Improving the learning process in the subject of basic maritime training using GPS and Google Earth as useful tools

Abstract

Spanish universities are in a period of change to adapt the structure of university courses to the requirements of the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The main objective of the EHEA is to improve the international competitiveness of the universities of the European Union. The university community must jointly establish good practices and values that guarantee the quality of higher education. The adaptation of the university degrees to the new framework of the EHEA, demands that all Andalusian universities improve their quality by means of the substitution of excessively theoretical education by an active education, based on a more practical training and on the use of new technologies, with the participation of the students in the learning process also being of special interest. Engineering or technical degrees have always been characterised by a large number of failures. To carry this process forward, Spanish universities must try to apply communication and information technologies (ICTs) in university teaching, with the purpose of improving learning. The combined use of GPS navigation receivers whose data can be integrated into GE allows their use in navigation, thereby allowing GE and GPS to be used as a basic electronic chart and gyrocompass, to plan and program the course of a vessel with excellent precision in real time.