Feature: Twenty-First Century Maritime Learning

Computer-based training comes of age.

Published Jun 25, 2013 9:25 AM by The Maritime Executive

By Roger Kent

During the past decade we have seen the growth of computer-based training. Notice the word “training” here. Training is not education, which teaches people how to think, or professional development, which helps them think better. Training is about helping people (and dogs!) do something better. Training can lend itself to the distance-learning model – at least under most circumstances, and with the right approach.

Much computer-based training (or, if you are shoreside, it may be e-learning, delivered over a network or the Internet) is still based on the traditional instructor-led model. Talk at your audience. Write some words on a blackboard. Hope the audience absorbs it.

Computer-based training, a relatively new industry, is learning how to be more effective. Mature practitioners of the craft seek to create interactive engagement. We give learners (we don’t call them students anymore!) short quizzes, exercises, games, and technical or regulatory summaries. If they want to read the details of source documents, make them available. Most importantly, learners should not be passive. Oblige participants to take responsibility for their own learning. They are no longer children but responsible adults.

Measuring Effectiveness

How can you be sure that, at the end of their learning experience, participants can do what they are being trained to do? Give them a test. Or, in more professional terms, an assessment. Knowing they are going to be tested is a miraculous way to coax participants into paying attention. If they pay attention, there is more likelihood of retention. Administrators now have a way to prove they are getting value for their money.

Assessments should test knowledge and skills. Can participants fill out a required form, make a necessary calculation, or recognize the most effective best practice from a list of good practices? The experience of preparing for a test can return us to the anxiety we felt in school. While it should be rigorous, an assessment ought to be an additional learning tool. A certificate issued at the end of training should mean something but should not intimidate potential learners into shying away from the experience altogether. There are few worse humiliations for adults than failing an exam.

The radio-announcer quality of a speaking voice on the computer screen (or nowadays on a mobile device) can never completely replace the live instructor. Nonetheless, given the volume of technical and regulatory information staff must now digest and show competence in, it should be considered an important option. Learning management systems, which aggregate records of participants’ course completions, can offer proof to auditors and regulators that you have done your due diligence in meeting statutory requirements.

That benefit, however, should be secondary. Make sure you first get what you pay for: increased competence. – MarEx

Roger Kent develops computer-based training for the MARPOL Training Institute in California.