Murray Goldberg
-
09 May 2024
Tip #59 – AI to Maritime Trainers: "Watch Your Back …"
Last week’s headline in the Financial Times was startling to me: “Andreessen Horowitz raises $7.2bn and sets sights on AI start-ups“. Oh boy. Andreessen Horowitz is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms with an eye for investing in the next generation of tech companies that will change our lives. Their new fund tells us that the people who know the science of AI now believe it is poised to make an outsized global impact. AI is no longer a “tomorrow” thing.
-
30 Aug 2023
ChatGPT & Maritime Training: Steps to Harness the Power
By now we have all heard about ChatGPT, an example of a “Large Language Model” technology which is remarkable in its ability to generate human-like responses to questions we ask of it. But is ChatGPT primarily a novelty, or can it provide real value in terms of its ability to create content? In my personal experience with ChatGPT, the answer is far closer to the latter than the former - but with some caveats.
-
01 Aug 2023
Training Tips for Ships: Embracing Technology
Tip #49 - Embracing Technology for Effective Maritime TrainingThe maritime industry, like so many others, has experienced a wave of technical advances in recent years. These changes have opened new doors for enhancing the quality of training and skill development for maritime professionals. In this edition of Training Tips for Ships, we'll consider how incredibly far we have come and explore how embracing…
-
21 Jun 2023
Training Tips for Ships: Empowering Seafarers with AI
In the maritime industry, seafarer safety and professionalism are critical to ensuring smooth operations and minimizing risks. As technical advancements continue to reshape every industry including ours, large language models like ChatGPT and Bard have the potential to directly assist seafarers in performing their duties more safely and professionally. So, how can a seafarer leverage these tools to enhance their onboard performance?
-
13 Mar 2023
Traing Tips for Ships - Tip #45: Is it ‘Real’ or is it … (Part II)
Is the “old” way of generating maritime training content about to be disrupted? Are we witnessing the beginning of a sea change in the creation of training content and potentially in how trainees interact with that content?In the previous edition of Training Tips for Ships, we introduced ChatGPT and discussed its potential uses and limitations in a maritime training capacity. In fact, as was revealed near the end…
-
26 Jan 2023
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #42 - What’s the Point of Testing? (Part I)
We talk a lot about assessment and how to get it right. But in order to make good decisions about testing, we have to understand why we test in the first place - and the answer is not what most people think. This is a problem because knowing the answer is critical to designing an effective training and assessment program. It informs all aspects of testing from the length and makeup of tests to what we test…
-
26 Jan 2023
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #43: What’s the Point of Testing (Part II)?
In the previous edition of Training Tips for Ships, we made the point that assessment can never tell us whether a candidate has all the knowledge required for a role or is able to perform the skills necessary under all conditions. Instead, assessment is essentially an audit or sampling process whereby we test a subset of skills or knowledge in the hope that what we learn about that subset can be extrapolated to all the required knowledge and skills.
-
13 Nov 2022
Training Tips for Ship: Maritime Skills: Who Trains? Who Assesses?
Assessment is a special interest of mine, and it should be at or near the top of the list for anyone involved in maritime training. Why? Two reasons. First, because it is arguably more important than the training itself. And second, because in my experience most training administrators pay 95% of their attention to training, and only 5% to assessment. This means that assessment is often done poorly.
-
13 May 2022
Training Tips for Ships: Choosing e-Learning Media ... It’s All About Outcomes!
In the previous edition of Training Tips for Ships we discussed the choice of media for learning materials and which media would lead to the best results. Is it text? Images? Videos? Interactive exercises and simulations? All too commonly it is claimed that interactive media with fancy (and expensive) graphics will produce better learning outcomes. The reality is not nearly so simple. So, how do we choose?
