Development of VR curriculum for marine engines

Abstract

There is an increasing need for education and training on marine engine maintenance in order to prevent marine accidents caused by engine damage. In reality, practical education is difficult to achieve owing to the size and location of the equipment. In light of recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technology, VR educational equipment for marine engines has also been developed. However, there is no curriculum utilizing VR educational equipment for marine engines. Therefore, this study develops an optimized curriculum to utilize VR educational equipment. Accordingly, four main content items were selected, and a detailed content and curriculum was developed as the primary content. The developed curriculum includes content that maximizes the use of VR educational equipment to enhance educational effect. The developed VR curriculum was applied to provide marine engine education to sophomores of Korea Maritime University, and although the sample size was limited, the educational effect was confirmed. If the VR education curriculum is applied to regular curriculum in the future, the maintenance capability of the marine engine can be improved through various practical education programs in a safe environment.