Technology Achievements in

Maritime Educational Procedures:

Behavioral Assessment Framework
Abstract
The implementation of technology achievement in maritime educational procedure has been proved as
one of the most effective methods in last ten years. Nevertheless nowadays educational procedures
have remained stocked in old fashion assessment methods. An innovative behavioral assessment
framework will be presented in this paper. This framework can be applied in combination with the
technological achievement, in order to measure the effectiveness of the course and the added skills of
the participants. Moreover, in this study the effectiveness of learning methods during the simulation
course in comparison with the added skills and the competence of participants will be examined. The
extracted results could be used as a guide for further implementation of this assessment method and as
improvement for the effectiveness of the educational procedure.
Vasilakis Panagiotis, Prof. Nikitakos Nikitas
University of the Aegean, Dpt. Shipping Trade & Transport
Key Words: Maritime Simulation, Learning Theories, Behavioral Assessment

Introduction

T
here are key differences amongst academic education and maritime education. One of the
most important is that maritime education is mainly based on competence based training.
According to the international convention of seafarer education and training, Standard of
Training Certification & Watch Keeping, (S.T.C.W.) the goal of maritime education is to deal
theoretical knowledge with the direct implementation of this knowledge in working environment (IMO
n.d.). The improvement of skills and competences of the seafarers consist the main target in maritime
educational procedure.
It is a fact that the contributions of technological achievements in educational procedure increase the
effectiveness of learning. More over the immersion of participants in working virtual environment
creates interaction between human memory and machines (hardware-software). This interaction has a
multi purpose effectiveness. Initially it helps the participants to familiarize their self with the working
environment. During this procedure the participants have to cope known and unknown procedure
which helps them to express their reactions and their feelings. Finally it is a fact that the participants
during their immersions in virtual environments add new experiences and increase their competences
and theirs skills as well. Virtual environments and more specific maritime simulators are considered as
one of the most effective learning tools.
The S.T.C.W. with the Manila amendments 2010 has determined the training in maritime simulator
as mandatory. This mandatory implementation generates questions such as “which learning methods
must be applied in virtual environment” or “the oral and the written examination is enough to
determine the skills and the competences of the participants”. The scope of this paper is to present an
innovative Behavioral Assessment Framework (B.A.F.) which could be applied in any maritime
simulation procedure in order to record and finally to measure the behavioral change of participants
related with the educational goals. The relation between reactions and behaviors lead us to extract
specific measurements of skills index.

Learning Theories in Virtual Environments

It is well known that the selections of learning theories are one of the key points in learning procedure.
Moreover the selections of learning theories must deal with the educational goal and of course with the

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participant’s background. The gap between the lecture procedure and virtual environment lecture
procedure is mainly based on the reflections of the participants to apply their new knowledge directly
in the virtual environment. On the other hand, lecture procedure has to achieve effective methods in
order to store new knowledge into the long term memory of the participants. The effectiveness of the
lecture procedure is usually based on the recall of stored knowledge and assessed by written and oral
examination. According to the theory of Robert Marzano (Marzano 1989) the Information Processing
Model of human memory mainly consisted from three basic functions.

FIGURE 1 Information Processing Model

Source: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/memory.html
Sensory memory: is responsible for the transfer of stimulus from the environment to the short term
memory. Short Term memory: includes all those necessary procedures in order to store or to reject
the income stimulus. Long Term memory: includes all those stimulus and knowledge’s which
processed and finally stored from short term memory. It has been established through experiments that
the strength of stimulus is a determine factor for the process and finally for the store of stimulus to the
long term memory. Based on this the strength or the weakness of the stimulus is directly related with
the configuration of maritime simulators. Specifically there are four categories of maritime simulators:
Full mission, Multi task, Limited task, Single task. The classification of those categories mainly has to
do with the immersion of the users and finally with the power output of the stimulus.
According to the International Maritime Organization (I.M.O.) and the S.T.C.W 95 the qualifying
procedure in maritime education is based on the ship experience.(S.-C. O. IMO 2000). This also
indicates that the level of education increased according to the experience of the mariners. It is obvious
that the proposed learning theory will be change from the basic level to the advance level. In order to
increase the effectiveness of simulation course and the effectiveness of educational procedure those
definitions lead us to determine different learning theories for the basic and the advance educational
level in maritime simulation environment.
According to the literature experimental learning theories (E.L.T.) could be adjusted more easily to
the basic educational level. Experiential Based Learning in a formal setting includes teaching methods
that involve the students in doing activities and reflecting on what they did. This includes such
techniques as case studies, simulations or any activity that uses real life experiences as its indicated
from the literature. (Beaudin 1995) The implementation E.L.T. in basic education gives the opportunity
to the instructor to identify the educational and the experience level of participant. Based on this, the
instructor could adjust the learning material to the needs of the participants. On the other hand
instructors have to spend valuable time to realize the educational level of the participant.
The advanced maritime education referred to the specific high level of knowledge which must be
improved in a short time. The use of maritime simulator indicated by the S.T.C.W. as the most reliable
and effective way of learning. Although it must be considered that learning theories are the “vehicle”
for the transfer of knowledge. As the main educational goal in advance maritime education remains the
improvement of problem solving and decision making. The implementation of problem based learning
theory in virtual environments gives the opportunity to the participants to apply existing knowledge
and at the same time to add the new one which they gained during the course. Problem Based Learning

