Maritime education and training in the COVID-19 era and beyond

The rapid global spread of COVID–19 has created numerous challenges for educational organizations of all levels around the world. Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions are no exception and have faced major disruptions from the pandemic. Differing technological and organizational solutions have had to be quickly adapted in short timeframes in order to fill gaps and ensure continued teaching and learning. Although online education is nothing new, COVID-19 has accelerated the necessity for distributed learning, digital tools and infrastructure needed to not only cope, but excel in the restructuring of MET. In this article we present our experiences from the blended course offered to maritime bachelor students at our university in Norway through a case study. The findings from the study have revealed that although blended learning has helped continued education during the pandemic, it still has to overcome general as well as MET specific challenges to be successful in future. Considering the impact and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on MET, we further discuss the short-term responses and possible long-term solutions that can contribute to uninterrupted, high-quality learning for future MET. The use of emerging technologies for education, such as virtual reality (VR) and web-based training simulators, are likely to play an essential role in the future direction of MET.