Accessible from anywhere and anytime on cloud, yes it is “e-learning”. E-learning is well-liked among many of us and it is favourable too in education sector. It can be categorizes into two:-
- Synchronous (eg:- Chat, video conferencing, polling etc.)
- Asynchronous (eg:- Blogs, wiki, Email, etc.)
Now focusing on maritime industry, most of the companies are using CBTs to train their employees. Only watching the videos and having quiz after that is enough to train the employees.
A BIG NO!!!
What about Virtual Reality technology? We can add that to train our maritime employees and students. ‘VR is a wholly immersive experience that allows the user to interact with new virtual worlds’. Some mixed VR with AR but Augmented Reality is different. It allows people to add digital elements into their actual environment. Eg:- Pokemo GO, snapchat and instagram stories, etc. AR can be very helpful in Naval Architecture and Ship-buildings.
If we can play tennis within the confine of our abode then why not welding training. Sony Interactive Entertainment has done this on 13th Oct, 2016 through PS-VR. Now it’s our turn to develop for the great cause.
VR technology is a cost-effective, portable maritime training system that can be used on-board, in training centres or even at home environment. On safety culture challenge, research indicates that 49% of the organizations with effective cultures are less likely to have accidents and 60% make less errors in the workplace. But the continuous and unexpected incidents at sea create a need for a different point of view on safety outside the traditional thinking, ways and practices. Today, safety within a safety culture and safety climate is a priority for the shipping companies. According to the International Chamber of Shipping, the worldwide population of seafarers serving internationally trading merchant ships is estimated at 1,647,500 seafarers of which 774,000 are officers and 873,500 are ratings. Simulators training is expensive, out of reach for most of the officers.
Due to the scarcity of simulators, there are many advantages of VR training offers to maritime education. With VR training, the training becomes visual the learning process real life experiences by visualizing the tasks. It is also a safe place to practice complex situations. The cost of education becomes cheaper based on the learning groups, the education frequency and the education place. Shipping keeps on insisting on a manual training compared to the ‘Automated/Digital’, one innovatively adopted by the airlines.
This however is not quite effective as on a modern vessel, where everything works well, the trainee experiences few practical challenges. This may make the training complete, but the trainee is not capable to handle unexpected scenarios.
Hence VR technology can be used in maritime institution and for training in the maritime companies. Welding, operation of lathe machines and various other finishing operations, overhauling of the components, starting/stopping procedures of any machineries on-board and many more these type of training can be provided through VR technology.
It is well known that about 60-80% of the accidents are attributed to human error. Generally, each operator or seafarer must undergo training before starting professional work.
There are mainly two organizations that perform extensive research on applied VR i.e. The Aboa Mare Maritime Academy and the Game Lab of Turku University of Applied Sciences.
However, the development of the shipping industry faces significant challenges, most of them related with integration of the advance technologies such as modern control systems, Block-chain technology, Cyber attacks and Data theft, Blue economy and Decarbonization. And other demerits are realism in training, simulated abnormalities and accidents, team training, non-technical staff training, scenarios initiating abnormalities and malfunctions.
IS DIGITAL TRAINING ENOUGH?
What about physical training and safety training?
“I hear, I forget
I see, I remember
But when I do, I understand”
The marine_inShorts 