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(PBL) is an instructional method in which students learn through facilitated problem solving. In P.B.L.,
participants have to solve a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer.
In the implementation of P.B.L. in virtual environments, the participant works in a small collaborative
group like a real ship’s, learning what they need to know in order to solve a problem. The instructor
acts as a facilitator to guide student learning through the learning cycle. In this cycle, also known as
the P.B.L. tutorial process, the participants are presented with a problem scenario. They formulate and
analyze the problem by identifying the relevant facts from the scenario. This fact-identification step
helps students represent the problem. As mariners understand the problem better, they generate
hypotheses about possible solutions. An important part of this cycle is identifying knowledge
deficiencies relative to the problem. These knowledge deficiencies become what are known as the
learning issues that participants research during their Self-Directed Learning (SDL). Following S.D.L.,
students apply their new knowledge and evaluate their hypotheses in light of what they have learned.
At the completion of each problem, students reflect on the abstract knowledge gained. The teacher
helps students learn the cognitive skills needed for problem solving and collaboration. (Hmelo-Silver
2004)

Simulation course design

The design of the course is a complex procedure which must be considered different kinds of
parameters like educational environment, available technological equipment and educational goals.
Moreover, the design of the course must include clear procedure which will take place before and after
the engagement of the participant in the simulation environment. The educational procedure during
maritime simulation course is designed for basic and advanced education as it is already mentioned.
The sub committed of I.M.O. has already designed the specific course for the mariners with focus on
the minimum level of competence and skill for the rating of mariners. It is obvious that the maritime
simulator could be used for multi proposes. In that case, there must be a generic design of the course
which could be easily adapted according to the educational needs.
The requirement of S.T.C.W. about maritime simulation procedure indicates that the design of
simulation course is a procedure which could be separated in three main parts. The first part will
include the information about the field of the course and the procedures which will be followed. The
second part will be the direct immersion of participant into the simulator and engagement to the
specific role. The third part will take place after the end of the simulation procedure. This part could be
called as debriefing and will be focused on the mistakes and on failed procedure which have been done
from the participants during the courses. Those steps are described in the figure 3.
The procedure of the simulation course must be a linear procedure with feedback to each step. It is
well known that each individual during the course develops a different behavior and different reaction
in the same stimulus. During the simulation course this phenomenon is increasing and the feedback
from each step of educational procedure becomes increasingly difficult. The human behavior is a
determining factor for the smooth procedure of the course. By extension it could be concluded that in
hard working environment like merchant ships the human behavior is a determine factor for the safety
and the operation of the ships.
The existence of an effective tool which could be applied in educational procedure of simulation
course provides information about the behavior of the participants and would be useful for the
effectiveness and the redirected of the course. This tool must be related with the educational goal of the
course and will be applied in their early stages of the course upon completion. This constitutes the
basic acceptance of the B.A.F.in maritime virtual environment. The development and the
implementation of the B.A.F. will be discussed and presented further.

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 FIGURE 3 Simulation course design.

Behavioral Assessment Framework

The B.A.F. is an effective tool which could be implemented in any maritime simulation procedure with
the proper configuration. The main goal is to provide an effective tool to the instructors and by
extension to the institution in order to measure the effectiveness of the course and moreover, the added
skill of the participants. The methodology of the B.A.F. starts in the Concern Based Adoption Model
(C.B.A.M.) and particularly in the Measurement of change in schools with Level of Use (Gene Hall,
2006). Moreover B.A.F. is a modified framework which is adaptive to the needs of maritime education.
The basic perception is that human behaviors change during the learning procedure. According to
Malone 1990 “…with behavioral assessment we would like to predict what people do under specific
circumstances.”(MALONE 1990). An extent study during maritime simulation courses indicates that:
a) Amongst the team of the participants which is monitoring the simulation course some of the
individuals will be active members of the procedure and some others will be passive members of
the procedure. The degree of behavioral change indicates the effect of learning procedure for each
individual and for the team of simulation course in general.
b) The developing skills and the competence of the participants during the simulation course is a
combination of educational goals. This includes such things as self-confidence, stamina
interpersonal skills and presentation skills. The term behavioral competence includes the ability to
adopt appropriate observable behaviors in work -related situations.
Those indications lead to three behavioral assumptions:
The first is referred to the educational goals which must be achieved during the course and it will be
called Simulation Assessing Categories (Table 1). The second has to do with the level of participation-
understanding during the simulation course. This will be called Simulation Assessing Levels (Table 2).
Each of those parameters expresses specific behaviors which have been recorded during the simulation
course. Those recorded behaviors grouped, categorized and separated according to the simulation
assessing level and to the educational goals. Finally those behaviors constitute a quality behavioral
chart a necessary tool for the quality assessment of B.A.F. Unfortunately this behavioral chart could not
be presented in this paper because of each size. From the above; it could be summarized that B.A.F. is
moves through two directions the first has to do with the quantity measurement of simulation course
and the second has to do with the quality measurement according the participants reports.

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B.A.F. is based on self reporting questionnaire according to the behavioral assessment handbook
(Crimero A. 1986). The specific questionnaire is divided in seven sections according to the educational
goals. Its of those sections includes a group of questions which are related with the actions of
participants which took place during the task. The participants of the simulation course have to express
the degree of agreement or disagreement with those statements.
0 1,2 3,4,5 6,7

Irrelevant Is not all true Somewhat true Very true

Rating Scale of self reporting questionnaire

The collection of data took place during the briefing and debriefing procedure of maritime simulation
course. Initial the data collected and summarized per educational category. From the above procedure
the average score for each educational goal will be appeared. The average score of each educational
goal classified into the table of simulation assessing level. This quantity classification leads to the
combined diagram of ‘Simulation Educational Goals – Simulation Assessing Levels’ which presented
in table 6 and 7. At the same time those quantity results are placed into the behavioral chart and
automatically results for each educational goal are appeared.
The initial data which will be extracted from the implementation of BAF in briefing stage could lead
the instructor to a brief overview about the perception and the behaviors of the participant related with
the object of the course. This data could be used initially as feedback from the participant to the
instructor. Further more from the initial data the combinatorial table between assessing level and
assessing categories will be obtained. This combinatorial table will be the benchmark for the
comparison of the data amongst the initial and the final state.

Skills Measurement
The added value of B.A.F. is focused on improvement and measurement of the added skills of the
participant during the simulation course. It is well known that competencies outline the skills and/or
knowledge required for the successful performance of work-related processes. This is defined in terms
of the behaviors which needed for successful job performance (Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
2007). From the above it could be concluded that the measurements of behaviors in specific
educational goal could lead to the measurement of skills. Moreover, the combination of educational
goal in simulator procedure must lead to the specific skills for the participants.
The I.M.O. through the S.T.C.W. indicates that maritime simulator is mainly focused on the ability
of seafarer to operate properly and to indicate knowledge of the function related with ships equipment.
By extension it could be concluded that the maritime simulator is mainly focused on the improvement
of operation and management skills. It is obvious that the improvement of operation and management
skills is closely correlated with the ability of technical skills. The measurement of the operation, the
management and the technical skills will be done by the combination of educational goals during the
simulation course. Moreover the following combination will be arisen:
a) Operational skills: is the ability to apply the declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge in
a timely and accurate manner and the ability to cope with any problem-solving situations,
including unseen ones (Woods 1988). There is not doubt that the operation skill is a mixture of
human capacity. It is well known that the proper operation of any equipment requires Knowledge,

