Traditional ECDIS courses are not sufficient to give navigators an in-depth understanding. Simsea’s e-learning program ECDIS-Sitaware meets this shortcoming by raising navigators’ awareness of the technical limits and the pitfalls for unsafe use of ECDIS. In this course unsafe use of ECDIS is not understood as poor motivation, rather, limitations and pitfalls are explained in a concrete manner using simple language.
The course covers four main themes:
- Scale Issues
- Wrecks and Obstructions
- ENC quality and Alternative Information Sources
- GPS and AIS positioning
The course starts with an introductory chapter explaining what it means to have situation awareness regarding ECDIS. Ten chapters then covers one awareness aspect each concerning ECDIS use. Each Chapter follows a common pedagogic template in three parts: 1) a short presentation of the awareness aspect, 2) an example taken from a real grounding accident, and 3) a multiple-choice question simultaneously activating the learner and testing understanding.
The course takes the average learner about 1.5 hours to complete. Each chapter can also be printed out in standard format as reflection sheets. This makes excellent supporting material for reflective discussion among navigation officers.
The learners will get an immediate feed-back on their test score in %. In addition, the learner and their employer will receive an overview of the test result.
The system is cloud based and can be used on mobile phone, tablet or PC.
ECDIS Sitaware is developed by Simsea.