THE seafaring industry always will be at risk of major operational errors if competence levels of seafarer operators are inaccurately and inadequately assessed.

Traditional assessment methods (pen and paper tests, multiple-choice questions, oral examinations, etc.) may be used in assessing knowledge-based components of a task but are ineffective in assessing a seafarer’s competence to perform workplace tasks.

Past research has revealed seafarer students disengaged from learning when traditional assessments methods that emphasised on memorising and regurgitating the memorised knowledge were used for assessment.