Mobile learning in Global Maritime Distress and Safety

System (GMDSS)

Edvard Tijan, Dragan Čišić, Dario Ogrizović

University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies, Studentska 2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

{etijan@pfri.hr, dragan@pfri.hr, dario@pfri.hr}

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the

possibilities of use and potential benefits of mobile game-based learning
in supplemental training of ship radio operators under GMDSS (Global
Maritime Distress and Safety System) regulations. For that purpose,
pilot testing has been performed at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of
Maritime Studies, Croatia. The platform used was designed and
implemented within the European mGBL (Mobile Game-Based
Learning) project. mGBL was a project within the Sixth Framework
(FP6), intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning
through the development of innovative learning models based on
"serious" mobile games. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety
System is the international radio safety and security system whose
primary purpose is to automate and improve emergency
communications for the world's shipping fleet.

Keywords: mobile game-based learning, Global Maritime Distress and Safety

System, maritime distress operator training

1 Introduction

Mobile telecommunication with its technologies and applications are making a

revolutionary impact on the ways we live and on the ways organizations perform their
activities. This technological impact is clearly accepted as a social phenomenon
regardless of its source being just a series of developments in the business world or
the developments related to the personal use [1].
With the increasing affordability, sophistication and capacity of mobile devices,
linked to the continuing expansion of broadband wireless networks, new generation
mobile phones are fast overtaking the desktop PCs as a prioritized means of
communication. The sector is rapidly expanding, with the convergence of mobile
technologies and with mobile applications less constrained by device limitations. Not
only are the latest mobile devices, with higher definition color screens, enhanced
memory and functionality, making mobile gaming more appealing – crucially,
development costs are lower for mobile games than for games on ‘traditional’
platforms [2].
 New generation mobile phones and hybrid PDAs have been turning into ‘world
phones’ or ‘micro browsers’ with multimedia and even Wi-Fi functionality.
Connectivity continues to improve and at the same time devices are becoming more
affordable. There are nevertheless still real user interface issues for mobile game
designers to consider. These include for example slow text input facilities, small
storage capacity, limited battery life, low bandwidth network capabilities etc [3].

2 Mobile Game-Based Learning

In the past, computer games have been dismissed as a distraction from more ‘worthy’
activities, such as homework or playing outdoors [2]. However, there appear to be
many advantages to seriously considering play as a dominant goal for these types of
learning environments, despite the caution that all forms of play should not be
considered positive or beneficial. Play also holds promise as a benchmark for
evaluating interactive learning environments - those that evoke it deserve special
recognition and consideration [4].
Most advantageous feature of games software is its power to motivate. Motivation,
or the will to continue to use the software, is the end product of a mixture of
psychological effects. However, the action is not simply to carry on with the game
because it has novelty value or through interest in operating a highly sophisticated
machine. A clear advantage of games is the ‘play’ environment created. Play during
childhood has an important role in psychological, social and intellectual development,
and computer games may offer opportunities that complement ‘real’ play. For
example, games have rules which permit the player to choose what to do within
limits. Games allow the player to act in a role. In this safe environment, where action
ultimately has no consequence, role play can increase the comprehension of what it is
that a specific role actually entails [5].
The results of one mobile game-based learning research indicated that this new
mobile game-based approach to learning can lead to higher activation and
reinforcement of learning, more positive emotions and attitudes towards learning
content compared to traditional learning approaches [6]. The follow-up research
conducted on university students and teachers showed that students and teachers, who
responded to the surveys and took part in focus groups, appeared generally to be
sceptical about the usefulness and desirability of the use of serious games delivered
by mobile phone to underpin learning. This is despite a further conclusion from
previous international survey, which identified that students accept and welcome
technology assisted learning opportunities and prefer a mix of face-to-face and
technology assisted delivery. However, a focus group trial of an early prototype game
attracted mainly positive reviews that supported our theorising and suggested that the
scepticism is unfounded [7].

2.1 mGBL Project

mGBL was a pan-European project that began in October 2005 and ended in
December 2008. mGBL was supported by the European Commission's Information
Society Technologies (IST) programme within the Sixth Framework (FP6). mGBL
sets out to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning through the
development of innovative learning models based on "serious" mobile games
("serious" games on mobile phones and handheld devices). Ten partner organizations
formed the consortium, from European countries as diverse as Austria, Croatia, Italy,
Slovenia and the UK. The project was led by Evolaris research lab from Graz,
Austria. The specific aim of the project was to design, develop and trial a prototype
game platform that can be used to efficiently develop "serious" games for m-learning,
whereby the focus is on the support of decision making in critical situations, not only
in a cognitive but also in an emotional way [8]. The project aimed to further exploit
the potential of "serious" games thanks to the pervasiveness of mobile technologies,
by developing a new paradigm of usage and interaction of m-learning, in respect to
the classic e-learning models [9]. Another aim of the project was an innovative
approach to education that is informal, fun, motivating - and effective. The first
learning models, informed by social-constructivist theory, were tested with a large
sample of international students [2].

