engleski

Abilities and Competences of Students and Seafarers for Education Supported by Modern ICT

The purpose of this paper was to find out whether the higher education has met the necessary requirements for the implementation of the ICT system, in particular the e-learning system in higher education of seafarers. The goal was to explore to what extent the technical and organisational prerequisites for introducing the system have been fulfilled at the very institution—E-learning system provider, and to what extent the full-time maritime students and part-time students-seafarers are ready and trained to adopt such a system. In order to gather insights and make conclusions, the analytical method and the survey of students were used. A total of 930 full-time and part-time students (seafarers) were surveyed. The goal of these surveys was to find out the educational needs of both student groups, as well as their technical preconditions (e.g., having a PC at work or at home, access to the internet, and the like) and competencies (e.g., computer literacy) that are necessary for active involvement in the e-learning system. A particularly interesting part of the research tackled the psychological predisposition of students, i.e., whether they were willing to use the system at all. A special part of the research was focused on issues regarding the costs and the available time that the students/seafarers have for using the e-learning system. The research has revealed that there are neither obstacles nor initial constraints for the implementation of the e-learning system in education of maritime students and seafarers at the University of Split. Moreover, the students have a positive attitude towards the e-learning system, and most of them are very enthusiastic about its implementation. The scientific contribution of this paper is provided by an analytical model exploring and defining the necessary prerequisites for introducing the e-learning system. The advantage of the model lies in its wide and multi-disciplinary approach to all these prerequisites, ranging from psychological to purely technical, financial, time, organisational and other aspects. An interesting issue is the question of “good will” for launching such systems at the institutions which obviously meet all necessary prerequisites for their introduction, including the enthusiasm of their students and teachers. The case study shows that, apparently, the university management and the wider community have not recognised many a benefit of the e-learning system. This sounds paradoxical as it is precisely the very academic community that should act as the designer and the initiator of social changes, in social systems in general and in education systems in particular.

ICT-information and comunication technologies ; e-learnig ; distance education ; seafarers education

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