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22Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Never has training been more important in an industry thanit is now in the maritime in- dustry. Hardly a day goes by without a new story about a high profile maritime incident, invariably causing us to wonder what role training played. Fur- ther compounding the issue is the ever- increasing complexity of safety-critical vessel and shore-based systems that mariners have to understand and operate. Few would disagree with the need to take advantage of any practical, available tool which might help in our quest to provide the best training possible to officers and crew. One such tool is eLearning. You May Think You Understand eLearning ... But Do You? eLearning is sometimes dismissed as acheap and inferior alternative to class- room-based or on-board training. And there are certainly many examples of poor eLearning implementation in exis- tence. Yet the vast majority of the world's universities and most large organizations use eLearning as an integral part of the education and training they provide. The question is, can it be used to improve training in the maritime industry?The short answer is yes?. Like any useful tool, it has both strengths and lim-itations, but can be used to great advan- tage when intelligently applied.Therefore, while it is foolish to think thateLearning is always inferior to classroom or on-board training, it is just as foolish tobelieve that it could ever replace all as- pects of classroom or on-board training.So what is it, what can it do, and how is it best applied? This is the first in a series of articles which examines those ques- tions.What is eLearning? A quick definition summarized from Wikipedia is in order here: E-learning is essentially the computerand network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. ? It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio.? Wikipedia, March 26th, 2012 The definition above is very broad. That's because there are many kinds of eLearning, each with its own applica- tions, and each with its own strengths and limits. All include some form of learning content delivery (training). Many include tests or assessments. Some of the mostadvanced environments include training management, communication and col-laboration tools, and training analytics. Knowledge Training A common initial criticisms I hear ofeLearning is that it cannot replace hands-on learning. I could not agree more. After all, as the saying goes, you cannot learnthe skill of playing the piano by hearinga lecture about it. But there is another partto learning. Although you will never learn to play the piano by attending a lecture, itcan be equally said that youll never ac- quire the criical knowledge of music the- ory by practising, no matter how many hours you spend at the keyboard. eLearning is very effective for learning information or knowledge acquisition?. Knowledge forms the foundation for the skills that mariners need. It also allows mariners to make critical decisions in the face of increasingly complex on-board systems and their interactions. Knowl- edge supplements the skill of "how" to do something with the knowledge of "why" it is important to do it in a particular way, and the expected consequences if not done so. One of my favourite sections of the STCW code (we all have our fa- vorites) speaks to the need for mariners to acquire knowledge as the basis for the duties they perform: Scope of knowledge is implicit in the concept of competence. ... This includes relevant knowledge, theory, principles and cognitive skills which, to varying de- grees, underpin all levels of competence. It also encompasses proficiency in what to do, how and when to do it, and why itshould be done. Properly applied, this will help to ensure that a candidate can: ?work competently in different ships and across a range of circumstances; ?anticipate, prepare for and deal with contingencies; and ?adapt to new and changing require- ments.? Manila Amendments, Chapter II, Section B-II/1, Paragraph 14 Knowledge and skills are required by the modern seafarer, and different train- ing techniques are necessary for each. Infact, as we will see below, the best ap- proach is neither hands-on nor eLearningin isolation, but rather a blending of the two. What the Research Says There is a great deal of research on theeffectiveness of eLearning. Here I will re- count some of my early research as a fac- ulty member of Computer Science at theUniversity of British Columbia. The re- sults have been confirmed and expanded upon by a large body of subsequent re- search. There are two main results. Blended is Best for Performance First, eLearning has been found to be,on average, equally effective to class- room-based instruction at teachingknowledge. The basis for that finding in my research was an experiment where I divided a set of students I taught into three equalized, but randomized, groups. One group took the course using the tra-ditional classroom-based approach. The second group took the course entirely on-line with access to me (as their instruc-tor) and their peers through the coursediscussion forum. The third group had full access to both the lectures and to theon-line resource. The result was that, on average, the on-line students performed equally to the classroom-based students. Most interestingly however, the stu- dents with access to both the lectures andthe on-line course performed signifi- cantly better than either of the other two groups. The combination of learning ex- periences better addressed the needs of awider variety of students, and therefore the group as a whole performed muchbetter. This is a technique known as "blended learning". In blended learning,students are taught using a combinationof models - typically face-to-face in- struction supplemented with eLearning.This technique is being employed with great success for job training and famil- iarization by British Columbia FerriesServices Inc. - one of the largest ferry op- erators in the world. Their story was pub- lished in the Maritime Reporter, November 2011, pp. 68-73. Blended is Best for Participation There was also a significant difference in terms of student participation in thelearning experience. As every trainer is aware, some trainees are reluctant to speak up and join a discussion or askquestions - especially in a classroom en-vironment when surrounded by theirpeers. This is unfortunate because stu- dents learn better when they are engaged and participatory. In my early research, when asked, roughly 50% of students re- ported to be comfortable making a con-tribution to a class-based discussion (asking a question or making a com-ment). However, when those same stu- dents were asked whether they were comfortable making a contribution to a web-based eLearning discussion, ap-proximately 70% of students reportedcomfort in doing so. This is a significant improvement in itself. Most interestingly however, when we looked closely at the results, approximately 90% of the stu-dents were comfortable making a contri- bution to a discussion in at least one of the web or the classroom. This was a star- tling result and, once again, spoke clearly to the benefits of blended learning ap- proaches. By simply adding an eLearn-ing discussion feature to a lecture-basedclass, we went from approximately 50%to 90% participation. ConclusionDoes this research? translate to resultsin the maritime industry? Absolutely, as we have seen in the BC Ferries example. Even so, maritime training is somewhat unique and there are practical considera- tions which must be accommodated. Inparts two and three of this series, we will look at some of the practical strengthsand limitations of eLearning in the mar- itime industry. TRAINING & EDUCATION eLearning & MaritimeMurray Goldberg is the CEO of Marine Learning Systems, www.MarineLS.com, maker of MarineLMS. He is a researcher and developer of learning managementsystems worldwide. Email: [email protected] Training & Education Tools for an Industry on the Move