Implementation of Training Programs Using Digital
Distance Education Technologies for Seafarers
Sergey S. Sokolov, Marina N. Saveleva,
Anastasiya V. Mitrofanova, Sergey V. Kolesnichenko
Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland
Shipping
St. Petersburg, Russia
SokolovSS@gumrf.ru
Abstract—This Digital distance education technologies are a
relevant issue today. For the training of crew members, it is
necessary to comply with the requirements of the Federal State
Educational Standards, the International Convention on the
Training and Certification of Seafarers and Watchkeeping, and
several other legislative documents. The article provides
individual digital educational trajectories and an individual
profile of students' competencies using the Data Mining methods
and the Moodle system.
Keywords—educational trajectory; e-learning; distance
learning technologies; e-learning system; adaptive learning;
individual competency profile
I. INTRODUCTION
Digitalization of education is one of the trends in modern
society. If we talk about distance learning technologies (DLT)
and e-learning (EL), then these concepts were enshrined at the
legislative level in the Federal Law of December 29, 2012 №
273-FL «Law On Education» [1]. Today, the introduction of
information technology in the educational process is becoming
a global phenomenon that defines new innovative approaches
to education.
The article «Informatization and digitalization of education:
concepts, technologies, management» [2] notes that the modern
world has moved to the next level of development of new
technologies. The first was the creation of a steam engine; the
second is electrification; the third is informatization; the fourth
is digitalization, that is, the era of big data and technology
based on it. Digital technologies, on the one hand, contribute to
a further increase in production volumes and efficiency, and on
the other hand, they allow for an individual approach in various
fields.
It is worth noting that every year this process is subject to
greater regulation by the state: requirements are issued, tasks
are introduced into targeted development programs. It is
important to consider the features of the use of digital
educational technologies in the training of specialists in various
industries. The main document that establishes international
standards for the training and certification of seafarers and
watchkeeping, and provides for provisions to ensure that
seafarers on board are properly trained and trained, have
sufficient experience, skills and qualifications, meet the
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Nikita S. Logunov
Bauman Moscow State Technical University
Moscow, Russia
natalya_logunova@mail.ru
requirements for work, age, health and were fit to fulfill their
duties in a way that ensures the protection of human life and
the safety of property at sea, as well as the protection of the
marine environment, is the International Convention on
Standarts of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for
Seafarers (hereinafter - STCW) [3].
Training of specialists in the field of sea and river transport
should meet the requirements of the convention. In this case, a
specialist who has successfully completed training can work in
the world fleet and has the right to go to sea on ships flying the
flag of the Russian Federation. STCW allows the use of e-
learning, distance learning technologies in the implementation
of educational programs for the training of swimming
specialties in accordance with the standards of training and
assessment [4]. STCW allows the use of e-learning, distance
learning technologies in the implementation of educational
programs for the training of swimming specialties in
accordance with the standards of training and assessment.
The need to fulfill the requirements of the STCW and the
competency-based approach is described in the article
«Problems of maritime education in the transition of higher
education institutions to the competency-building standard for
training seafarers» [5]. In the article, these problematic aspects
are considered from a methodological point of view, from the
point of view of the quality of education and training of
seafarers when introducing a “competency-based approach” in
educational programs at universities, taking into account
conventional requirements. Educational systems are formalized
and considered using adequate mathematical models. The
advantages of using digital educational technology for ship
crew are as follows:
• Such training helps save the skipper's time. Today, part
of the training programs for the crew takes place
remotely. The student can practice on the ship, keeping
up with the main training program. And after leaving
the flight, pass all the necessary work in person to the
teacher. An analogue of on-board training on-board is
on-board training, when teachers accompany a group of
cadets on board. An example is the Association of
Maritime Education - SEA, the article «Powerful
Learning at SEA» discusses the experience of
continuous training on a ship lasting a semester, which
978-1-7281-5761-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
 include the conduct of scientific research while sailing
[6].
• Learning speed: the student is determined in accordance
with his temporal capabilities. You can return to the
study of complex issues more than once; anna simple
ones can significantly save time.
• You can study from anywhere in the world with a
computer and the Internet.
• Relevance: training of the crew on this kind of activity,
where you need to keep up to date, respectively, the
training material should often be updated. New
requirements are introduced, watercraft are changed,
information systems on the ship are developed, which
leads to the updating of the training content of
electronic courses. In the case of the traditional form of
training, updating teaching aids will require more time
and resources.
• Learning has an interactive approach, that is, a wide
range of tools is available to attract the learner's
attention and increase his interest. For example: video
lectures, interactive applications, drag and drop testing
[7], infographics, web simulators [8] and more.
Simulator training of shipboard personnel is already a
common practice in higher education institutions, which allows
