MASSTER is concerned with the harmonisation of maritime education and the standardisation of simulator exercises in particular.
The overview of types of simulators created a first basis for a common approach towards the European simulator institutes. Agreement on the level of technology enabled the participants to come up with a common standard for training objectives and scenario/exercise description. The overall results based on these standards could be identified as follows:
- List of simulator capabilities and their future developments;
- List of training objectives deduced from the STCW'95 guidelines;
- List of simulator training exercises covering most training objectives suitable for simulator use;
- List of training exercises covering extra, in addition to STCW'95, training objectives on high speed vessels, management aspects, ECDIS and others;
- Scenario and exercise development methodology;
- Examples of assessment tools development added to the assessment criteria connected to training objectives which were identified and reported at the beginning of the project.
The MASSTER Project commenced in 1996. Different simulators were used to achieve common training objectives, at first it was necessary to provide an overview of types and use of simulators in Europe and their application of training scenarios. Special attention was paid to the STCW 95 regulations and the need for additional human factors training (e.g. situational awareness, team communication).
Based on an assessment of gaps and shortcomings in existing training scenarios, new scenarios were developed and documented. The resulting catalogue of scenarios serves as a basis for harmonising training in existing simulation facilities.
The MASSTER project is accessible in the internet via
http://www.issus.fh-hamburg.de/iss_web/projekte/masster/