2.2 mGBL Games

As a starting point a classification has been developed that maps attributes of

different kinds of mobile games against a range of different learning targets, contents
and audiences. Building upon this classification a software application has been
developed that can support trainers in selecting particular types of mobile games to
suit specific learning purposes. Ultimately the trainers will want the option of creating
their own mobile learning games easily and efficiently, so a platform and templates
were developed for their use [3]. A minimum of two prototype game templates were
created, and they were meant to be used to create a minimum of three example games
in the pre-determined fields of e-health, e-commerce and career guidance. These are
areas where the mGBL consortium had particular strengths. However the templates
were ‘generic’ in design and therefore useful in a wider range of sectors, such as
GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System), as will be shown in the
following text.
mGBL project prototyped three game templates as part of the mGBL platform. The
game templates were used for building new mobile games covering different content
areas. An mGBL game template can be described as a game skeleton with game flow
and logic, but without any content. The templates enable users to build their own
games by adding their own content with a help of the authoring module. In the
framework of the project three game templates were developed to support three
different game types.
The first game template supported quiz questions and answers and simulation with
decision tasks. A board game type is supported by the second game template (see
Figure 1). This template allows for role playing, simulation and quiz and includes
interaction between users. These two templates helped users to develop learning
games that run on mobile phones and consisted of various game elements that are the
basic game components. By combining these game elements the users can create
games that meet specific learning needs and goals. The basic game elements are:
questions and answers or quiz, task assignment and simulation.

Fig. 1 2D Adventure version of the "Mogabal" game with contents of Triage and First Aid

A major requirement is for the platform to be used in cross-border environments.

This means it must be available in multiple languages (in all the languages of
partners’ countries) and also needs to be open to use with different mobile network
operators. This was achieved via a modular implementation. The following modules
were designed [2].
• An authoring system that enables teachers easily and efficiently to select and
build m-learning games from templates.
• A module for monitoring game usage and for evaluating learning success.
• A deployment module that enables the mGBL games to be deployed to the
handsets of target audiences. This module ensures the availability of the services on a
variety of networks.
mGBL prototype Game 2 began as a type of board game, however it has been
developed in modular format, enabling game-play in short sessions, each with
feedback. This approach allows development of a potentially complex game that
contains many surprises / red herrings and that can be replayed from different
perspectives. In this game the fun and motivation will come from competing with self
(ipsative referencing, as player ‘characteristics’ are enhanced during game play) and
others, including the game system itself (criterion-based referencing) [2].
3 Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is the international radio
safety and security system mandated by the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) for seagoing ships. The primary purpose of GMDSS is to automate and
improve emergency communications for the world's shipping fleet. A qualified
GMDSS radio operator is designated to have primary responsibility for radio
communications during distress incidents. Such operators have to make quick
decisions in critical distress situations, hence the connection between the mGBL
project and GMDSS which is analyzed in this paper.
The GMDSS was developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO),
the specialized agency of the United Nations with responsibility for ship safety and
the prevention of marine pollution, in close co-operation with the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other international organizations, notably the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Hydrographic
Organization (IHO) and the COSPAS-SARSAT partners. Under the GMDSS, all
passenger ships and all cargo ships over 300 gross tonnage on international voyages
have to carry specified satellite and radio communications equipment, for sending and
receiving distress alerts and maritime safety information, and for general
communications. The regulations governing the GMDSS are contained in Chapter IV
of International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 and were
adopted in 1988. The requirements entered into force on 1 February 1992 but
provided for a phase-in period until 1 February 1999 [10].
The basic concept of GMDSS is that search and rescue authorities ashore, as well
as shipping in the immediate vicinity of the ship in distress, will be rapidly alerted to a
distress incident so that they can assist in a coordinated Search And Rescue (SAR)
operation with the minimum delay. The system also provides for agency and safety
communications and the promulgation of Maritime Safety Information (MSI) -
navigational and meteorological warnings and forecasts and other urgent safety
information to ships. In other words, every ship is able, irrespective of the area in
which it operates, to perform those communication functions which are essential for
the safety of the ship itself and of other ships operating in the same area [11]. GMDSS
consists of several different safety systems based around different communications
technologies. These include DSC, NAVTEX and INMARSAT.
Under the GMDSS, all Distress and Safety communication are automated and
watchkeeping on traditional voice and Morse code frequencies became history. At the
press of a button, a ship can send its identity, position and nature of distress by either
satellite or terrestrial communication. It is then up to a shore based Rescue Co-
ordination Centre (RCC) to alert vessels in the area to go to the aid of the casualty.
GMDSS also changed the nature of Routine and Safety Radio operation. These
become fully automatic, enabling ship’s officers with a General Operator’s Certificate
(GOC) to deal with all incoming and outgoing ship’s radio communication. It is no
longer necessary to sail with a specialist radio officer.
Due to the above stated facts, and mainly due to the fact that it is no longer
necessary to sail with a specialist radio officer, additional stress has been placed on
the ship deck crew, who now also serve as radio officers. They now have to enroll
into a GMDSS course and successfully pass it in order to be able to continue working
as deck (and radio) officers. With that in mind, the GMDSS game has been developed
and tested at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies. The intention
when developing the game was to help future radio officers to familiarize themselves
with GMDSS regulations and to test their skills and knowledge in an innovative way.

