Murray Goldberg
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12 Oct 2020
Training Tips for Ships Tip #17: Getting Serious About Assessing Skills
Ours is both a knowledge-based and skill-based industry. We know this. Yet our training does not address both aspects equally. And until it does, we are needlessly sacrificing safety and performance. There is more we can do.Maritime workers require a high degree of both knowledge and skills to perform efficiently and safely. Knowledge enables officers and crew to react intelligently to novel situations and to operate safely in challenging environments.
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30 Sep 2020
Training Tips for Ships #16: Using Student Exam Results to Measure OUR Performance: Part 2
In last month’s Training Tips for Ships, we began the discussion of how we can look at our existing training data to measure our success as trainers and training organizations. The data in question are the results from the multiple-choice exams we deliver to our trainees. We deliver these exams all the time, and we gather a tremendous amount of data (answers) over the years. Yet typically we only use that data to determine whether our trainees have gathered the knowledge we are trying to impart.
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14 Aug 2020
Training Tips for Ships #15: Using Student Exam Results to Measure OUR Performance
Exams are a staple of training. We know what they are, we know what they are for, and we know how to write and deliver them. And, of course, we all use them to test trainee knowledge. But there is another benefit of exams that the vast majority of maritime trainers are ignoring. And since we give and grade exams all the time, this benefit is already there for the taking!The value I am referring to is that of providing outstanding…
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24 Jul 2020
Training Tips for Ships #14: Collect, Analyze Data to Improve Training
As I wrote in last month’s Training Tips for Ships, “If you do not measure it, you cannot manage it. This is especially true with training because the inputs (the training provided) are often far removed in time and apparent direct causality from the key output (performance). Therefore, it is important that we measure everywhere we can”.To address this problem, we discussed the value of student evaluations…
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12 Jun 2020
Training Tips for Ship #13: How's Your Training? You Can't Know Unless You Ask!
We have all heard it a thousand times: “If you do not measure it, you cannot manage it”. This is especially true with training because the inputs (the training provided) are often far removed in time and apparent direct causality from the key output (performance). Therefore, it is important that we measure everywhere we can. One universal form of measurement is the requirement for exams at the end of the course.
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18 May 2020
Training Tips for Ships #12: Training in COVID-19 Times - A “How to Guide”
COVID-19 is requiring all operators to reconsider how they train. In-person traditional training is essentially prohibited by this pandemic. So how do operators adapt quickly to maintain compliance and train for safe operations, yet do so in a COVID-safe way? Fortunately, it can be done, and it is not difficult. Furthermore, by taking the steps necessary to deliver training during the pandemic, you will be putting in place systems…
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08 Apr 2020
COVID-19: Your LMS Can Help You Now More Than Ever
It is clear that we are living in unprecedented times. Equally clear is that we will get through this pandemic, but that it is going to take some strength, stamina and especially some innovation to come through as unscathed as possible. It is the innovation part that I wish to address here with some tips that go beyond training; tips I am observing our customers innovate and implement. Tips that help us solve some of the problems created by the impacts of this pandemic.
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04 Mar 2020
Training Tips for Ships: Tip #10 - Don’t Handcuff Your Trainees
Do any of your e-learning modules force learners to spend a certain amount of time on a page before advancing to the next one? Do they force readers to answer one or more questions before advancing to the next page? Do they prevent access to the final exam until every learning page has been visited at least once? Do they enforce a prerequisite structure that prevents access to more advanced learning…
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05 Feb 2020
MarTID 2020: A Call to Action
The 2020 Maritime Training Insights Database (MarTID) survey has just been launched. The industry needs you to take 20 minutes to complete the survey at www.MarTID.org before it closes. Your contribution will enable the creation of 2020’s comprehensive, freely distributed, global maritime training practices report that members of our industry rely on more heavily each year.Take the SurveyVessel Operator…
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23 Jan 2020
Training Tips for Ship: #8 - The Lecture is Dead
Tip #8: The Lecture is Dead … But Long Live the Classroom!The traditional lecture, for millennia, has been the go-to method for teaching. Yet it is actually a terribly inefficient and ineffective way of teaching. It tends to leave many students feeling confused, bored or generally dissatisfied because it attempts to provide a “one size fits all” solution in an “every learner is different” world. Fortunately, the world is catching on.
