Five new online “distance learning” (DL) courses now are available to students who plan to enroll in classes at the union-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education.The online courses are not mandatory, but they are structured to benefit students who eventually attend other classes at the Paul Hall Center, which is located in Piney Point, Md.
The new online courses are: Communications, First Aid Preparation, Bloodborne Pathogens, Basic Culinary Skills, and Basic Math Refresher. Also available in the DL program are Hazardous Material Control and Management, Hearing Conservation, Respiratory Protection, Heat Stress Management, Environmental Awareness, Shipboard Pest Management, and Shipboard Water Sanitation (for a total of 12 courses).
Students must have access to the internet and an email address in order to take the aforementioned classes. As previously reported, the training is designed to be self-paced but normally may be completed within one or two sittings. Reasonable deadlines have been established for course completion.
The courses are free to mariners covered by SIU contracts. To register, mariners should complete the regular upgrading application found in each issue of the LOG and mail it to the school’s admissions office. (A PDF version of the application is available at www.seafarers.org, in the Paul Hall Center section.) Applicants will receive user account information from the center via email, so it’s critical to write one’s email address on the form in the space provided. Additionally, applicants should include the word “online” when listing the course(s) in which they plan to enroll.
“The internet-based courses have been customized to address yearly refresher training of vessel safety management systems and to help prepare students for other coursework taken when they are actually at the school,” noted Dale Rausch, an instructor at the Paul Hall Center.
He added, “It has been approximately one year since the school launched its initial set of DL courses, and they’ve generally been well-received by the students. We plan to keep expanding these offerings and anticipate that there will be at least 30 or so DL classes available by the end of the year.”
When asked to give an example of how the web-based classes help prepare students for training in Piney Point, Rausch cited the new DL Basic Culinary Skills course. The class features tools including a bakeshop “picture dictionary,” a measuring units graphic organizer, and a list of personal hygiene guidelines that may be printed from the web site for the student to review at his or her convenience. All of the content is especially relevant as a precursor (though not a prerequisite) for the school’s Galley Operations class.
The DL program’s roots are traced to a recommendation of the center’s Deep Sea and Inland Advisory Board – a group consisting of representatives from virtually every component of the U.S. maritime industry. The program is built to benefit both the employees working under SIU agreements and the union’s contracted operating companies.
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