Group Composition in the Navigation Simulator – a Pilot Study

At Kalmar Maritime Academy (KMA) the first-year students at the Master Mariner program complete a course in the use of ARPA 1 . The course includes eight simulator exercises, where seven of them are completed in pairs and the last exercise is an individual assessment. Previously, instructors have encouraged students to choose a new partner for each of the first seven exercises; however, the reason for this strategy has not been well documented. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of fixed versus rotating bridge teams on the individual learning outcome. During an eight-week course in spring 2012, two groups of students were asked to work either with the same or a new partner for each exercise during a course. The result showed no difference between the two groups with regard to the individual assessment, and the students who failed did so because of inadequate interpretation of the ARPA information, and not because of insufficient radar knowledge.