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 Functions, Planning and performing. Those components could be easily mapped with the
educational goals and more specifically with the simulation assessing categories. From the quantity
results of each category will arise the average indicator of operational skills.
Components of
Simulation Assessing Categories
operational skills
Knowledge Category of Knowledge
Functions -//- Assessing
Planning -//- Planning
Performing -//- Performing
INDICATOR OF OPERATIONAL SKILLS
Table 3: Indicator of operational skills
b) Management Skills. According to the David A Whetten & Kim S. Cameron (Whetten 2010) the
management skills are the results of three basic components: a)The management skills are a
behavior and include a set of action which lead to specific results. b) The management skills are
self controlled. The personality and the behavior of the individual are a determine factor for the
effectiveness and the control of management skills. c) The management skills are interrelated and
combined actions. In any case they are not simple repeated behaviors but complex reflection and
reaction. From the above it could be assumed that management skills are combination of behaviors
which operate conjointly. The pyramid of F. John Reh indicates the fourth basic components in the
base of management skills. Those components will be added and mapped with simulation
assessing categories.
Components of Simulation Assessing Categories
management skills
Planning Category of Planning
Organizing -//- Acquiring information
Control -//- Performing
Direct -//- Assessing
INDICATOR OF MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Table 4: Indicator of Management Skills
c) Technical skills. The definition of technical skills came from Jeffrey D. Doyle(Jeffrey D. Doyle
2007) which has developed the table of technical skill for medical surgery. Medical surgery is
based on competence based training and there are a lot of similarities with competence based
training of seafarers. The table of Jeffrey D.Doyle was adopted and modified according to the
needs of maritime education. Based on this the basic components of technical skills are extracted
and mapped with the simulation assessing categories.
Components of
Simulation Assessing Categories
Technical Skills
Knowledge Category of Knowledge
Communication -//- Sharing
Function -//- Assessment
Execution -//- Performing
Self Reporting -//- Self reporting
INDICATOR OF TECHNICAL SKILLS
Table 5 Indicator of Technical Skills

Implementation of B.A.F.
The implementation of BAF could be done to the advance and to the basic maritime education either.
The condition under which the BAF could be implemented is mainly focused on two issues: a) The
simulation course must follow the specific procedure as it is described in figure 3. b) The educational
goal of the course must match with the simulation assessing categories as they are described. Until
today the BAF has been implemented in Wartsila Sea land Academy in Subic Philippines in advanced
education and in Merchant Marine Academy of Chios –Greece as basic education. Below the
implementation of BAF in two different courses in advance training will be presented.
a) Cargo Handling Simulation Course

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Course objective: The purpose of this course is to provide the basis upon which learners will
understand the role and function of cargo transport units. Moreover, it aims to introduce to the trainees
the functional, technical and managerial knowledge about the safe and efficient transportation of
marine cargo. It develops the skills of participants in the management of cargo handling and transport
planning.
Participants: The total number of individuals who participated in this lesson was twelve persons. Of
those individuals seven hold a rank of chef-officer and the remaining five were in the rank of Third
Officer. This is a set of individuals with increased professional experience and high educational
background. They have developed a sense of professional collaboration and it seems that the spirit of
teamwork distinguishes them in all their activities.

Pre-Assessment: Individuals in their introduction to the course simulation declared knowledgeable of

specific procedures which can only be performed with little or no difficulty. It appears to have limited
capabilities in designing process works particularly proceedings involving long-term planning so that
this also reflects executive ability. However, as a group and as individuals distinguished for their high
sense of teamwork and cooperation and interest in learning procedure. This corporation lead them to
obtain information.
Final-Assessment: Upon completion of the simulation course, it presents a particular change regarding
the behaviors of individuals as to their educational goals. Thus the same individuals are presented with
more confidence both in their knowledge of the learning object and as regards the implementing
capacities. The effect of the learning process seems to be evident in both cognitive and designing level
to the required operating functions. There is no doubt that the participants increase their ability to apply
their knowledge during the simulation course. As extension this could be happened in real working
environment. Individuals seem to have worked positively to design features and to obtain additional
experience with handling issues and difficult situations. Individuals now appear ready to plan and
execute processes of long duration with accuracy and confidence. It should be noted that although the
increased capacity that display on the learning objectives and the opportunities given to improvisation
remained focused on specific methods of use. But this is not a disadvantage of this educational process
but mainly on previous work experiences of individuals, which will entitle them to stimulus comparison
in this particular learning object.
Skills Measurement: The measurement of skills will be done according to the methodology. The results
which will be extracted are separeted in two phases. The pre- assessment phase which conducted at the
initial stage of the course and the final assessment which will be conducted after the completion of the
course. Pre-assessment:

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 Technical skills: The use of the equipment according to the statements of participants running
marginally following a set of pattern use with no or few difficulties
 Operation skills : Individuals in this group seem to have specific knowledge and practices in their
minds. The implementations of that knowledge and practices took place very few times or they
have never been implemented.
 Management skills : The mechanical use in management skills indicate individuals which are both
good recipients of information but had lower execution and decision making. The delay in decision
making has probably been due to lack of experience and not necessarily to a lack of knowledge.
Finall Assessment :
 Technical Skills: The individuals present a harmony between knowledge and executional functions,
giving them confidence to operate the equipment and potential for developing cooperation in order
to address operational situations. Being able to cope with it whatever they were asked and resolve
any problems that may arise, applying practices that they know. Nevertheless, lag behind the lack of
self planning to deal with situations that may not know.
 Operation skills : It is clear that with the completion of this course individuals have acquired skills
which make them ready to face situations and functions, variously focusing on their effectiveness in
the use but also on the entire group. At the same time participants started to make changes and
established ways of using and increasing thereby the operational capacity.
 Management Skills : Thus, the end of the course finds the individuals at the level of mastery which
highlights the confidence and readiness to deal with any situation relaeted with the cargo handlig.
Self-confidence is a combination of knowledge and practical experience and indicates individual
which acquired those skills during the course.

