Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2019)

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INSIGHTS: TRAINING & EDUCATION

Murray Goldberg is CEO of Marine Learning Systems which provides software and services to optimize knowledge, skills and behavior in maritime operators. In his former life he was a computer science faculty member at the University of BC researching online learning and assessment delivery models and their effectiveness. This led to him develop WebCT, a learning management system that was used by 14 million students in 80 countries.

Important Training Need?

A quick video may be the answer! ave you ever witnessed a mariner performing a task poorly or unsafely? Possibly

Hday-to-day con? ned space entry? A commonly misapplied or mis- understood ColReg? Inattentive watch- keeping? Of course you have. And if you have seen it happen once, you can rest assured that it has happened before, and it will continue to happen unless some- one does something about it. So - what can you do?

Video may be your answer. It is sur- prisingly fast and easy to create short, la- ser-targeted videos that demonstrate best practice. And the results are surprisingly effective; the second most popular cat- egory of videos on YouTube is the “how- to” video. Let’s discuss how to make use of this for maritime training.

Maximum Effect Using Video

Photo: Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

The goal here is to address a perfor- mance or safety issue by creating a very in two to four minutes, dissect your top- era. If that’s not in the budget, a good be transferable to a more sophisticated short video that addresses that issue. In ic further and make another video. quality smartphone will be very effec- paid option. To deploy your video to order to achieve maximum effect, our In addition to being short, videos tive. It should also be easy to recruit vol- your trainees, you have many options. videos should have a few simple but should be well lit, and voice-overs clear unteers from your of? cers and crew to Ideally you have an LMS which will important qualities. I’ll cover the most and easy to understand. be the “stars” of the video. easily let you upload the video, notify important here. And ? nally, what should the video Once the video is recorded, you could users, track who watched it, and even

First, each video should address ex- show? An effective approach is a video put it up as-is, but you can improve ef- assess their understanding of it. If not, actly one issue, no more. There are of someone performing the task correct- fectiveness by adding a voice-over de- YouTube can be your friend here. You many reasons for this including making ly, with a voice-over highlighting the scribing the issue being addressed and can create a private channel, upload the video relevant and easy to ? nd, and key aspects of correct and safe perfor- highlighting the constituents of correct your videos, and e-mail your trainees keeping the interest of the trainee. mance. Once you become adept at mak- performance. By recording the voice- the link. I’ll cover distribution more in a

The “correct” length of the video is ing these, you can also use video call- over after recording the video, you are subsequent training tips for ships!

whatever length is required to fully con- outs (arrows or labels on the screen, for able to make a script and ensure excel- vey the lesson, but engagement studies example) to highlight important points. lent quality audio by recording it in a Final Thoughts: often point to videos of between two Additionally, it is often very instructive quiet environment. Investing in a $100 You *can* do this. Millions of people and four minutes in length to maximize to contrast the demonstration of correct microphone will allow you to produce with no background make how-to vid- engagement. It is tempting to make the performance by ? rst showing common- outstanding results here. eos every day. Check them out for good video longer to get all the “important” ly made mistakes. In order to add the audio as well as ideas. These are excellent training tools facts across, but this is usually a mis- other effects, you will need a simple and a quick bit of experimentation will take. The video will have much more Making and Distributing Training video-editing program. There are many get you started and on your way to being impact if just the critical facts are con- Videos in Your Organization free and paid options. Start with a free an expert. Over time, you will develop a veyed, and the video is kept very short. Shooting the video is easy. It’s a great option and get to know it. Once you are highly valuable, effective library to help

If more needs to be said than can be said excuse to purchase a go-pro video cam- comfortable, the skills learned there will keep everyone safe and ef? cient.

8 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JULY 2019

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