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20 Jan 2020
Training Tips for Ships: Stop Lecturing Me!
Does your training still employ traditional “classroom style” lectures where an expert conveys their knowledge to your trainees? If so, your training is an example of a diminishing trend; there is an industry-wide move away from lectures. The 2019 Maritime Training Insights Database (MarTID) report showed that while operators intend to increase their use of almost every type of training surveyed (simulation…
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17 Dec 2019
Training Tips for Ships: #7 – Stop Lecturing Me!
Does your training still employ traditional “classroom style” lectures where an expert conveys their knowledge to your trainees?If so, your training is an example of a diminishing trend; there is an industry-wide move away from lectures. The 2019 Maritime Training Insights Database (MarTID) report showed that while operators intend to increase their use of almost every type of training surveyed (simulation…
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22 Nov 2019
Training Tips for Ships: Taking the Stress out of Tests
We must assess our trainees. Yet we have all heard the complaints they raise about assessments: “I am a bad test-writer”, “this test was much more difficult than I expected”, “I know the material but I did not understand the questions”, “I was nervous, and my mind went blank”, etc.These are not the occasional concerns of weak or lazy trainees – they are the norm. And we must listen because our trainees…
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15 Nov 2019
Training Tips for Ships: Taking the Stress out of Tests
We must assess our trainees. Yet we have all heard the complaints they raise about assessments: “I am a bad test-writer”, “this test was much more difficult than I expected”, “I know the material but I did not understand the questions”, “I was nervous, and my mind went blank”, etc. These are not the occasional concerns of weak or lazy trainees – they are the norm. And we must listen because our trainees…
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18 Oct 2019
Training Tips for Ships: Tip #5
– The Simple Secret to Making Randomized Exams Fair – In last month’s Training Tips for Ships, we made the important point that we must never give different people the same exam. If we use an exam over and over, our trainees will very quickly learn what questions are on the exam and share the answers with their friends. Suddenly exam scores begin going up, and time spent learning goes down – both for the wrong reasons.
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08 Oct 2019
Training Tips for Ships: Never Give the Same Exam Twice
We’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have seen it first-hand: the completely ineffective assessment practice of giving the same multiple-choice exam to people over and over. The only time this is ever acceptable is when all of the people writing the exam are doing so at the same time and are supervised to ensure they are not sharing answers. However, giving the same exam to different people…
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10 Jul 2019
How To: Training Tips for Ships
Important training need? A quick video may be the answer!Have you ever witnessed a mariner performing a task poorly or unsafely? Possibly day-to-day confined space entry? A commonly misapplied or misunderstood ColReg? Inattentive watchkeeping? Of course you have. And if you have seen it happen once, you can rest assured that it has happened before, and it will continue to happen unless someone does something about it. So - what can you do?Video may be your answer.
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17 Jun 2019
Training Tips for Ships
Tip #1. Immediate exam retakes should never be allowed.It is very common practice, especially in eLearning environments, to allow trainees to immediately retake an exam they just failed. Worse, sometimes training is set up to allow the trainee to take the exam repeatedly until they pass.Never do this. It will ensure that your learners are not learning what you want them to learn.For most people, this raises two immediate questions. First, why not allow immediate retakes?
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04 Feb 2019
MarTID '19 Survey: Deadline Extended
As survey responses continue to role in, the deadline for the 2019 Maritime Insights Database (MarTID) annual survey of maritime training practices has been extended to February 28, 2019. Ship owners, Maritime Training institutions and mariners all have a stake in participation, as Murray Goldberg explains.Take the SurveyFor operators: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019MarTIDOperatorFor training institutions…
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12 Dec 2018
Transformation in Maritime Industry Training
The 2019 Maritime Insights Database (MarTID) survey has just been launched. This annual survey and the resulting annual reports (available freely at www.MarTID.org) provide critical data on maritime training practices and trends useful to every segment of the maritime industry. As such, it is important that every seafarer, maritime trainer and maritime administrator working at a vessel operator or…