you to practice a certain level of development of competencies.
You can read about such stationary software systems in the
articles “Visual Simulators for Vehicle Drivers Training
Simulators” [9] and “Training of Skippers Using Software with
the Transition Planning and Execution Function” [10]. Given
the possibility of transferring such a simulator to a remote
format and the above advantages of such a format, as a result
we can get a convenient educational tool for all its participants.
The issue of building competencies with computer support is
raised in the article «The appropriateness of computer support
for monitoring the level of formation of professional
competence» [11].
How can such concepts as “digital distance educational
technologies” and “training of the crew” be combined?
Training of shipboard personnel cannot be carried out only in a
remote format; EL and DOT are used as an auxiliary tool. The
article discusses such concepts as: an individual digital
educational trajectory and an individual profile of students'
competencies. An example of their formation in the Moodle
system is given.
II. INDIVIDUAL DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL TRAJECTORY
According to the Decree of the Government of the Russian
Federation dated May 23, 2015 №. 497 “On the Federal
Targeted Program for the Development of Education for 2016 -
2020”, within the framework of task 5 «Formation of the
demanded system for assessing the quality of education and
educational results», the following measures are foreseen:
“mechanisms and typical models of a chronological assessment
of students ’academic achievements, allowing them to form the
trajectories of individual development of students in secondary
professional educational organizations and Higher Education
Organizations. ”
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There are theoretical aspects of the justification of the
educational trajectory, there is a need to develop its practical
implementation in the learning process. An individual
educational trajectory (IET) is a personal way of realizing the
personal potential of each student in education. The synonyms
are “variative learning”, “personalized learning”, “individual
educational route”. If IET is considered in the light of the
digitalization of education and the use of e-learning methods,
distance learning technologies, then we will talk about the
formation of an individual digital educational trajectory
(IDET), including, among other things, individual profiles of
students' competencies and the trajectories of their formation.
For example, in the automated university management
system of «Admiral Makarov SUMIS» - AMS «University»
are recorded:
• individual achievements of those entering the 1st year
of higher education programs by accruing points for
them (results of participation in olympiads and other
intellectual and (or) creative contests for admission to
undergraduate and specialty programs; scientific
publications in the form of articles in journals reviewed
by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian
Federation, included to the Web of Science, Scopus
databases, publications in the form of articles in RSCI
journals, reports, conference abstracts, patents,
certificates and other intellectual property protection
documents; winner’s diplomas and / or prize Dr. student
contests (Universiade), competitions of students for
admission to graduate programs);
• results of intermediate certifications and individual
achievements during the training period.
AMS «University» has synchronization with the electronic
educational environment of the university based on the Moodle
platform. Thus, when entering the electronic educational
environment, a student’s personal profile is created, thus
forming a portfolio and recording the course of the educational
process. The student, having received a username and
password for mail, can log into the system and monitor the
progress of training.
It is planned to fix the individual plans of students and
documents confirming the grounds for their submission (for
example, accelerated training in the training programs for crew
members of the vessels involves reducing the duration of
training on the basis of a diploma of secondary vocational
education and certificates confirming the passage of simulator
training (ECDIS; GMDSS, training to provide first medical
assistance; initial safety training; on lifeboats and rafts, rescue
boats not high high-speed; training for fire fighting under an
expanded program; security training; radar;); practice reports,
feedback from GQW leaders, etc.
III. AN INDIVIDUAL PROFILE OF STUDENTS' COMPETENCIES
An important element of IDET is the individual profile of
students' competencies. At the starting point of user training, a
competency matrix is formed in accordance with the Federal
State Educational Standard (hereinafter - FSES) [12]. The
current curriculum is taken as the data source, the data of which
is imported into the system. The development of each
competency is fixed in percentage terms and increases in the
process of user training. Further, competencies are divided into
smaller component parts. The general competency matrix is
associated with individual competency matrices for each
discipline. Thus, the relationship of competencies and courses
taught, web simulators is presented in fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Formation of student competencies based on the construction of the
IDET
usage protocols. In a concise version, each protocol entry
describes the following events: “user u- action r”. The action r
is a simple event resulting from the collection of input data. For
example, this may be an incorrectly completed test task, an
answer to a survey item, or a teacher setting the need for a user
to pass a certain competence [13]. Usage protocol: D=(ui,ri),
i=1,…,I, that is, a set of events of the type “user u ∈ U - action
r ∈ R”, I is the number of entries in the protocol. Using it, the
usage matrix A is constructed. The task is to build similarity
functions (metrics) on the set of protocols according to the
available data so that topics close to the metric are topics that
need to be filled in by the user. For this purpose, a deliberately
prepared table B is used and the result of processing user
behavior - matrix A, an output data model is created - dynamic
table C (fig. 3).