4 GMDSS Mobile Game

The mGBL project consortium had high interest in disseminating the results among
the wider community. The results of the research and development activities were
aggregated in comprehensive reports and made available on the mGBL website. The
project consortium was also concerned to exploit the results of the project in areas
outside of the pre-determined sectors of e-health, e-commerce and career guidance.
For that purpose, and with additional efforts by the researchers from the University of
Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies, GMDSS Mobile Game was developed and
tested.

4.1 System Overview

The mGBL requires multi-user client/server software architecture with both mobile
and stationary clients supported by an application server. The block diagram (see
Figure 2) provides an overview of the system, containing the modules required for the
project and their positions within an object-oriented, three-tier software architecture.
Depending on its architectural position and functionality, a module can be
implemented with one or more server applications, stand-alone client or mobile
programs, or any software based on existing frameworks [12].
GMDSS Mobile Game is a client side game and it is running on mobile devices as
Java application. This means that the game logic is running on client side. These
games do not need a server connection during the game session. Game results and
scores can be exchanged with the help of a platform module. The advantage of the
client side games is that the costly and slow real time communication is not necessary
during the game play. The client side games are designed in a way that users can play
independently without support by teachers or classmates.
Usually, the learning content of a game is not static, but provided separately and
regularly after the game template has been implemented. Both game templates and
games with learning content have to be distributed to potentially many users and thus
have to reside on the application server.
The game authoring tool allows authorized users to edit content for game templates
and thus create games, which can made available on the application server.
Depending on the complexity of the game, the game authoring tool may be anything
from a simple XML editor to a complex graphical modeling tool. For simple
authoring tasks, the implementer of a game template may decide to create a web
application, which allows the user to quickly create content within their web browser
without having to install software locally. For more complicated tasks it may be
reasonable to create a client application, probably based upon an existing
development framework like Eclipse, where the user creates content offline [12].
 Fig. 2 mGBL software architecture

4.2 Game play

GMDSS Mobile Game was designed as a single player adventure 2D game where the
player (his avatar) can freely move around and interact with objects he/she sees on the
screen. When the avatar touches an object on the screen, events are triggered. Figures
3 and 4 show the screenshots from the game. Each object on the screen corresponds to
one subject from the GMDSS rules and regulations.
The GMDSS Mobile Game consists of a set of questions, single choice or multiple
choice. The game play is timed, so every player knows the exact amount of time that
was needed to complete the game. After completing all the GMDSS subjects and after
answering all the questions, the player exits the game and sees his/her score. One
added functionality of the game is the possibility to upload the scores to the server via
SMS.
 Fig. 3 Screenshots from the GMDSS Mobile Game

Fig. 4 Multiple-Choice question and question result: correctly answered

 Based on the mGBL project methodology one mixed focus groups was assembled
to test the game and mGBL platform [13]. Focus group consisted of teachers and
students in the area of maritime distress. Group included 6 participants from the target
audience – 2 professors and 4 students.
The moderator introduced the test with the short introduction about the expected
results, the timetable and how the focus group will be organized, i.e. introduction, test
of the game for 1 hour and an interactive debate at the end. All of the participants
used the Nokia N80 mobile phones. All participants were given the consent form at
the beginning of the focus group, and a USB memory stick at the end of the test as a
gift for participating.
Before playing the game, participants were asked some questions about their
mobile phones and mobile phone habits. All of the participants own a relatively new
model of a mobile phone, and all of their mobile phones support mobile games. While
some of the participants play games on their mobile phones, others answered that they
never do, and pointed out that computers are the best for gaming, due to the size of
the screen and controls. Participants that do play mainly play logical games, in order
to “kill some time” (waiting in lines and such). Participant’s bias about the game that
they were about to play was mainly neutral, they did not expect much.