-
23 Mar 2022
Training Tips for Ships #33: Excellent Training is Never an Accident
The principles of continuous improvement are well known in the arenas of quality and management. Yet very few training centers and operators apply these simple principles to the management of their training programs. Being deliberate and thoughtful about training quality requires very little effort, yet is one of the most impactful activities that can be undertaken. Even a modest program can result in a higher degree of employee professionalism…
-
14 Jan 2022
Training Tips for Ships: Are Mariners Knowledge Workers?
What is the difference between knowledge and skills? Which should we focus more on in our training, and how does one influence the other?When we think about the most important mariner quality, often the first thing that comes to mind is skill. Can the officer or crewmember safely perform the skills required of him or her? After all, if everyone performs their necessary skills correctly, what more is there?There is, in fact, much more. Let’s see what the experts have to say:“A study by the U.S.
-
17 Dec 2021
Maritime Training Insights – MarTID 2021 Report Available
As trainers in the maritime industry, we benefit from the sharing of information. Understanding what training trends are emerging, how training budgets are growing (or shrinking), what training models are on the rise or decline, and how the world pandemic has affected training operations is all of great important to us. Having a global understanding of these questions and more allows us to improve based on best practice…
-
03 Aug 2021
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #27: Maritime Training and the Pandemic. What Now?
The endless debate pitting face-to-face learning against online learning rages on and will likely continue to do so for some time. As we entered the pandemic there was a huge and hasty shift in maritime training practices (and in the world as a whole) to online learning. This was both positive and negative. It was positive because we can all be thankful that there was a safe and available alternative to face-to-face training.
-
17 May 2021
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #24: For your Disaster Recovery Plan, Hope for the Best; Plan for the Worst
Very few people live day-to-day expecting a disaster. However, disasters do happen and a critical component of business continuity is ensuring that when disaster strikes, our critical systems are returned to normal operations as quickly and efficiently as possible. Last month’s training tips for ships discussed a catastrophic fire that occurred in France last month at one of the world’s largest data centres.
-
07 Apr 2021
Training Tips For Ships - Tip #23: Is Your Training Technology Disaster-Ready?
A customer once told me that they had just completed a business continuity analysis and had identified their LMS as their second most mission-critical technology - second only to payroll! Take a moment to consider how much you rely on training technologies to sustain your operations and compliance. How long could you comfortably go without your employees having access to training? How long could you go without access to your compliance records or your employees’ certificates?
-
10 Feb 2021
VIDEO: MarTID 2021 ... A Call to Action for Global Survey of Maritime Training Practices
The 2021 Maritime Training Insights Database (MarTID) survey is about to be launched. This is a unique and pivotal time in maritime training. The pandemic has forced us to adapt our training and has accelerated training innovations. This year’s survey is uniquely important for its ability to help us learn from these unprecedented changes to training practices. If we do not survey and document the changes resulting from the pandemic, we lose a unique opportunity to learn.
-
11 Jan 2021
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #20: Training in the Age of Data
As we greet 2021, it seems fitting to address a “big” topic - a topic that is ultimately going to change everything, including (and perhaps especially) training. The topic is “big data”. The goal of today’s Training Tip for Ships is to get us thinking about big data in training. If we understand it, we can lay the groundwork to take advantage of it.We are in the data age – and this is especially important for training.
-
24 Dec 2020
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #19: Assess Always
In last month’s Training Tips for Ships, we spoke about the value of creating a culture of learning. Even though many organizations have yet to achieve a healthy learning culture, the concept itself is not controversial. The value is self-evident and universally understood.This month, we go a little further to discuss a culture of assessment. And while some readers may bristle at the idea of near-ubiquitous workplace assessment…
-
23 Nov 2020
Training Tips for Ships - Tip #18: Creating a Culture of Learning
We all think about how to train to produce better outcomes – because better training outcomes mean better performance, safer operations, and employees who are more engaged and more satisfied. But there is a much “bigger picture” goal that only the most thoughtful of maritime organizations work to achieve. That goal is to create a “culture of learning”.It is a little hard to express a concrete definition for a culture of learning…
-
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.
