Student Engagement in Maritime Education: Insights from COAST FA3 (2020–2026)

Summary

Students as Active Partners, Not Passive Recipients

In maritime education, students are often seen primarily as receivers of knowledge and skills. Experience from COAST suggests that when students are given active roles in cross-institutional events, reference groups, and professional communities, the learning environment improves for everyone. The question is not only what students learn, but how institutions design structures that make meaningful student participation possible.

Focus Area 3 (FA3) in COAST has been responsible for developing and coordinating student engagement across the four partner institutions: NTNU, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). The activities described here span the full project period 2020–2026.

Key Activities

Tugboat Challenge and Tugboat Championship has been one of FA3’s flagship activities. The competition developed in FA3 brings together student teams from all four institutions in simulator-based navigation challenges. Teams compete annually in each institution and the winning team represents the institution in the Grand finals held at HVL and NTNU. The competitive format generates genuine motivation and peer learning that traditional exercises rarely achieve. Students apply theoretical knowledge in a high-stakes practical context and build cross-institutional relationships through a shared experience.

Student ThinkFactory is a reference group with elected representatives from all four institutions wich gave students a formal channel for influencing how FA3 activities were designed and prioritised. Members represented programmes in Nautical Science and Marine Engineering.The recurring workshop format bringing together students, researchers, and industry professionals from all four institutions. Workshops held locally at regular intervals and nationally annually.The format is built on the premise that students have relevant perspectives on the challenges facing maritime education, perspectives that are often underrepresented in institutional decision-making. By placing students in loop, the workshops create a space where these perspectives can be developed and acted upon.

COAST-dagen (16 October 2024) was a full-day event bringing together students, staff, and partners across the COAST consortium. The day combined presentations, professional dialogue, and social activities, and served as an important arena for making the project’s work visible to a broader audience.

Hinderløype  is a simulator-based navigation exercise developed in FA3 where students sail through a closed harbour area with multiple obstacles. The objective is to complete the course in the shortest possible time with the fewest collisions. Penalty points are given for contact with quays, buoys, vessels, and other obstacles. Students navigate the full bridge simulator, which puts precise ship handling, situational awareness, and decision-making under direct competitive pressure.

Community building at the local level included weekly informal meetings, the «12 o’clock coffee» initiative held every Thursday at NTNU Ålesund, as well as Fagdager, Ships visits,company visits and social events supported in collaboration with the student union Sekstanten. These recurring initiatives address a real risk: that maritime students experience their education as isolated technical training rather than entry into a broader professional community.

Simulator practice outside teaching hours. Three COAST institutions have developed models for extending student access to simulators beyond scheduled teaching. At NTNU Ålesund, mandatory evening sessions were introduced in 2025, requiring all students to complete a minimum of two hours of simulator practice per week. SSAs organise fixed sessions on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, with additional ad-hoc sessions on request. At HVL, a voluntary Night Sim format with SSA support runs regularly and attracts strong student participation. At UiT, students have unrestricted access and can use the simulators at times that suit them. Across all three models, simulators are available around the clock. The approaches differ in structure and mandate but share the same aim: more simulator time per student, with peer support available.

What This Means for Instructors

Students engage more deeply when given real responsibilities, not just tasks. The Tugboat Challenge worked because the outcome mattered. The Reference Group worked because student input was actually used. Instructors looking to increase engagement should give students genuine ownership of activities rather than simply inviting participation in instructor-designed exercises.

Cross-institutional contact builds professional identity. Students who have worked alongside peers from other institutions develop a broader sense of what it means to be a maritime professional. This is difficult to achieve through classroom instruction alone.

Low-threshold community structures matter. The weekly coffee meetings cost very little to organise but built the kind of informal professional network that supports learning and retention over time.

Suggestions for Implementation

• Formalise cross-institutional events as part of the academic calendar. The Tugboat Challenge and ThinkFactory formats are transferable to individual institutions or smaller partnerships and do not require the full COAST infrastructure.
• Establish a student reference group at programme level with a clear mandate to contribute to programme development. Even a small group meeting twice a semester improves the quality of student input.
• Use competitive simulator formats to sharpen ship-handling skills. The hinderløype format, a timed obstacle course in a closed harbour area with penalty points for contact, motivates precise manoeuvring and sustained concentration in ways that ordinary exercises rarely achieve.
• Create regular informal meeting points, such as a weekly coffee break or monthly lunch. These require minimal resources but have a measurable effect on community and belonging.

Research from FA3

FA3 has supported two PhD candidates whose work covers complementary aspects of maritime education and operations.

Anastasia Skarpeti: student engagement in simulator-based training

Anastasia Skarpeti has focused on how students and instructors interact during simulation-based training at NTNU Ålesund. A 2025 article examines how maritime instructors perceive and use full-mission bridge simulators to engage students in professional learning. Based on semi-structured interviews with ten simulator instructors across four Norwegian bachelor programmes, the study finds that students engage more deeply when they can visualise their future working environment through authentic scenarios, professional equipment, and assigned roles. The SSA (Simulator Student Assistant) scheme, where senior students co-create training activities with instructors, is highlighted as a way to personalise scenarios and strengthen engagement. A second article (published 2026) shifts focus to what happens in the debriefing itself, examining how SSAs and novice students negotiate knowledge and authority during student-led post-simulation sessions. The study shows that debriefing is a jointly accomplished activity: SSAs guide the review while novice students actively contribute by elaborating and accounting for their earlier actions. Video replays of simulation practice serve as a shared reference that allows both parties to examine navigation performance together. A third article, under review in Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, extends this work by examining exploratory talk in peer-led debriefings. Together, these studies offer a research-based account of how simulator-based training engages students and how peer-led assessment is interactionally organised.

Finn Tore Holmeset: battery-hybrid systems and the changing role of the maritime engineer

Finn Tore Holmeset has investigated how battery-hybrid technology is changing shipboard operations, engineering roles, and safety practices. A first article, currently under review in the Journal of Marine Engineering and Technology, addresses system integration and software reliability in battery-hybrid ship power systems, based on a maritime case study. A second article, under review in Results in Engineering, examines the operational impact of battery-hybrid technology and how it changes engineering roles and onboard practices. A third article, also under review, addresses operational safety under pressure in maritime energy transitions, with a focus on complexity, competence, and adaptation. This body of work is relevant to maritime education because it documents how new propulsion technology is changing what deck and engineer officers need to know and how they need to work together. The findings have direct implications for curriculum development, simulator training content, and competence frameworks at maritime higher education institutions.

References

Skarpeti, A., Giskeødegård, M. F., & Wiig, A. C. (2025). Engaging in simulations: analysing maritime instructors’ perceptions of student engagement. SN Social Sciences, 5, 135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-025-01176-9

Skarpeti, A., Sellberg, C., & Giskeødegård, M. F. (2026). Epistemic stances in student-led post-simulation debriefings: reflective discourse in maritime training. Classroom Discourse. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2026.2738617

Skarpeti, A. (under review). Peer-to-peer reflections in maritime simulation: exploratory talk in student-led debriefings. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction.

Holmeset, F. T. (under review). System integration and software reliability in battery-hybrid ship power systems: evidence from a maritime case study. Journal of Marine Engineering and Technology.

Holmeset, F. T. (under review). Battery-hybrid technology and its operational impact: a maritime case study on changing engineering roles and onboard practices. Results in Engineering.

Holmeset, F. T. (under review). Operational safety under pressure: navigating complexity, competence, and adaptation in maritime energy transitions. WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs.