Innovative Simulation Based Online System For Learning Engineering And Training Sailors’ Technical Skills

This paper describes the simulation-based online training course “Applied Engineering Principles”, that is being developed to assist submarine technical personnel in understanding applied engineering principles as well as to enhance their skills in preventing and troubleshooting emergency situations. The system combines educational and training capabilities. The system challenges the learner to explore the design and operation of several major devices and their components in a virtual computerized environment. The underlying technological principles and scientific laws are linked to the virtual reality experience. The system is designed with a flexible multi-layered and open-ended architecture. It comprises virtual experiments, interactive lessons, problem exercises, quizzes, integrated assessment and auxiliary tools for instructional modification. All training resources are based on a uniform pedagogical approach and are conceptually linked in such a way that they compliment each other. The system employs “learning-by-doing’ and problem-based training methodologies that prove to be effective for all learners including those with limited technical training but who will be assigned to highly technical job areas. This new approach attempts to provide alternate opportunities for the learner to understand and master technical training topics. The interactive simulation-based course “Applied Engineering Principles”, can work well in many settings both outside and inside the classroom, over the Web, Intranet or on a stand-alone computer. The simulations can be utilized as capstone experiences to a classroom lecture series as well. This paper focuses on the chapter Steam Power Plant of the ”Applied Engineering Principles” curriculum. The vast majority of simulation-based learning systems currently used for military training purposes focus primary on new personnel familiarization and the development of specific practical procedures and maintenance skills. In contrast, most e-learning solutions for teaching technical disciplines implemented in academic institutions are designed to provide fundamental knowledge in a particular area. The simulation-based engineering training system, ENGSKILLSNET, currently being developed by the Submarine Learning Center (SLC) is designed to achieve dual objectives: to enhance sailors’ skills in maintenance, troubleshooting and recovering from casualty (or infrequent) operations and to assist submarine technical personnel in learning applied engineering principles. This approach combines exacting simulations of actual operating systems along with opportunities for the student to master complex engineering principles through the association of real life observations of their acquired experiences and understanding. Because of that, the system comprises two major parts: (1) modules that simulate the operation of the major submarine systems and devices (ENGSKILLSNET), P ge 11770.2 and (2) modules that help visualize what are the underlying principles for these systems and devices (Applied Engineering Principles). The Applied Engineering Principles curriculum design adapts and integrates cognitive information processing, systems analysis, and adult learning theories. It employs effective “learning-by-doing’ and problem-based training methodologies . The system has a flexible multi-layered and open-ended architecture. All training resources are based on a uniform pedagogical approach and conceptually linked in such a way that they compliment each other and enable students to tackle the leaning subject from several directions. The system challenges the learner to virtually explore the design and operation of major devices and their components and links this experience with underlying technological principles and scientific laws. By this means the system bridges technical training and science/engineering education. Figure 1. Steam Power Plant Simulator (in the center) enables a student to modify system parameters by changing valve status. The gageboard displays the current values of basic parameters. From within the simulator the student can call associated simulations and interactive lessons for “just-in-time” exploration of underlying science and engineering principles and concepts. The Steam Power Plant Simulator, which enables a sailor to simulate operations in the steam power plant, is linked with interactive lessons of the online curriculum “Applied Engineering Principles” (Fig. 1). The e-learning courseware has been developed by the Massachusetts-based company ATeL, LLC. The simulations embedded into the lessons visualize and illustrate an internal design and basic operation of power plant components. Many sailors (or sailors to be), to whom our training courses are addressed, lack science and engineering backgrounds . Realistic Page 11770.3 visualizations motivate students and help them better grasp the engineering and scientific concepts and understand equipment design and operations. State-of-the-art graphical interfaces and sophisticated models provide an "inside" view of the process and allow students to replicate tasks that are conducted in the workplace. Sailors can quickly and safely experiment with a variety of scenarios and instantly see the effects of their experimentation, become familiar with the internal structure and operation of complex devices and systems, and learn effective sequential processes, along with the development of a variety of appropriate professional skills. Highly interactive simulations enable students to make choices that lead them down different paths toward different outcomes. Students might have some intuitive sense of what went right and wrong during the exercise, but clear system feedback allows the experience to become tangible to the learner’s experience. The learners’ individual choices determine where they find themselves later in the simulation. So, the students make mistakes and learn directly from their own mistakes and the outcomes of their own actions. This approach makes the students more open for internalizing the acquired knowledge and skills. A training cycle begins with the virtual exploration of a particular process or system using the simulator. Then, the trainee is then provided with an interactive lesson that focuses on underlying technological and scientific principles to support the learner's conceptual understanding. Figure 2 illustrates how the simulations present to a student the design and operational principle of a steam turbine. Figure 2. The simulations demonstrate turbine design and basic operational principles. Realistic Java or Flash simulations immerse trainees in job related virtual environments enabling them to (1) observe the physical processes insightfully at different levels of detail, (2) analyze constraints between relevant parameters, (3) push these parameters beyond normal allowed values to simulate infrequent operating conditions or casualty situations, (4) run “what if” scenarios, and (5) acquire data P ge 11770.4 from virtual experiments for detailed analysis and comparison to actual operating conditions in a theory to practice approach. Such complex activities help trainees master troubleshooting skills and better appreciate the potential causes of hazardous or even emergency situations. The Applied Engineering Principles (AEP) curriculum uses processes and objects that are relevant to submarine equipment and environments which are familiar to sailors from their real life experience as the context for science and technology investigations. Such an approach has shown to be effective for adult learners. It bridges the gap between the abstract and tangible aspects of particular scientific/technical principles and their real-world applications. This helps students who are practical thinkers grasp the relationship between science and math abstractions and observable facts and phenomena. Applied Engineering Principles software uses the techniques and pedagogy developed by ATeL, LLC with partial support from the National Science Foundation. Figure 3. Virtual experiment above exemplifies a typical activity built into an interactive lesson. Along with a quantity of simulations the courseware embraces a number of virtual experiments. A virtual experiment comprises a simulation, as well as a specific assignment and thorough stepby-step instruction for the student how to accomplish the assignment. Virtual experiments engage students in online learning while helping them retain and apply what they have learned. Figure 3 presents the virtual experiment that is offers to students after they learned basic design and operation of a steam turbine. It is designed to give students hands-on experience with such P ge 11770.5 difficult topic as “Vector velocity diagram”. A realistic animated image of a turbine in the upper left corner helps a learner better envisage and associate the schematic representation with an actual original device. Following the step-by-step instructions displayed in the bottom panel, the learner changes such system parameters as input steam velocity and blade rotation speed. The student can observe the impact of those changes on the velocity diagram and turbine efficiency. After switching the simulation into the detail mode, the learner is able to collect and compare the numeric values of the system parameters One of the main goals of submarine engineering training is to help sailors to understand equipment limitations and what conditions may lead to damage or reduced operating capability. Safe submarine operation requires the highest level of engineering reliability. Such reliability can only be assured by providing adequate engineering systems design and training operators to properly operate these systems. To achieve these objectives the submarine engineer necessarily has to comprehend the associated physical processes and causes responsible for changing particular operational parameters. Interactive