Maritime Students’ Use and Perspectives of Cloud-Based Desktop Simulators: CSCL and Implications for Educational Design

This study investigates the challenges and opportunities of using cloud-based simulators for training in maritime education and training (MET). The aim is to map bachelor students’ use and perspectives to inform educational design when implementing cloud simulation into the curricula. This study uses an ethnographic design approach in the tradition of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and draws on video-recorded exercises and interviews (n=22) from 1st and 3rd-class maritime bachelor’s students engaged in navigation exercises on cloud simulation. The findings suggest that individual training with cloud-based simulators in MET can enhance the repetition of skills necessary for better performance in a full-mission simulator with current technology and rather straightforward instructional designs. However, the findings also emphasise that simulator exercises need to be more engaging for students in order to provide a meaningful learning experience. Hence, simulator software needs to provide the means for students to collaborate during exercises, and feedback provided by the system needs to be carefully aligned with the student’s previous knowledge in order to provide adequate scaffolding.