Creating and using a YouTube channel to engage seafarer students with learning and professional development

Author and presenter

• Samrat Ghosh, Australian Maritime College, CoSE

Abstract

During COVID-19, many seafarer students were unable to commence/resume their education at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) due to travel restrictions. As a result, seafarer education at the AMC adopted the blended learning approach which provided students an option to study on-campus or online. Educators at the AMC focused on developing and using learning technologies and resources to engage the students studying online and in classrooms. Along the same vein, the author of this abstract initiated a dedicated YouTube channel (named Steering Mariners) as a free online learning tool, videos from which could be embedded within MyLO for easy access. YouTube allowed students to access educational content from remote locations on their mobile devices and the video creator to measure performance of the videos through metrics such as engagement, and watch-time. The author created videos of differing runtime (e.g., less than 60 seconds to sessions up to an hour) and shared the video links with students through email or social media platforms. The steadily growing number of subscribers (currently more than 58,000) showed that the students turned to YouTube to express themselves, share their likes and dislikes, and interact with not only the creator but also other viewers (with the option of being anonymous) making it an interactive learning experience. Thus, the author was able to build a learning community for seafarers where the students became engaged in the constructive learning process through peer learning which was not only limited to students enrolled at the AMC but professionals worldwide.