Sea schools are working in very different environments and are also facing very different expectations from their clients, i.e. learners. Considering such a variety of circumstances in which sea schools are teaching, they use different teaching strategies and teaching/learning tools. So, this set of sample teaching and learning materials doesn’t fit to all sea schools but each sea school may find useful and adopt at least one of them.

Live presential online courses / video recorded courses

Many online course providers offer live presential online courses using videocall applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, Skype etc. and also video recorded courses for those who are not able to attend live course sessions. Many of them just record live sessions and offer them as video recorded courses what is wrong as the learners should be addressed differently. The main difference is that in live sessions there is high level of interaction with students while in recorded session such interaction is impossible. There are also challenges with ensure the personal data protection on recorded live sessions being after that offered as video recorded courses. So, the teacher should make a special video for a video recorded course considering all above.

Enriching textual online learning materials with videos

Pure online courses also include textual material with images, photos etc. But videos can enrich them significantly in particular when the subject is practical in the real world. An example of such textual material are learning courses at egmdss.com, e.g. “Power ON/OFF and Volume” subpage of a Short Range Certificate Course.

But videos can also enrich printed materials like handbooks. An example is a handbook “15 minutes for a perfect sailing”. Below is one of the pages with the QR code in the upper right corner which is linked to a video showing how a distress call is launched with a VHF radio.

Interactive simulations

Sea schools usually use sailing simulators, VHF radio simulators (e.g. https://www.egmdss.com/gmdss-courses/enrol/index.php?id=33), NAVTEX receiver simulators (e.g. https://www.egmdss.com/gmdss-courses/enrol/index.php?id=33)  etc. which are available at the market as standalone simulators. But simulators can also be used for better teaching and learning of some specific knowledge.

For example, the lights which vessels should exhibit from sunset to sunrise and from sunrise to sunset in restricted visibility are usually only presented with images from the bow, the stern, the port side and the starboard side. But these are only 4 angles out of 360 (a circle). At ecolregs.com are available simulations of lights for every single scenario from the COLREGs, e.g. lights for “A power-driven vessel towing, length of the tow over 200 m – lights”.

Case studies

After teaching a subject, the knowledge of students may be easily interactively checked on case studies from real-life situations.

For example, after teaching IALA lateral marks edge cases from real-life situations may be discussed with students. One of these edge cases are lonely lateral marks without their pair. There are many at coastal waters and one of them is lonely red port side lateral buoy in Croatia near cape of Istria peninsula. A good question to discuss it would be on which side shall we pass the lateral buoy when sailing from NW to SE between PORER and FENOLIGA as a wrong decision would mean inevitable grounding.

Practical applications

Where possible practical applications shall be part of courses as they help students to get better understanding.

For example, following maritime safety information is very important for safe sailing. But many vessels don’t have a NAVTEX receiver, so this information can only be followed with VHF radio in many seas of the world. In Adriatic maritime safety information is broadcasted by coastal radio stations 4 times a day every 6 hours over their VHF working channels. As in such cases this information can only be heard recorded broadcasts may be interpreted by students. For good interpretation they should have enough knowledge from maritime communication: procedural words, maritime English and phonetical alphabet. This is a sample broadcast recording which is accompanied with its transcript (for teacher).

Additional resources

There are always some aspects of every single subject which cannot be covered during the courses. If they are important for the real-life they may be given to students as an additional resource even they are not relevant for the official examination.

For example, sailing limitations in Croatia are quite specific comparing to other countries as they have many islands close to each other. And as Croatia is a country with large charter tourism with more than 17000 chartered boats their sailing limitations become relevant for almost every single student in Europe. These limitations are written in pilot books but looking at them in a form of an infographic they are clear in a second.

Student support

Often students stay alone with the learning resources they get during the course they attended. But while they are studying the new questions for which they cannot find a deterministic answer may arise. So, every single sea school should give the opportunity to their students to ask additional questions after finishing the course. Small sea schools may promote email communication while the largest ones could organise free of charge scheduled online group consultations for their students at least once a week. They may use the same videocall application as they are using for online courses.