Quality standards for online training and distance learning of seafarers

Master Thesis
Author
Tagouzi, Alexandra
Ταγουζή, Αλεξάνδρα
Date
2024-10View/ Open
Abstract
Maritime education and training are of paramount importance for the maritime industry.
Maritime education and training link directly to efficiently manning the vessels by preparing and
cultivating personnel to operate and manage this enormous in size, expensive, complicated, and
capital-intensive asset. The importance of seafarers training in the shipping labor market and the
shipping industry in general is visible and apparent, as the Human Element is the one driving the
whole industry.
Having taken the initiative to provide to Angelicoussis Group a comparative analysis of quality
standards and evaluation criteria and a justified proposal regarding the criteria for evaluation of
online and distance training in the maritime industry, the methodology selected contained desktop
research of the existing literature, both academic and maritime context specific, whereas the
scientific fields in focus were Quality Standards in distance learning and Maritime Education and
Training.
The technological connectivity has transformed the way that people live and interact. Geography is
no longer the primary constraint on organizations. E-HRM has entered the companies and nowadays
basic HR functions have adopted the use of technologies in the day-to-day operations. Training and
development and general learning are an HR function that has seen important effect and contribution
of the technological connectivity.
E‐Learning courses include both content and instructional methods that help people learn the content.
They can be synchronous, asynchronous, or blended and are delivered via digital devices using
words in the form of spoken or printed text and multimedia such as illustrations, photos, animation, or
video.
In today’s maritime environment, seafarers use diverse and even complicated technology as part of
their day-to-day work. In such a context, the use of new technologies has created a new educational
framework and especially in the marine education we see new broad ways being opened to the
learning and tutoring sectors. Maritime Education and Training can effectively make use of the
modern technologies, namely the offered E-learning tools so as to promote knowledge management
best practices for the seafarers.
Despite the importance placed on training for the Maritime industry and its personnel, explicit
quality standards have not been set by the industry. Also, an evaluation system for the E-learning use
in the maritime industry has not been established up to this point.
However, throughout the literature, many researchers and academics have touched the issue of
quality for e-learning. The criteria identified concentrating on the technical features of the course
deal with the tutoring tools used, the platform and its accessibility and flexibility, the design of the
system, the technological features and the overall virtual experience and user-friendliness as well as
the possibility of formal online assessments. Also, criteria like data security, amount of instructor-led
interaction, and availability of online discussion groups belong to this category.
The criteria identified concentrating on a more high-level perspective deal with the commitment
from the top management towards training and specifically online training, the commitment of the
company to invest on the latest technological trends; the continuous identification of the training
needs always involving all relevant stakeholders, the involvement of the seafarers themselves in the
training process design. Moreover, it is of paramount importance as it adds great value to bring
more work work-related experiences into the learning situation in order to take advantage of the
seafarers’ experience as basis for examples, adding a problem-centered approach into the learning
experience.
3
A shipping company applying e-learning for the training and development of the seafarers has to
thoroughly examine some important factors affecting the effectiveness of online and distance
learning. The common trends identified across the comparative analysis performed deal with the
course structure and design, the evaluation and assessment of the e-learning course, the course
instructor, the overall program duration, the number of students participating and the length of the
course, the faculty and technology support, the strategic planning concerning the company’s training
policy, the learners’ satisfaction, the student interaction and of course the student engagement and
motivation.