International Higher Education Teacher Award ^2024/25

The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREGs) are a set of rules to be followed by navigation officers to avoid collisions at sea. It is one of the most important International Conventions that all seagoing Officers must understand and be able to apply to real world situations. However, case law, as stated in the MARS and MAIB reports, indicates that many of the principles of the COLREGs are improperly understood and applied. That fore, COLREGs e-learning module course has been developed as an innovative online e-learning and e-assessment platform by adapting the pedagogical framework of proven and appropriate methods and methodologies. Also, one of the objectives was to identify the interactive pedagogical framework, applying multimedia learning techniques in the development and delivery of training courses. Scenario design and creation of course has undertaken a series of activities to improve training provisions for COLREGs. These activities are: analysis of comprehensive needs, study of recent COLREGs accidents, incidents and analysis of survey questionnaires and series of workshops. Course creation consisted of the work in creating a comprehensive database of a number of collision and near miss reports. These summarized reports were converted into animated scenarios by developing a range of real life situations using simulations of a bird’s eye view, bridge view, radar and ECDIS view. That helps students to acquire the perception of situation and purpose of the Rules. Scenarios can be used by students at home and maritime professional at sea or at the classes by professors. The course has more than 283 scenarios divided by the rules and annexes. The navigational lights are shown in 3D, so the user can observe them from all directions. That helps the students with the perception of the navigational lights and better understanding the angles of visibility. The course is available at 6 different languages. In 2018 eCOLREGs Course has been fully introduced to students of Faculty of Maritime Studies Rijeka and is still used today. In three academic years, 150 students undergo the oral examination of COLREGs. Comparing last year results of final exam in COLREGs with former year’s result of final exam the statistics show increase of 23% of students with the best final score and the number of students with minimum knowledge is reduced for 25%. This is evidence that course helps students in learning and understanding COLREGs.

Methodology

The Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka was the leader of the EU project "Avoiding Collisions at Sea" (ACTs). Other partners in the project were MET institutions coming from the UK (C4FF), Spain (SeaTeach), Slovenia (Spinnaker), Bulgaria (Nikola Vaptsarov Maritime Academy) and Turkey (Piri Reis University). Research on the development of learning materials began with a COLREGs questionnaire completed by more than 1,800 students and seafarers. In parallel with completing the questionnaire, a large number of collision reports from available databases were analyzed. Based on the obtained results and analyses, the appearance of the learning material for COLREGs was defined. Most of the work and time was spent preparing scenarios that included all the rules in COLREGs. Prepared scenarios were simulated on TRANSAS NTRPO 5000 navigational simulator and short videos with scenario display such as birds view, bridge view, radar view and ECDIS view were prepared. The developed eCOLREGs Course has passed two rounds of evaluation by professional seafarers, professors employed at MET institutions and students.

Tools, equipment, technology used

Tools, equipment and technology for development of eCOLREGs online Course included TRANSAS NTPRO 5000 navigational simulator, 3D visualizations and online platforms. The eCOLREGs Course can be accessed from any computer where there is an Internet connection. It can be used during lectures, courses, for learning at home or on ships. In this way, unlimited group or individual learning is enabled, which cannot be achieved in practice on navigation simulators. 3D visualization of navigation lights enabled virtually identical learning of navigation lights as if the candidate were on a real ship.

Outcomes and outputs, main results

The COLREGs online questionnaire, which was completed by more than 1,800 people around the World, identified Rules where decisions in their application was wrong and which Rules are more difficult to understand. The collision avoidance scenarios developed after that focused precisely on the part of the Rules that the research found to be more difficult to understand and therefore results in mistakes in their application. For easier learning the eCOLREGs platform is divided in the same manner as COLREGs Convention which enables easier managing trough the course. Every Rule is explained trough scenarios and every scenario explained. eCOLREGs online course platform enables users „usage at desired place and at desired time“. The course can be accessed anywhere in the World where there is internet access. As ships also have an Internet connection today, every officer can practice an online course during navigation.

Lessons learnt

COLREGs rules are known to address the obligation to avoid collisions between two ships. eCOLREGs online tools was developed precisely to enable better learning of the rules when two ships meet. In practice, more than two ships often meet, which leads to a much more complex situation when avoiding a collision. Therefore, in 2017, the project continued with the project (ACTs Plus) which coped with the advanced collision situation which are not described in COLREGs rules. Such situations are encounters between more than two vessels and encounters in specific area, weather conditions, different type of vessels, etc. The level of the eCOLREGs advance Course is much more complex and is not suitable for students without experience in navigation. As the methodology of eCOLREGs advance course is very similar to the basic course, the student after gaining some experience in navigation can easily continue to acquire knowledge using eCOLREGs advance course.

