Hello, my name is Zach, and I'm a full-time
PhD student here at QUT.
And in my spare time I'm a driving instructor.
I'm not an accredited one; I just help to
supervise my younger brother now and again.
We get to practise all the fun things, such
as reversing, and parking, and fearing for
my life occasionally.
But it's interesting; things have changed
quite a bit since I learnt to drive.
As of 2007, learners are now required to undertake
a minimum of 100 hours of supervised driving
practice, and this is because once they reach
the provisional driving stage of their licensing
it can be the most dangerous period for them
on the road.
In 2011, 17-25 year olds made up 12.9% of
the nation's population, but contributed to
21.9% of total road fatalities.
So research into this area has been positive
in terms of the mandatory practice that they
need to undertake.
However, their 100 hours is still just a number,
it doesn't necessarily mean that once you
get to 100 hours, you're an excellent driver.
And it doesn't mean that learners are actually
undertaking a wide range of different types
of practice.
On top of that the logbook, which they have
to enter all their practice in every single
time they go for a drive, can be a really
tedious process to fill out.
So it requires up to 14 different fields to
be filled in each time.
So there's a couple of areas here which could
be improved upon, and this is where my research
comes into play.
So I'm looking at how mobile technologies
can be used to automate the process of logging
practice, and also to engage and motivate
young learner drivers to undertake more diverse
and regular practice.
So I've created a logbook application using
mobile technologies, which basically... learners
can get into the car, they can press the 'start
recording' button, and it will automatically
record their trip for them.
So at the end it records things such as their
start time, the distance, the location, and
the total time in which they practised.
So it automates the process and makes it a
lot easier.
To that they can also record things they need
to work on next time, and they can also record
things which they worked on during that particular
practice session.
But where my research interests really lie
is looking at video game elements and how
they can encourage diverse and regular practice
for learner drivers.
And so we've added a virtual road trip to
the application, where for every kilometre
in real life a learner drivers, one kilometre
is added to their virtual road trip.
If they undertake regular and diverse practice,
they get coins, and these coins can be used
to upgrade their car.
They can also see where their friends are
currently on the road trip, and they can unlock
achievements as well.
So we've rolled this out to 25 learner drivers
and the results have been fantastic so far.
We've found that they really like the application
in terms of making it a better process, so
automating it; and on top of that they like
the game elements, they find them to be motivating.
So learning to drive can be a huge undertaking,
but by researching the applicability of a
mobile application and game elements in this
area, we hope to make the process a little
bit easier, we hope to make it a little bit
more engaging, and we hope to inject a little
bit of fun into it as well.