Chart 1 Skills Changes for Cargo Handling Simulation Course

Β) Bridge Resource Management

Course objective: The course Bridge Resource Management is addressed to experienced deck officers,
especially the rank of Captain or Chief -Officer. The ultimate goal of this course is the participants to
develop new management techniques under pressure situations so that they can learn the required
managerial and operational skills needed to cope in similar situations. After the end of the course the
participants should be able to develop skills in ships management and ships handling under any weather
condition.
Participants: In the specific course12 individuals participates; all of whom hold the rank of Captain
with total sea service more than eight years. The background of the participants indicates personalities
with highly qualified education and a lot sea experience.
Pre-Assessment: During the implementation of Pre-Assessment the statements of the participants show
that this group has a high indicator in the performance of functions and operation procedures in the area
of bridge management. There is extensive use of sharing information and exchanges of opinions related
with the ships handling. The participants focused on their existing knowledge in an effort to create
strong links amongst the team and finally to improve their effectiveness. The individual appears wary;
related with the functions and procedures. They would like to tackle satisfied any kind of tasks with their

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existing knowledge and information that they carriers and they do not make any particular effort to seek
new information.
Final- Assessment: The effect of the educational process seems to leave the participants unaffected.
The course takes place with very few changes the majority of educational goals remain steadily with the
initial statement. However, it could not be released the remarkable changes in the category of
performance and self reporting. Obviously, the team through practice in the simulator was able to
highlight and improve techniques and procedures which are already known for them. In that way the
participants improve the enforcement capabilities. Thus it is perfectly reasonable to strength the role of
individuals as to the functions performed during simulation. Moreover the behavioral change during the
course was on short term base without any observable result regarding the educational point of view.
This implies that the learning outcome of the process was the minimum.

Skills Measurement:
It is obvious that the learning outcome was unsatisfactory. From the above measurement, it was found
that the short term of behavioral changes during the task was not enough to alter the simulator assessing
level. This statement does not represent the skills outcome of individuals. Moreover, the effect of short
term behavioral changes in experienced individuals during the task was enough to alter the skills index.
Changes in skills are listed in chart 2. It is a fact that the technical skills include the category of
performance and shows a remarkable change. The end of the course finds the individuals able to cope
with integrated into any troubleshooting request, while knowing very well all the functions and
procedures required to manage all the available navigation equipment. It could be concluded that the
skills indicators through the educational process improved the degree of individual effectiveness.
Moreover this degree does not always lead the individuals to the level of renewal related with the use of
navigation equipment.

Chart 2 Skills Changes for Bridge Resource Management Course

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Conclusions
Learning Theories in every educational process are the link between the function of human memory and
the object to be taught. Undoubtedly the maritime simulators are the “vehicle” of learning moreover
without the proper learning theory is very likely that the “board” to the knowledge could be not be
achieved. The basic perception is that the educational procedure in maritime simulators is based in
theory of constructivism - constructivism. More over the experimental learning theories and problem
based learning theories are indicated as the most appropriate theories for the basic and advance maritime
education.
It is widely accepted in a number of studies that the behavior of individuals changes during and after
the completion of a learning process. The maritime simulator acts as accelerator of knowledge, based on
that in a short time the behavioral changes could be identified. Through behavioral assessment we want
to predict: “with reasonable certainty what the individual does under working stressful conditions that
are reproduced via simulator”. The grouping and recording specific behaviors before entering
individuals in the course of the simulation and after the competition of the course could lead us to
certain conclusions about the effect of learning procedure. The degree of change in behavior for each
separate educational goal highlights the effectiveness of the educational process.
Arguably the B.A.F. is an innovative effective tool which could easily be adapted in maritime
simulation procedure. Through the implementation of B.A.F. has determined the effectiveness of the
simulation course and the added skills from the educational procedure. Those characteristic examples
which are presented in this paper provide the effectiveness of B.A.F. through the behavioral changes in
different group of individuals with completely different background and experience. The effectiveness
of learning procedure is obvious in both of these cases. Moreover the extract of three basic skills index
indicate the level of training for the team and it is a clear demonstration of added skills of the individuals
and the effect of competence based training.

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