International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 6

Number 2

June 2012

257

1 INTRODUCTION

The article discusses the methodological approaches

to the development of conceptual designs of profes-

sional business games for seafarers, and proposes a

method for determining the content of training and

development of the specialists’ professional compe-

tence both directly during games and after game

analysis. Professional development of marine spe-

cialists supposes learning new theoretical knowledge

and its actualization. However, in actual practice of

navigation, many theoretical developments are not

often in demand, and for this reason, a specialist not

familiar with the relevant skills in the proper de-

gree

[1]

Such a gap can be eliminated through "artificial /

virtual" methods of knowledge actualization: train-

ing and business games. The effectiveness of these

methods is proved into practice. But, if various kinds

of training (for example, applying radar stations for

ships passing, fire fighting, etc.) are used rather

widely, business games didn’t receive proper dis-

semination. The development of business games for

maritime specialists requires high professionalism

both from the developers themselves, and from

teachers / experts, who lead the game and generate

situations in the play activity of trainees.

2 PURPOSE AND TASKS OF THE BUSINESS

GAME

Let’s consider some methodological approaches to

business games designing and usage of gaming

methods to determine the content of training / devel-

opment of maritime specialists’ professionalism.

The main purpose of the business game is for-

mation of abilities and skills of management of the

processes of the cargo transportation safety

[2,3]

The following tasks are necessary to solve in or-

der to achieve this purpose:

− determining professional preparedness of special-

ists to act in difficult circumstances and unusual

situations;

− developing skills of analysis and decision-making

during process of professional activity;

− study of integrative processes of marine engi-

neer’s professional preparedness formation;

− analysis of maritime safety ensuring problems

and efficiency of fleet commercial operation.

3 THE BUSINESS GAME DESIGNING

Preliminary design of the business game "Ensuring

the safety of maritime cargo transportation" is given

in the Table 1.

Methodological Approaches to the Design of

Business Games and Definition of Marine

Specialists Training Content

S. Moyseenko & L. Meyler

Baltic Fishing Fleet State Academy, Kaliningrad, Russia

ABSTRACT: Knowledge owned by marine specialists demand only in rare cases of extreme navigation situa-

tions. In this regard, the development of training game methods for actions in such situations is a very actual

problem. The complex of professional business games is elaborated in the Baltic Fishing Fleet State Academy

(BFFSA). The scenario of the business game is being developed in line with given objectives. For example,

the main goal of the business game "Safety ensuring of shipping” is formation of abilities and skills for man-

agement processes of safety ensuring in the field of cargo transportation.

258

Table 1. Scenario plan of the business (imitating) game "Ensuring the safety of maritime cargo transportation"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Plot Episodes Actions

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Preparation for the game 1.1. Instructing the game organizers and experts. Theme, goals, tasks, area of responsibility,

1.2. Instructing the game participants, studying regulations.

of regulations, systems of the game control Instructing, distribution and study of materials,

and evaluation of participants actions. etc.

1.3.Determination of play groups and roles Clarification of the game governance, penalties

distribution. and bonuses systems, etc.

Formation of play groups and roles distribution.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Incoming control of 2.1. A participant’s testing. Presentation of a test card to a participant

participants’ knowledge 2.2. Definition of testing results. of the game.

and skills Explanation the task of testing and an evaluation

procedure.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. A ship voyage planning 3.1. Definition of initial information, its A ship owner sends the ship's captain a telex

collection and analysis. containing instructions on the next voyage: ports

3.2. Route selection of the voyage to the port of the ship loading/unloading, kind, type and

of loading/unloading. quantity of cargo, special cargo characteristics,

3.3. Project and the ship cargo plan development time for loading, loading/unloading rates,

according to the criteria of safety and handling procedures of shipping documents,

effectiveness. laytime calculation, etc.

3.4. Planning of ship stores, material and technical The captain of the ship distributes tasks to

supply, crew completing and training for prepare the ship for the voyage.

the voyage.

