The main objective of the project is to enhance the safety of navigation, measured through statistically significant differences in maritime communication skills before and after the implementation of the digital pilot study among shore service operators and higher education students.

Other project objectives are:

– to develop learner-centered and needs-based teaching practices so that the digital educational content closely simulates the authentic situations that the users (will) need in their professional lives;

– to develop open-access digital educational tools relevant for the maritime industry and the broader society; 

– to develop open-access instructional videos and chatbots that will support continuous and self-directed learning, allow the interaction between the research and educational dimensions, and strengthen the links between education, research, innovation, and practical use;

– to promote the lifelong learning dimension of higher education;

– to support and develop new forms of interdisciplinary cooperation among higher education teachers from different disciplines involved in the project;

– to exploit the potential of digital technologies and develop the digital competencies of the target group users and of higher education teachers;

– to use the digital tools for the creation and analysis of language databases, and the creation of maritime communication simulation tasks;

– to develop a database that can be later utilized for the development of a wider maritime communication library to be used in AI-based speech recognition and communication management solutions;

– to be in line with the strategic priorities of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) in that the project supports high-quality, inclusive, and accessible digital education, and presents digital opportunities for the education and training community, policymakers, academia, and researchers;

– to develop, deploy, and evaluate open-access digital educational tools expected to increase the capacity and readiness of the involved institutions to manage an effective shift toward digital education;

– to assess improvements in navigational safety as a result of the digital education pilot study;

– to provide research-based recommendations for a revision of the standard protocol of communication.