4.3 Research Findings

After testing the game, participants were very positive about the idea and the game
itself. Students liked it because the content was familiar to them, and they tried to
collect as many points as they could, and were really competitive, comparing their
scores with each other. Professors thought that this was an excellent tool for learning,
not only for students, but also for experienced sailors who use maritime distress
procedures in real life situations.
Regarding game controls, participants found their way around the game very easily,
only one of the participants complained about not being able to exit the question once
he opened it. The only problem was the “medal” icon, which was used to exit the
game – majority of the participants inadvertently exited the game for the first time.
Some participants were annoyed with the fact that they both have to select the right
answer, and then press “OK”. Also, when some of the longer questions opened, they
were not presented from the start of the question, but from the middle. Some
questions did not “react” to the avatar immediately; participants had to move the
avatar to and from the question icon several times.
Graphic presentation was deemed unsatisfactory. Participants complained about the
size of the icons, the color selection and contrast, and the layout on the screen (“too
scattered”). They demanded a larger avatar which could be recognized more easily,
and proposed some animation within the game. More sound was also suggested. The
“gates” for questions were too small, so the participants could not discern between
questions. Some of the questions and answers were too long, which demanded a lot of
scrolling. In the end they all agreed that, considering the fact that this is an
educational game, graphics are not that important.
Participants thought that the game content was very good, and pertinent to real life.
The questions were deemed hard enough to incite thinking and learning. The selection
of English as a game language was commended, because it is the language used in
real maritime distress situations. A suggestion was made to enable to player to see the
list of wrong/right questions after the game, in order to improve the knowledge.
Another suggestion was to provide the player with the detailed explanation of the
questions that were answered wrong.
All of the participants agreed that they would play the game again, to refresh their
knowledge and to learn new facts, because it contains the type of content that is used
in real life hazardous situations, and can very well save human lives and property.
The participants thought that the game should be expanded with more levels, and
different questions, and then it would be an excellent supplement for learning, as well
as a perfect pass-time on the ship, while serving as a reminder on how to handle
possible life-threatening situations on board a ship.
Educators have stressed that this can be an interesting way for life-long learning
processes, which are very intensive in the maritime environment. They thought that it
can also be interesting for e-learning for seafarers, because communication links with
the vessels are similar to mobile communications (low speed, and expensive).
Additional e-learning modules before the game play were suggested.

5 Conclusion

As a consequence of the need to build on cutting edge work in the new field of m–
learning with research-based development on interactive game based learning using
mobile devices, the mGBL project was devised and executed within the Sixth
Framework Programme (FP6) of the European Union. The remit of the mGBL project
was to develop new mobile learning game models and templates and an innovative
learning platform that enables efficient, practice-oriented support for the development
of decision-making skills.
What clearly emerged from the research is that digital computer and mobile games
do have the potential to engage people in learning. Among the wide range of
motivating factors are fun, intellectual curiosity, fantasy, persistence through levels of
challenge, plus a sense of being in control. The key messages in terms of making
mGBL games a success were: don’t port PC style games to mobile devices, don’t
focus on providing learning content, do use generic processes and best practice and
create collaborative, problem-solving activities, and finally do focus on lifelong
learning.
A pilot test conducted on a focus group using a prototype GMDSS Mobile Game
showed positive results. Although both participants and educators were somewhat
skeptical about the usefulness of the mobile game in GMDSS training, after playing
the game both parties expressed positive feelings. The majority of negative remarks
from the participants were about the graphical presentations of the game. The content
was deemed very good and pertinent to real life. Educators stated that due to the
obligatory lifelong learning that seafarers face, mobile learning could be an excellent
tool in their education and training courses.
We conclude that respondents accepted and welcomed the GMDSS Mobile Game
and technology assisted learning opportunities, but they stated that they prefer a mix
of face-to-face and technology assisted delivery. Although they were generally
sceptical as to the usefulness and desirability of the use of serious games delivered by
mobile phones, a focus group trial of an early prototype game attracted mainly
positive reviews.
There are still a lot of challenges that mobile game-based learning should address,
from ethical and legal to technological and financial. One of the most important and
most difficult challenges is to break the psychological barriers and to encourage
officials to take up the mobile games for learning support in real life, everyday
environment.

Acknowledgment. The mobile Game-Based Learning (mGBL) research has been

supported by the European Community under the Information Society Technologies
(IST) Programme of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

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