Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Online Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship January 2016 Effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Component, Visual and Perceptual Skills: Analyzing Student Response to Searching, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding, and Executing Skills Christopher Bradley Millard Eastern Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: https://encompass.eku.edu/etd Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons, and the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons Recommended Citation Millard, Christopher Bradley, "Effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Component, Visual and Perceptual Skills: Analyzing Student Response to Searching, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding, and Executing Skills" (2016). Online Theses and Dissertations. 403. https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/403 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Encompass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Online Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Encompass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Component Visual and Perceptual Skills: Analyzing Student Response to Searching, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding, and Executing Skills By Christopher Bradley Millard Master of Science Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 2013 Bachelor of Science Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Eastern Kentucky University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION August, 2016 Copyright © Christopher Bradley Millard, 2016 All right reserved ii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my Family. Thank you for all of your help and inspiration. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my gratitude to parents Bradley and Regina for their guidance, support and discipline. I also thank my brother Marc, who continuously reminded me how important it is continue with opportunities when they are presented. I appreciate deeply my fellow workers at Eastern Kentucky University in the College of Justice and Safety, for their motivation and support along this process. Specifically, I extend my gratitude to: Terry Kline for his inspiration, guidance and leadership over the past several years and Sarah Morris for her guidance in processing and the finalization of the participant data. I am thankful for Terry Kline Ed.D., Josh Kaylor and Shane LaCount for their implementation of the Driver Performance Test into the online and on-campus courses; Steve Prewitt for his help and guidance in software instillation, security and electronic trouble solving; and my mentors at EKU: Gary Holobek, Cindy Hale, and Ben Wilcox. The faculty that imparted their wisdom and guidance through the coursework and dissertation and influenced my abilities, myself and my opinion of the education system. My gratitude goes to the members of the Education Department of Eastern Kentucky University. Specifically, I thank Dr. Charles Hausman for his patience and guidance through the dissertation and course work, Dr. James Bliss for his wisdom and assistance in the dissertation work and the importance of different ways to accomplish the same objective such as the introduction of infographs into the courses, Dr. Scott Rockwell for his motivation and inspiration, Dr. Ronald Dotson for his motivation, inspiration and guidance throughout the dissertation process. iv ABSTRACT As funding for driver education declines according to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA) 2013 Traffic Safety Facts, there were 2,345,719 people injured or killed as a result of vehicle crashes. NHTSA reported that there were a total of 118 people killed in 2013 from accidents involving emergency vehicles. The effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course component of visual and perceptual skills can be measured by administering the Driver Performance Test prior to and after student participation. This study examined the population of the students who participated in the TRS 235: Emergency Vehicle Operations Course at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in a traditional classroom and online delivery formats. This study determined the potential for a participant to be involved in a crash prior to and after completing TRS 235, as well as the effect the course had on the participants’ visual and perceptual skills. The results of this study indicated that the online and traditional course delivery formats pre and post-test total scores increased significantly. This study also determined that there was a significant difference between the efficacy of online and traditional delivery with online participants scoring higher than the traditional participants. It is important to note that this study does not examine the actual physical performance of the participants’ driving skills or behavior. Keywords: skill enhancement, driver education, driver control sequence, SIPDE, search, identify, predict, decide, execute, SEE, evaluate, pitch, yaw, roll, oversteer, understeer, traction loss, visual and perceptual skills, driver performance test, traditional vs online delivery methods, traffic safety, emergency vehicle operations, TRS 235. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 Background ........................................................................................................2 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................2 Purpose of the Study ..........................................................................................3 Potential Significance ........................................................................................4 Overview of Methods ........................................................................................5 Definition of Terms............................................................................................6 Assumptions .....................................................................................................12 Organization of the Study ................................................................................12 II. LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................................13 Emergency Vehicle Operations Text ...............................................................13 Leadership and Management 14 Choosing the Right People 15 Rules, Regulations and the Law 20 Policy Procedures and Guidelines 22 Emergency Vehicle Characteristics and Driving 26 Operations 38 Communications 40 Maintenance 41 Roadway Operations 45 Special Operations 46 Improvement Programs ....................................................................................49 Naturalistic .......................................................................................................51 Driver Performance Test ..................................................................................55 Personalities .....................................................................................................59 Online VS. Traditional Education ....................................................................61 III. METHODOLOGY ...............................................................................................63 TRS 235 ...........................................................................................................63 Variants and Measures .....................................................................................64 Selection of Participants ..................................................................................66 Research Questions ..........................................................................................67 Data Collection ................................................................................................67 Data Analyses ..................................................................................................68 Subjectivity and Bias .......................................................................................68 Limitations .......................................................................................................68 IV. RESULTS .............................................................................................................70 Research Findings ............................................................................................70 vi V. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................................................78 Recommendations for Future Research ...........................................................80 Recommendations for Practice 80 Closing 82 VI. REFERENCES .....................................................................................................85 VII. Appendixes ...........................................................................................................89 Request for Participant Data Records ..............................................................90 Concept Map ....................................................................................................92 TRS 235 Traditional and Online Course Objectives .......................................94 List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................96 Driver Performance