THE USE OF LOW-COST SOFTWARE IN SEARCH AND RESCUE TRAINING COURSES FOR MARITIME STUDENTS

Abstract

According to International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers (STCW), adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), maritime officers must be trained in the field of search and rescue (SAR) operations and ship handling under distress situations. Providing the required competences for maritime students can only be done by both theoretical education and practical training. For the later, providers of maritime education for officers rely of simulators which are most of the time very expensive. The number of seats and the time students can spend inside the simulators is also limited. In this paper, we provide a critical review of a low-cost gaming software with respect to regulations on SAR operation and ship handling. To this end, we study the search and rescue simulation capabilities of the Maritime Search and Rescue Ship Simulator with respect to the SAR and ship handling curricula at the “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy. We analyze which subjects from the maritime navigation study program can be covered by the game and how the competences can be gained through individual gaming. The Maritime Search and Rescue Ship Simulator is a PC compatible game that was developed by a partnership between game software companies (Reality Twist and Rondomedia) and German SAR services (Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Bremen and German Maritime Search and Rescue Service). The game can be used to complement the students training according with their individual needs. The advantage of such games is that they can be installed on personal computers and used for training by students in their study time.