Developing multidisciplinary blended learning courses for maritime education with cross-European collaboration

Abstract

Continuous training is considered nowadays as a key issue for the evolution of people being at professional and personal levels, enhancing productivity, employability, and social stability in a globally competitive world. Furthermore, the introduction of new technologies, the imposition of new regulations in the maritime industry and the growing challenges at port, shipping and logistics level increase the demand for new educational schemes. Concerning the market needs, TrainMoS II and On the MoSway Network (OTMW-N) European projects aimed for the development of student and professional's skills and laid the foundations for a cross-European maritime educational programme. TrainMoS II was the evolution of the TrainMoS project, improving the existing tools and covering a whole new range of technical and operational topics, including alternative fuels and technologies, logistics and safety issues such as damage control, evacuation and crisis management operations. TrainMoS II covered also the provision of blended vocational education to undergraduates and professionals who belong to different sectors in the multimodal transport chain. Both projects focused on the establishment of an educational framework facilitating the collaboration between industry and academia and used advanced ICT tools to match the maritime market needs with the training provision and to develop new and enriched content for the online platform with learning material and knowledge for both professionals and students. In the present study, the outcomes and experiences gathered from running the aforementioned projects are presented and discussed for their potential impact on the maritime industry.

Implementation of Sustainable Motorways of the Sea Services Multi-Criteria Analysis of a Croatian Port System

“…Transport is regarded as one of the most important sectors of the European economy [20]. The creation of an effective multimodal transport network, which integrates sea and inland waterways, land transport, and air transport, has been recognized as a very important aspect of sustainable development Sustainability 2019, 11, 6827 3 of 21 of the EU transport sector [21,22]. This should embody smartness, sustainability and inclusiveness, the key drivers of a Blue Economy [21].…”

“…This form of economy encourages renewal. Based on these principles, the EU has created the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) [21], consisting of two layers of planning: the Comprehensive Network (covering all European regions) and the Core Network (most important connections within the Comprehensive Network linking the most important nodes) [25].…”

Scientific Research in Education, Vol 3 (2020)

“…Tarptautinis jūrininkų švietimo ir mokymo reguliavimas remiasi greitai kintančios aplinkos įtaka laivybai, siekia aukšto jūrų saugumo, taršos prevencijos lygio, operacijų tvarumo, norint atliepti šiuos poreikius reikalinga analizuoti ir reorganizuoti jūrininkų rengimo procesą keliant naujus tikslus ir uždavinius (Luo, Shin, 2016;Mukherjee, Mejia, Xu, 2020). Šiandien jūrininkas turi gebėti vadovauti ir (arba) tinkamai prisitaikyti, jis turi būti iniciatyvus bei dinamiškas, mokymo programos turi apimti visiškai naują spektrą techninių ir eksploatacinių temų, įskaitant alternatyvius degalus ir technologijas, logistikos ir saugos klausimus, tokius kaip žalos kontrolė, evakuacija ir krizių valdymo operacijos (Boulougouris et al, 2019). Švietimo institucijos, centrai, treniruoklių ir technologijų tiekėjai turi nuolat atnaujinti ir modernizuoti mokymo(si) bazę, siekiant jos atitikties šiuolaikinių laivų įrangai.…”

Analysis of factors influencing the effectiveness of MET instructors

“…However, according to an IMO study, maritime education does not always reach its desired and pre-determined goals (Kalnina and Priednieks 2017 ). “The objective of any course is to provide the best learning experience to the students” (Boulougouris et al 2019 ). The IMO model course(s) could assist in the preparation of training courses.…”