Charting the Future of Maritime Education and Training: A Technology-Acceptance-Model-Based Pilot Study on Students’ Behavioural Intention to Use a Fully Immersive VR Engine Room Simulator

Fully immersive engine room simulators are increasingly recognised as prominent tools in advancing maritime education and training. However, end-users’ acceptance of these innovative technologies remains insufficiently explored. To address this research gap, this case-specific pilot study applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt the newly introduced head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) engine room simulator as a training tool. Sampling (N = 84) was conducted at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, during the initial simulator trials. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that perceived usefulness was the primary determinant of students’ behavioural intention to accept the simulator as a tool for training purposes, acting both as a direct predictor and as a mediating variable, transmitting the positive effect of perceived ease of use onto the intention. By providing preliminary empirical evidence on the key factors influencing maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt HMD-VR simulation technologies within existing training programmes, this study’s findings might offer valuable insights to software developers and educators in shaping future simulator design and enhancing pedagogical practices in alignment with maritime education and training (MET) standards.