3.5. Ship voyage planning.

3.6. Planning safety actions.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Loading the ship 4.1. Coordination a cargo plan with stevedores The head of the game and experts performing the

and the action plan for work safety providing roles of shippers, agents, inspectors, surveyors,

and environmental protection. stevedores, etc. generate introductory data

4.2. Monitoring the condition status of cargo, its oriented to the growing complexity of the

stowage in holds and storage, mounting, etc. situation.

4.3. Control of hydrometeorological conditions. Situation of a conflict between the ship and the

4.4. Drawing up primary shipping documents. shipper regarding the quality of packaging and

4.5. Drawing up protest letters in case of labeling cargo is created.

infraction of rules by stevedores in loading or The situation of the ship structures or cargo

delivery of cargo which has "defects ", as well damage due to negligence of dockers (crane

as of the ship structures damage during loading operators) is initiated.

Participants of the game execute the required

documents (notices, protests and acts of damage,

etc.) and try to find compromise solutions.

Fixing knowledge and skills needed for solving

professional problems and situations, definition

of "gaps" in knowledge and skills.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Issuing documents for 5.1. Issuing Bills of Lading, addition of remarks Experts initiate a conflict in terms of remarks

cargo (Bills of Lading, cargo and laytime commencement. including in the bill of lading, as well as in the

manifest, etc.) 5.2. Drawing up permission for the ship to leave act of laytime preparation. The situation when

the port. port authorities’ claims concerning technical

condition of the ship, etc. are simulated.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Preparation of the ship 6.1. Implementation of actions in accordance Implementation of inspections in accordance with

for leaving the port with the regulations for navigation safety. checklists. Diagnostics of technical means, etc.

6.2. Definition the time of the pilot’s arrival Discussing with the agent problems related to

onboard, the required number of tugs, leave the ship at sea.

a weather forecast, navigation conditions, etc. Clarification the weather forecast and navigation

6.3. Drawing up a statement of a fact the ship's conditions at the time of the ship leave.

readiness to a voyage. Filling in the logbook and other forms of

documents.

Experts initiate conflicts, complicate the situation.

Simultaneous fixation of the captain’s and his

mate’s errors as well as errors of experts.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Analysis and summarizing 7.1. Organization of discussing the game results. Reports of the play groups leaders, self-

of the game. evaluation of the actions of the game participants

7.2. Estimation of the working groups’ actions with an emphasis the attention on the

in the game. occurred errors and the "gaps" in knowledge and

7.3. Formation the block of "gaps" in the skills, relation to the game and wishes.

knowledge and skills of the players, typical The experimental material accumulated during

mistakes and miscalculations. the game is systematized and processed in order it

7.4. Final selection of learning content and will be possible to carry out the procedure of

development of professionalism of marine training content selection, to build the system of

259

specialists. subject knowledge and ways of their integration.

7.5. Specification of the training programs for Training programs are corrected according to the

specialists for the postgame period. results of the game experiment if participants

7.6. Consulting assistance to the participants continue training in play groups.

of the game in development of their programs Players receive consulting assistance, including

of self-development/self-designing. assistance in development of the program of

7.7. Development by the game organizers of the self-training and self-development if they

postgame activity program concerning the continue studies independently.

game and preparation of the report on the

game simulation experiment

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Postgame activity 8.1. Processing the results of the game simulation Results of the experiment are processed taking

concerning the game. experiment with a goal to determine into account the earlier obtained data from other

dependences, rational methods of formation experiments of the same direction, that allows to

of the professional personality, knowledge accumulate the empirical material.

integration and configurators building, etc. Comparing the results, establishing dependences,

8.2. Conducting methodological seminars for confirmation of the previous results is

teachers and experts. considerable contribution to the development of

8.3. Development the complex of purpose-oriented our theoretical representations about the subject

programs of vocational development of marine of the study.

specialists and ways to adapt these programs

to a person.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 THE BUSINESS GAME CONDUCTING

The game provides simulating six directly linked to

the game plots.

