E-LEARNING MARITIME ENGLISH COURSE-PILOTING STAGE

Abstract

E-learning Maritime English course-piloting stage First, the need for Maritime English within the shipping industry will be emphasized with special reference to the multicultural crews on board ships, which may lead to serious maritime disasters due to poor Maritime English knowledge. Most incidents at sea are the result of communication problems, therefore, great attention should be paid by MET (Maritime Education and Training) institutions to the Maritime English teaching and learning. There is a strong need for collaboration between these institutions and the seafarer recruiting agencies to find the right solutions for implementing the STCW10 (Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping) and IMO (International Maritime Organisation) competence requirements regarding the knowledge and use of Maritime English, both orally and in writing. Then, the content and structure of the traditional Maritime English course will be presented. The course book has been designed in accordance with the STCW'10 Convention and IMO Model Course 3.17 requirements. The specialist disciplines, i.e. seamanship fundamentals and navigation fundamentals have also been taken into account in selecting the topics and technical terminology to be taught. Next, the conversion of the traditional course into an e-learning format will be explained and demonstrated. There will also be pointed out the advantages of this format as compared with the traditional one, i.e. a huge data base and permanent topic upgrading possibility, the students studying at their own pace both in the resource center and at home, teachers involved in less paper work, but in more creative learning resources development, etc. Finally, the partial results of the piloting stage will be displayed and commented upon.