . The set of the stakeholders includes the instructor, the investors 92 who invest on the marketing to attract students, and the ownership of Udemy hosting service. 93 Nevertheless, the use of ICT training tools alone does not ensure effective results. A major problem with 94 fast-growing industries is the fact that training tools and education schemes must be always updated and 95 engaging. In this context, ICT tools can be effectively associated to game-based learning (Gameffective, 96 2016; Harbinger Knowledge Products, 2016). Those basically increase the level of engagement and speed of 97 access to the outcome of assessments by allowing users to act in a variety of game-style environments that 98 are contextualized with learning contents of a domain topic. 99 Several existing digital interactive tools allow engagement of the users in the process of teaching and 100 learning (Mindflash, 2016; Schoox, 2016) . These tools have at least one or both of the following two 101 features: B. The right to authorship of the users is granted from a central originator of the created course. This intellect 105 of central control to set who can or cannot collaborate could add a burden to both user account management 106 and required security protocol. 107 In this context, Serious Games, and gamification in general, have been identified as a valuable option to ). This statement is also corroborated by the inherent educational features of the game, being a 123 stimulating mechanism for users, having great flexibility in use, achieving important learning while being 124 playful, and therefore promoting teamwork as a key element of society today (Hallinger et al., 2020) . 125 In light of the above-mentioned current context, main research gaps include the standardization of the 126 operational skills for the staff qualification and the development of an ad hoc serious game that considers 127 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f and integrates the current approaches for professional trainings for installations and O&M activities in the 128 wind energy sector. 129 Closing these research gaps is the main novelty of the present paper compared to the above mentioned state 130 of the art. Indeed, the development of a serious game to qualify professionals in the skills of the wind energy 131 sector has never been done before and it will improve substantially the service of training given at present, 132 allowing a more dynamic formative management and a technological development inside a company, 133 contributing an improvement in the competitiveness and a step towards excellence. 134 Therefore, answering the three essential questions (What? How? Why?) to be considered according to 135 theory-development (Whetten, 1989) , the main contribution of this research to theory is to standardize the 136 operational skills needed for the qualification of employees of the wind energy companies (What) 137 introducing a cutting-edge mode of training, developing and testing the first serious game on this industrial 138 sector (How), in order to foster wind energy sector industrial skills enhancing the training in operation and 139 maintenance to a higher level (Why). 140 Moreover, the learning tool proposed in this research is based on the application of ICT that allows the use 141 of interactive information and quiz using a serious game environment thus supporting the development of 142 efficient distance learning at any time. This feature is crucial since it aims to address one of the main issues 143 affecting the wind energy sector trainings: the fact that personnel is often working in remote areas. 144 Hence, using ICT, this research proposes the development of an innovative training tool in the RE sector, 145 particularly focused on wind energy sector. 146 Therefore, the main outcome of the research is the development of a mobile phone application with all the 147 contents and elements required to improve the skills related to the ordinary activities of workers in the wind 148 energy sector. Furthermore, a new specific approach has been used compared to the several ones recently 149 introduced to RE education by means of the modern and flexible educational technologies (Jennings, 2009 ). In this section the research methods to overcome all the issues that have been faced in different stage of the 161 fundamental design are explained in detail. In particular, the technology integration and development of the 162 proposed solution has been described, covering the general structure, the building blocks of the proposed 163 software system, and the implementation steps of the new software design. 164 The method section is structured as depicted in Figure 1 and described as follows: Each of the afore-mentioned topics has been described in a specific paragraph where the related issues 175 have been presented and the strategies to overcome such issues explained in detail. Table 1 . In particular, a power/interest matrix (Olander and Landin, 2005) has been selected as the most appropriate Spanish in order to spread its use and eventual transnational initiatives. 474 The above described procedures attained the software tool required. Some screenshots of the current version 475 in hand are shown in Figures 13 and 14 . In this framework, future researches will be focused on the implementation of a simulator for O&M training 560 in the wind energy sector, starting from the contents of the serious game and obtained data from end users 561 feedbacks. In this way, it will be possible to update and tailor the training contents to the new technologies. that sector using a serious game. One of the main research objectives and novelties was to propose a model 567 to standardise at European level the operational and transverse knowledge required to prepare adequate 568 personnel for the wind energy sector. In order to make the app a feasible European standard, it had to be able 569 to renovate its contents to match the wind energy sector transition. Thus, the developed solution has been 570 thought to be continuously updated thanks to users' feedback and inputs in order to be able to follow the 571 market, technology and techniques changes that are happening faster than ever. 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