EVALUATION OF SHIP SIMULATOR EFFECTIVENESS AND SUITABILITY BY MARITIME INSTRUCTORS

Technology and the technological devices developed with it have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Simulator technologies have been widely used in maritime education for many years, allowing maritime students to develop their maritime skills without the need for real ship experience. In this way, they can experience scenarios that cannot be experienced in real life because of safety, economic, and ethical constraints. This study seeks to determine the effectiveness and acceptability of ARPA Radar, ECDIS, GMDSS, Ship Control, Environmental Imaging, Liquid Cargo Handling, Electronic Navigation Devices simulators used in maritime training from the perspective of maritime instructors. In addition, it is aimed to reveal which simulator is the most accepted simulator according to the determined criteria. The study investigates the effects of the design and functionality of simulators on the training process while evaluating the effectiveness of simulators to improve the quality of maritime education and to provide cost-effective solutions that meet sectoral needs. The research data were collected using a questionnaire technique, and the importance levels of the criteria were calculated using the AHP method. This study compared the alternatives using the TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods. In this study, it was determined that the most important criterion was ‘‘closeness to reality’’ and the least important criterion was ‘‘design esthetics’’, and in the ranking of simulators that met the criteria determined in both methods, the ECDIS simulator ranked first. In contrast, the ARPA Radar simulator ranked second. It can be seen that the rankings of the Ship Control, GMDSS, and Liquid Cargo Handling simulators are the same for both methods. This study contributes to the maritime literature as it reveals the importance levels of the criteria that determine the effectiveness of simulators used in the training of deck-class seafarers and identifies the most suitable simulators according to these criteria. The novelty of this study lies in its contribution to the limited research on the evaluation of simulator effectiveness by maritime instructors within the maritime sector. While inadequately designed simulators negatively affect the learning process and hinder the development of professional skills, effective and accepted simulators play a critical role in increasing the quality of maritime education and providing cost-effective solutions that meet the needs of the sector.