The challenge.
Established over 50 years ago, the International Maritime Employers’ Council is the only international employers' organisation dedicated to maritime industrial relations. In addition to representing shipowners, they are also deeply involved in training the next generation of seafarers and train hundreds of Cadets in the Philippines each year.
Focused as they are on exceptional training, when the COVID pandemic forced in-person teaching to cease at their training centre, they turned to us to provide a solution to ensure that their Collision Regulations (COLREGs) training could continue.
There were multiple challenges in this project; breaking down the complexity of the COLREGs in a way that’s both engaging and effective; ensuring that it was appropriate for Cadets at different stages of their education; catering for users for whom English is a foreign language; and providing a system that enables the course to be used offline.
Yet, with our experience delivering COLREGs training to the UK’s Royal Navy and other clients, as well as our expertise in developing custom eLearning, they knew that we were the perfect partner for this project.
The solution.
The COLREGs are complicated and most COLREGs training programs out there get around this by dumbing them down to make the training design easier. The problem is that this leaves learners with a shallow understanding of the rules.
Our approach has always been different and, to translate this into eLearning, we used a combination of short lessons, engaging visuals, an explanatory voiceover and copious self-testing opportunities to ensure that the learner deeply understands the rules and retains that information long-term. We also ensured that we used clear, simple English and added subtitles to aid learners for whom English is a foreign language.
Finally, we selected a hybrid learning management system (LMS) which allows the learners to download the content onto an app on their phone or tablet so it can be used at sea but also enables them to access it on a larger screen just by logging in on any browser.
This course became our Virtual COLREGs Trainer and, alongside our Virtual Buoyage Trainer, is in use by hundreds of individuals, a dozen large yachts and several shipping/training organization's.
In their own words.
"During the pandemic, we asked Dragonfly to develop a COLREGs eLearning course to ensure that we could continue delivering the highest quality training to our Cadets in the Philippines.
The end result was fantastic. It breaks the rules down into digestible chunks and it gives the Cadets loads of opportunity to test themselves, especially on the mini Bridge simulators.
We also appreciate the fact that it works offline so they can use it during their sea time and that we can use the admin portal to monitor progress and identify those who need more help.
Overall, we couldn't be more pleased”