The indicator of each student’s competence is made up of

the competency indicators of individual disciplines. The
general competency matrix is formed on the basis of the FSES,
the contents of which must be interpreted into separate cells of
the matrix. The module for the formation of the IDET can be
integrated into any learning management system. At the same
time, input data should be received in the data processing and
trajectory building block, which are the results of testing the
user's knowledge, time spent on tasks, competencies for
mastering and more. Input data are presented in fig. 2. Fig. 3. Formation of formula education

Using this table, you can determine and offer the user
exactly the material that he needs to study. It is important to
note that at the next iteration of the analytical block, table C
will already go into the form of the source data, that is, into
matrix A. It is possible to consider the work of building an
IDET from the server-software part in the diagram on fig. 4,
here the step-by-step operation of the tools and functions of the
Fig. 2. Analytical unit for the construction of IDET web-based trajectory-building system based on the distance
learning system that can be involved in learning using e-
The system implies two types of data in the system: learning is presented.
dynamic and static. Static tables are pre-built into the system
and represent a set of classified data (we denote this set of
tables - B). Data is classified using DataMining (Data Mining)
technology. Knowledge is presented in the form of models. For
example, static data models may look like this:
• The “Associative Rules” method will allow you to form
patterns between related events. An example of such a
rule is the assertion that a user who does not know “rule
1” does not know “rule 2” with a probability of 75%.
For the first time, this task was proposed to search for
associative rules for finding typical shopping patterns.
• “Clustering” - combining similar objects into groups - is
one of the fundamental tasks in the field of data analysis
and Data Mining.
• Classification by the decision tree method creates a kind
of flowchart for data distribution. Fig. 4. Building an individual digital educational trajectory

The dynamic data type are the models formed in the

process of training by the user in the system. Some tables are
responsible for collecting information about system behavior,
learning outcomes, activity, and passing surveys. Data are

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 IV. INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCY PROFILE IN THE MOODLE
SYSTEM
Consider the worldwide e-learning platform Moodle.
Already more than 100,000 resources from more than 200
countries are officially registered and developed using this tool
[14]. Moodle is an e-learning system, also known as a learning
management system. It is an abbreviation for Modular Object-
Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (modular object-
oriented dynamic learning environment). In the “Admiral
Makarov SUMIS "this system has not been used for several
years.
In one of the latest updates to Moodle, the “Competencies”
module has appeared, which can be fine-tuned and allows you
to evaluate the development of competencies of students in the
process of passing an electronic course of discipline. The
system allows you to introduce competencies in the discipline
and divide them into elements of competencies, each of which
correlates with one or another element of the course. A course
corresponding to one discipline may close the competence in
whole or in part, that is, a number of elements of competence.
Competency rules can be added to any competency in a
structure if it has children. Fig. 5 shows the structure of the
competency module.
Fig. 5. Building an individual digital educational trajectory
In addition, the “Syllabus” module is used, which allows
you to track the implementation of all necessary competencies.
Teachers and staff with the appropriate rights can view student
learning plans. In Pic. 6 presents the report "Monitoring
syllabus" for viewing with the rights of the student.
Fig. 6. Report on the development of competencies in the Moodle platform
The development of each competency is equated in
percentage terms and builds up in the process of user training.
In this case, the implementation of adaptive learning is
possible, where each erroneous element of competence will
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offer theoretical material and a task for self-testing in order to
fill the knowledge gap (fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Adaptive Learning Based on the Moodle Platform
The combination of these modules and the flexible setting
of competencies in accordance with the requirements of the
Federal State Educational Standard will automate the process
of evaluating and monitoring the results of training of future
specialists. A report on competencies, along with assessments,
should fall into the student's portfolio to form a complete
picture of the mastery of the training program.
CONCLUSION
Thus, training of shipboard personnel using digital distance
education technologies is possible, but it has many limitations
from the requirements for higher education and from the
requirements for the training of shipboard specialists.
Given these circumstances, it is important to correctly
correlate the traditional form of training and digital teaching
technologies.
In the future, it is necessary to develop the “Competencies”
module and the “Syllabus” module of the Moodle platform for
the preparation of the crew. It is planned to introduce the
concept of “Indicator” (an innovation of FSES 3 ++), the
implementation of which can also be tracked in the student’s
portfolio.
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