Enhancing Maritime Education Through Online Distance Learning in Developing Environments: Case Study of South Africa

Masuku, Margaret B.

With the changing landscape of education with limited spaces in universities, high expenditure structures and increased rate of unemployment, many institutions are forced to rethink and re-strategise curriculum design to fit the needs of students and employers rather than the traditional design of designing for a qualification instead of designing for employment. The education and training of the seafaring officers is regulated with the international regulations mainly based on the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping Convention for Seafarers (STCW) and requires a continuous education that enables them to keep certificates of competencies valid. This situation forces us to consider the application of different types of education and training methods in particular distance and blended education of seafaring officers. The meta-synthesis method is applied to define most suitable postgraduate education for seafaring officers considering their future role in the maritime industry and business, along with applicable distance and blended learning methods matching their working conditions. This study focuses on the online distance learning in the developing environments and uses South African Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions as a case study. Particular attention is paid to the Durban University of Technology (DUT), which would like to put forwards a case for online distance education for their Maritime Postgraduate qualifications. It is noteworthy to mention that Covid-19 pandemic has proved the necessity of online distance learning in developing environments, and the result of the study has shown the positive interest of this form of education online among the respondents.