PHOTO: K-Sim Connect is mainly tailored to the instructor, who can benefit from getting a full overview of the always up-to-date simulators, exercises and a
marketplace for downloading engine and cargo models; or additionally K-Sim Navigation’s vessel models and geographical areas, plus common spare parts. The
instructor also has the opportunity to assign exercises to students, who can train either at the school or anytime and anywhere at their own pace.
K-Sim Connect is our platform created
for the purpose of driving the transfor-mation
of our industry. We have started
this by leveraging our entire existing
portfolio of simulation technology, fu-sion
with the new cloud native technol-ogy
and inviting all users to join us and
contribute to the transformation.
If asked, any instructor can show you
their physical simulator; but what about
a cloud simulator? The answer to that
can be found at www.ksimconnect.
com. This is the focal point where we
invite you to join us in the transforma-tion
and become a part of the online
community. Here, both students and
instructor have personal user profiles
that provide access to available servic-es
and products.
K-Sim Connect is tailored to the simu-lator
instructor’s daily tasks and
responsibilities
There are three categories of users that
receive special attention in K-Sim Con-nect
on the domains of usability. These
are the instructors, the students, and
the content developers. The instructor
is the educator, the professional who
uses the simulator as a tool for building
knowledge in students preparing them
for a professional career. The students,
who take the simulation training, and fi-nally
the content developers who make
models and exercise areas.
Since the instructor has the most re-sponsibilities
and represents the core of
the simulation community, we have tai-lored
the K-Sim Connect portal mainly
to the instructor’s needs.
Easy access to the simulators
The simulators are no longer confined
to computer labs in simulator centers
or to regular office hours. The digital
technology of connectivity enables the
site simulators to become smarter and
more accessible by interfacing to K-Sim
Connect for remote access and man-agement
by the instructors. Connectiv-ity
will also allow for virtual computer
networks that lets simulators connect
in common exercises independent of
the participants geographic locations.
Cloud computing will allow simulator
servers to run on demand in the cloud
and make local servers obsolete. Simu-lations
scheduled and running in the
cloud allow students to run simulations
anytime and anywhere, and on their
own computers. This form of self-study
is ideal for familiarization, system train-ing
and basic skills. By letting the stu-dents
prepare on their own in advance,
the time spent in the full mission simu-lator
can be far more efficient.
Full overview of the exercise library
and the possibility of sharing exercises
The exercises are what turns a simula-tor,
which in fact is little more than an
advanced tool, into a powerful learn-ing
experience for the students. Since
instructors invest time and effort in
creating, planning and implementing
exercises, they should be handled as
the valuable assets that they are. The
exercise archive in K-Sim Connect of-fers
PAGE 4 THE MARITIME SIMULATION NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2019
safe handling and storage of the
exercises in a personal archive for each
instructor. ‘If desired, instructors can
collaborate and share exercises with
colleagues or others in the global com-munity.
Imagine the possibility of saving
time by accessing a library of exercises
which exactly fit the curriculum?.
Meeting today’s students expectations
The digital age has amplified the stu-dents’
expectations, who take instant
access to digital services for granted.
To them it seems evident that the same
availability and usability should apply to
training on a simulator as it does for lis-tening
to music from Spotify or watch-ing
a new series on Netflix. Special
attention is given in K-Sim Connect cre-ating
a modern user experience for stu-dents,
and a slight touch of gamification
has been added to trigger engagement
and motivation.
Today, instructors can give their stu-dents
access rights in K-Sim Connect to
carry out cloud simulation training. The
automatic assessment and other data
collected from the exercise are stored
and made available to the instructor
and student. Since most educational
institutions already have a learning
management system (LMS) in place to
track the performance and progress of
their students, K-Sim Connect will also
have the option of seamlessly integrat-ing
to these systems. However, support
for various LMS solutions will be imple-mented
on demand.
/www.ksimconnect
