Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2021)

Training Tips for Ships

Tip #20

Training in the Age of

Data

If we understand it, we can lay the groundwork to take advantage of it.

s we greet 2021, it seems ? tting to address a “big” many others. Big data. Big data is already proven in so many topic – a topic that is ultimately going to change domains. It is used to make ? re? ghting safer and more ef- everything, including (and perhaps especially) fective. It is used to identify fraudulent ? nancial transactions.

A training. The topic is “big data.” The goal of this And big data is being used in many ways and to remarkable month’s Training Tips for Ships is to get us thinking about big effect to save us from this pandemic. Similarly, the opportu- data in training. If we understand it, we can lay the ground- nity for big data in training is enormous.

work to take advantage of it. Big data is really about two things. First, it is about the data

We are in the data age – and this is especially important for itself and the granularity, volume and veracity of this data. training. Everything we do can be done more ef? ciently and And second, it is about mining our data ro reveal patterns that more effectively by understanding it more deeply. In the case are not otherwise visible. We can then use knowledge of those of training, how do we understand what training works and patterns to make better, more deeply informed decisions.

what does not work? How do we understand the most reliable What data should we be gathering now to help support fu- and ef? cient paths to closing knowledge gaps and increasing ture training optimization? The potential sources are bounti- retention? How do we best understand how to translate knowl- ful. There are millions of trainees and experienced mariners edge to practice? Which employees are likely to be our safest? around the world using a wide variety of technology every day

How do we identify those we wish to develop as leaders? Un- in their training and work. Each of these technologies can be til now, intuition, anecdotal information and experience have a source of rich data. We can collect information from simula- been our best available guides. But now we have something tion training and assessment systems, online learning systems, far more powerful to answer all of these questions and many competency management systems and recordings from vessel 10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2021

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