Adaptability and sustainability of the best practice (for other institutions)

It is important to emphasize that the online eCOLREGs Course is available to everyone online without any payment. Therefore, the online course can be used by teachers of all institutions or companies in the World for classroom or online lectures. Students can use the app to learn and prepare for exams. Active seafarers and skippers can use the app to refresh their knowledge. The Crew managers can use platform to check the candidates they hire or to check their seafarers before a seafarer is promoted. Based on the contacts and information we have received over the last few years since the final version of the online eCOLREGs Course became available online, we know that a large number of MET institutions use eCOLREGs as COLREGs learning platform. Checking the platform's traffic through Google page analytics concludes that approximately 500,000 users visit and use the site annually. Although the research and project was developed with the support of the EU and partners from Europe, the largest beneficiaries are some Far Eastern countries, followed by European countries with more seafarers, and users from the USA and India.

Promotion of best practice

The basic way of promoting eCOLREGs Course at our institution is by using an online platform during lectures at the undergraduate level. Since the Institution is involved in ERASMUS student exchange, the multilingualism of the platform allows it to be used when teaching ERASMUS students. The eCOLREGs Course has been presented at many conferences bringing together experts, teachers and professors of maritime professions from around the World. The most important gatherings where the eCOLREGs Course was presented are the annual gatherings of IMO, IAMU, IMLA, Career day, Science Festival, World Maritime Day, etc. This way of disseminating eCOLREGs Course enabled reaching target groups in MET institutions and companies with employees where knowledge from collision avoidance at sea is needed. On recognition, eCOLREGs Course has won also receiving award for best project in transfer of innovation.

Scope and impact

• Faculty level
• National level
• EU/EHEA/International level

The Rules for avoiding collisions at sea must be known to everyone who operates a vessel at sea, whether it is an ordinary small boat or the largest ship that sails the World's seas today. Therefore, the levels at which the eCOLREGs Course can be applied are numerous. From skippers who manage different types of pleasure boats and fishing boats, students in naval high schools, university students, active sailors, employees of Harbor Master's Offices and VTS, maritime pilots and others. The purpose of using eCOLREGs Course depends on whether eCOLREGs is used as a material where a person is learning for the first time Rules for avoiding collisions at sea, or the person already has the appropriate certificates qualifying him to operate boats, yachts or ships in which case they use the eCOLREGs platform to refresh or deepen their knowledge. As maritime high school students and university students are bound to semesters within the academic year, and exam deadlines begin at the end of the semester, page usage statistics clearly indicates that the course was significantly used for preparing exams and can be concluded that eCOLREGs Course fulfilled its purpose.

6.1 Digitalization

• Outstanding, innovative, excellent practices of online / blended / hybrid learning

Reasoning: Every part of lesion is explained trough scenarios and every scenario explains each paragraph of COLREGs Rules. Scenarios are designed and explained as a real situation at sea. That situation is described textual, graphical with the image of situation and using videos which are recorded on Transas NTPRO 5000 navigational simulator. Those videos are bridge view, radar view, birds eye view and ECDIS view. 3D visualization of navigation lights enable innovative teaching of navigational lights.

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6.2 Internationalization

• Outstanding practices of international online collaborative learning
• Courses offered to international multicultural students both online and offline
• International projects/research results embedded into course development and T&L

Reasoning: The online course is available at several languages as English, Croatian , Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish and Bulgarian. The online course statistics suggest that user all over the World use it, mostly from Philippines, UK, Turkey, India, US, Australia, Singapore, Ukraine,... Frequent contacts and inquiries from other MET institutions and shipping companies about the possibility of using eCOLREGs Course are proof of the internationalization of the project not only in Europe but all over the World.

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6.3 Inclusion and diversity, universal design

• Inclusive course design, universally designed divers activities to meet special students' needs
• Universally designed teaching material - adjustable for special needs
• Innovative teaching methodology for inclusion and meet diverse student needs

Reasoning: The configuration of the eCOLREGs Course is adapted to the learning methods that are in trend among the younger generations. Due to the possibility of adapting to the ways of use, eCOLREGs Course is user friendly for both students and teachers. A great advantage of eCOLREGs Course is the ability to learn from any computer that has Internet access, and the amount of material for learning COLREGs is even more extensive and provides more knowledge than when using navigation simulators.

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6.4 Sustainability

• Teaching material contains profession related sustainability aspects

Reasoning: The sustainability of eCOLREGs Course stems from the purpose of the Course, which is a learning material needed by all who meet COLREGs for the first time and active seafarers and skippers who want to maintain or deepen their knowledge and skills about COLREGs. Many years of experience in using the eCOLREGs Course and statistics on the attendance of the Course on the Internet, which is growing in number from year to year, is proof that the sustainability of the eCOLREGs Course is guaranteed.

3.3 Public contact datas

Name	Email address	Website
Djani Mohovic	dani.mohovic@pfri.uniri.hr	https://www.ecolregs.com/index.php?lang=en