Participants get instructions and learn the game

rules as a part of the first plot. At that time the head

of the game, formulating goals of the game simula-

tion experiment and analyzing the situation, notes

existing substantial contradictions between the de-

sirable and realizable, and thereby “running” prob-

lematization processes, goals setting and self-

determinations.

The second plot provides preliminary estimates of

participants’ readiness to the game. In case of unsat-

isfactory test results it is assumed that such a result

helps to intensify the process of motivation of spe-

cialists for developing professionalism. “Gaps” in

knowledge and skills found as the test results are

eliminated by the head of the game decision. Thus,

the compensatory function of education is realized,

i.e. advices can be given to participants of the game

and special literature for self-study may be recom-

mended.

The third, fourth and sixth plots are extremely

important because at these stages in reality many of

the major issues of navigation safety ensuring and

sea cargo transportation are solved. It is assumed

that not only typical real situations are fulfilled at

these stages, but complex non-standard situations

that happen rarely in real activity are simulated too,

because serious negative consequences can entail, in

cases of such situations appearance, if adequate so-

lutions will not be found by responsible specialists.

Thus, the task of the game head and experts play-

ing roles of officials, who under certain conditions,

can counteract the captain of the ship and other per-

sons involved in the process of sea cargo transporta-

tion is to generate episodes and situations “provok-

ing” a conflict and thereby substantially complicat-

ing making a solution of professional tasks. At the

same time, as “home prepared” tasks, as actions ac-

cording to a present situation can be performed for

generating game situations. It allows to implement

the game variation into the real game situation,

i.e. the structure of the game has many degrees of

freedom. Thus, the game adapts depending on the

goals and specific problems requiring the solution.

Game participants fix results of the analysis, cal-

culations, decisions and the effect of these decisions.

They take into account the specific conditions, pro-

fessional experience of all participants of the game

group. The experts record the work of groups and

individuals in the each episode and plot. Their duties

include clear fixating of errors, “gaps” in

knowledge, abilities and skills of specialists and

their ability to integrate with various kinds of

knowledge for solving complex professional prob-

lems. In addition experts observe the behavior of

game participants in difficult situations.

During the game experts and the head of the

game analyze the activities of participants and esti-

mate their performance, identify areas of knowledge

and skills in which it is useful to hold substantive

and methodological consultations. For example, our

experience in business games shows that practically

always there is a need for methodological consulta-

tions in a systematic approach methodology, a sys-

tem analysis, designing without prototypes

[2]

, etc.

Decisions obtained for each plot are discussed by

all participants of the game. Representatives of the

play groups make reports, where the idea of the de-

sign decision is revealed, as well its motivation and

implementation methods with evaluation of possible

consequences of the decision implementation.

Speakers answer questions from experts and other

participants of the game, fixing critical remarks and

260

opponents’ suggestions. Final estimates for each plot

are determined after the public discussion of the play

groups’ reports.

All working materials relating to the analysis of

situations in each plot, developing design solutions,

decisions’ motivation and choice of the decisions

implementing methods are given to the game head

for the further examination in accordance with the

objectives of the game simulation experiment.

Processing game results requires certain time.

Therefore, it is possible to realize partially selection

of the content of the training and professional devel-

opment directly during the game, as it was men-

tioned above. But careful analysis of the game mate-

rials is held in the postgame period. In the process of

such an analysis it is often possible to detect some

important regularity, to get an understanding of

some of the integration processes, interdisciplinary

system links, and to evaluate the effectiveness of

various knowledge integrating methods for profes-

sional problems solving

[3,4]

The experimental results allow to select the con-

tent of training and development of marine special-

ists on the higher qualitative level, as well as to find

new plots of the game and new opportunities for the

whole game.

