by Brock Horning | February 2025

The case for interactive training videos has been building for years, but the Construction Work Health and Safety Research group at RMIT University has proved its impact with hard data. After playing Breaking the Silence, Building Respect, 93% of viewers thought the training would raise awareness of workplace harassment, and 99% thought the training would help build more respectful workplaces.

• A research group at RMIT University set out to create an online training resource to address workplace harassment and raise awareness of its impact.
• The challenge was to capture the nuance and subtlety of workplace harassment clearly and directly, giving viewers a way to ask questions and understand the topic in a safe environment.
• After completing the video, 93% of respondents thought the training had raised their awareness of workplace harassment, and 99% thought the training would help build more respectful workplaces.
• The interactive element was the most popular aspect of the training video – chosen by 65% of viewers.

Working with industry partners, the Construction Work Health and Safety Research group at RMIT University conducts health and safety research and translates its findings into industry practice. For Breaking The Silence, Building Respect, the group needed to design an online training resource to address workplace harassment and raise awareness of its impact.

A decision moment from Breaking the Silence, Building Respect

Approximately one in three people in Australia experiences sexual harassment in the workplace. Women in onsite construction roles are particularly at risk due to an entrenched culture of banter, which, in some cases, can be used as a smokescreen for harassment. Capturing the nuance and subtlety of workplace harassment clearly and directly is one of the biggest challenges when creating this type of training resource. This is where the interactive element really helped to engage viewers intellectually and emotionally.

The RMIT University research group depicted moments of workplace harassment within an ongoing story with the same characters running throughout. This storytelling method allows viewers to see context-specific examples that would be harder to explain in abstract and humanises the issue of harassment. The interactivity turns the viewer into a participant in the story, keeping them engaged and strengthening the connection with the characters.

The team also decided to address anticipated common questions from sceptical users as they start the training. For example, choices such as “Isn’t harassment pretty rare?”, “People are too sensitive these days”, and “Don’t worry about me, I have thick skin” are presented as options to the player. If selected, the supervisor character addresses the choice to explain why this training is important. This gives everyone a safe place to ask questions that they may be uncomfortable raising in their actual job, or experience the negative impact of a poor choice, so the same mistake is not made in real life.

A decision moment from Breaking the Silence, Building Respect

The response to Breaking The Silence, Building Respect has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I now have a clearer understanding of what constitutes harassment and the importance of creating a respectful, safe environment for everyone. Even though I’ve always been aware of sexual harassment in the workplace, the video showed how normal, everyday conversations can easily become inappropriate and make others feel uncomfortable. It highlighted that sexual harassment isn’t only about explicit comments; it can come from subtle behaviours or casual remarks that cross boundaries. 

I have changed my view that it is not alright to stand back, you need to step up and say something if you are uncomfortable in the situation.” – Participant feedback

This powerful response to the interactive training video is not a sole occurrence. 93% of viewers thought that the training had raised their awareness of workplace harassment. And a whopping 99% believed that the training would help build more respectful workplaces.

The interactivity was the most popular element – 65% of viewers reported that the interactive choices were their favourite part of the training video.

So why did the Construction Work Health and Safety Research group at RMIT University choose Stornaway?

Ease of use

“Despite being packed with numerous features and options, the core interface is very simple and user-friendly.” – Dr Jack Clarke, Research Fellow

Stornaway gives creators a quick entry point into the impactful world of interactive and immersive media. While there’s a range of powerful features and tools, our clear story map design makes it easy to pick up and play.

Instant playback

“It’s very satisfying to see a project come together whilst linking up the story islands on the map, and being able to preview the project during its creation is really helpful.”

When you want to playtest your project, you can do it instantly. There is no waiting around for videos to render. No complex and long process of exporting. Just the click of a button.

Creative freedom

“[The Design Editor is] great for giving each interactive video its own identity, and it opens up a lot of exciting possibilities for integrating buttons into the screen in creative ways.”

Stornaway’s Design Editor feature is a straightforward way to make your Stornaway unique or keep it on brand. Experiment with transparent images or place buttons anywhere onscreen. Stornaway gives you all the creative freedom you could want.

Discover the opportunities for higher engagement and greater knowledge retention with interactive training videos. Whether it’s scenario training, employee onboarding, or a training quiz, you’ll find everything you need right here on Stornaway.