5 THE TRAINING CONTENT SELECTION

An example of the training content selection and

professional development of ships masters on the re-

sults of game simulating experiments is given in the

Table 2. Matrix representation of the content selec-

tion scheme for marine specialists training and de-

velopment allows to realize a deductive method

of analysis of each plot, differentiation of activities

and subject knowledge required for

their implementation. Further, it is possible to de-

termine what skills and abilities a specialist

must have to solve professional prob-

lems and, therefore, what a specialist’s skills and

abilities it is necessary to develop to achieve a

high level of professionalism.

Table 2. Matrix representation of the content selection scheme for marine specialists training and development

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Plot or operation Acts of activity Subject knowledge Skills and abilities

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ship’s voyage Route selection Hydrometeorology and. Be able:

planning. of the voyage oceanography to find sources of information;

to the port Navigation and sailing to analyze synoptic chart data and long-term forecasts;

of destination directions. to determine risk factors and their assessment

Cyclones and anticyclones, correlated to concrete constructive and exploitations

sea currents. characteristics of the ship, its purpose;

Aid to navigation, etc. to evaluate the impact of the navigation conditions on the

operating parameters of the ship;

to find necessary documents, regulating cargo transportation,

to apply them;

to make the cargo plan showing the holds rotation during

loading;

to perform calculations of stowage;

to calculate ship stability and sitting, bending moments and

shear forces;

to assess the impact of the extreme conditions on the

longitudinal and local strength of the ship, etc.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Planning measures The project and The theory of the ship. Be able:

to ensure the plan of ship Theoretical mechanics. to find necessary document, to assess it’s adequacy

safety of marine loading Strength of materials.Regulations to the studied problem;

cargo development. for the cargo transportation to apply creatively legal acts, regulations, recommendations

Transportation Requirements of the in order to solve practical problems;

international convention to present systemically whole range of measures to ensure

(SOLAS, MARPOL), on load line to present systemically whole range of measures to ensure

mark, etc. the safety of maritime cargo transportation and to

Ship’s stability at high angles of correlate everything with methods and means of these

heel, local and general ship's measures practical implementation.

longitudinal strength, ship’s Fixation performance fact in the logbook.

unsinkability. Requirements and

recommended schemes of different

cargo strap-ping. International Sea

Law. International regulations

related to navigation.

Rules of technical exploitation.

Fire safety rules. Navigation safety

rules. Knowledge of rules and their

application, knowledge of basic legal

acts (territorial waters, economic

261

zones, etc.)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Plot or operation Acts of activity Subject knowledge Skills and abilities

Execution of Issuing the Bill Commercial work in the Be able:

shipping of Lading merchant fleet, a notion of to issue the Bill of Lading correctly and formulate remarks

documents the Bill of Lading, its kinds, and (if there are any) in accordance with cargo insurer’s

functions; master’s remarks to recommendation;

the Bill of Lading concerning to champion / to protect the comercial interests of the ship

cargo quality or it’s packing, etc. owner or the charterer in the case of conflict with

shippers;

to formulate claims and to justify them;

to prove invalidity of the claims to the ship.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Efficient usage of gaming methods for training and

selection of training content is determined primarily

by the fact that, if the game participants cannot find

solution to any given situation, then the following

processes are started:

1 self-disqualification, i.e. a game participant dis-

cover himself a lack of knowledge and became

aware of the need of its replenishment;

2 motivation of new knowledge assimilation and

further professional development;

3 selection of the content of personal-oriented

compensatory and developed education;

4 development of new game plots and game trajec-

tory correcting;

5 development of personal-oriented trajectories of

specialists self-development and the organiza-

tional - pedagogical conditions of their realiza-

tion.

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Professional Training, „Technical Coperation in Maritime

Education and Training”, Proceedings of the 11-th Annual

General Assembly International Association of Maritime

Universities, Pusan 2010.

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