SPECIAL METHODS OF

CURRICULUM DESIGN

APPLIED FOR MARITIME UNIVERSITIES

Sabina Zăgan1, Mihaela - Greti Chiţu2, Emil Manea3

1 Constanta Maritime University (ROMANIA)2Ovidius University of Constanta (ROMANIA)

3PhD student at POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest(ROMANIA)

zsabina2001@yahoo.co.uk, mgchitu@gmail.com, snc_cn@yahoo.com

ABSTRACTThe curriculum design methodology is based on the

requirements of some international and national educational bodies that audits, certifies and accredits the entire educational

process. In this manner the engineers and the patent officer diploma is internationally and nationally recognized.

To demonstrate the role and the importance of the national and international bodies on educational academic process, this

paper presents the methodology of designing the syllabus for Chemistry discipline, applied to the students which graduate the

Electro-mechanical Specialization at Maritime University of Constanta (Romania).

In this case, Chemistry curricula should include not only general theoretical knowledge necessary for the engineering profession,

but also necessary practical skills needed to fulfill the electromechanical officer profession, in accordance with their

responsibilities on board ships.

GENERAL ISSUE

Graduates of maritime electro-mechanics specialization acquire a bachelor's degree, at their graduation, being engineer with the possibility to obtain a patent for mechanical marine officer, nationally and internationally recognized. Because of this reason, all educational programs curriculum are developed and adapted to the various demands imposed by some national and international entities, by employer’s opinions and by analyzing the educational offers of other maritime universities. In this way, curriculum content is periodically audited by a number of national entities (Ministry of National Education, the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, the Romanian Naval Authority) and international organization (the International Maritime Organization and the Emergency Safe Maritime Agency) which assesses achievement of various indicators and reference standards which is required for each academic program, both undergraduate and master’s.

•THE ROLE OF NATIONAL ENTITIES IN CURRICULUM DESIGN

• The Ministry of National Education represented by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education has the following roles:

• to contribute to the development of an institutional culture of quality in higher education;

• to test the capacity to meet the expectations of the beneficiaries;

• to propose to the Ministry of National Education, the policies and strategies for continuous quality improvement in higher education, closely related to school education;

• to conduct external evaluation of the quality of education provided by

higher education institutions.

• The maritime university has the following roles:

• - to provide training and development of specialists with higher technical studies

• -to ensure the study programs that meet the regional and national needs imposed by the economical actuality and occupational perspective;

• - to conceive a curricula which covers all the activities of teaching, learning and research in maritime field according to the Strategic and Operation Plan of the university;

• - to assign to each discipline a number of transferable credits (ECTS) and a number of hours for courses and laboratory works.

Assigning the number of hours for compulsory disciplines in the curriculum of undergraduate study program "Maritime Electro-mechanics" (Table 1)

No.First year of study - Compulsory

disciplines Discipline nameHours of classes / year of study

Hours of applications / year of

study

1 Mathematical Analysis I, II 70 56

2 Linear algebra, analytical and differential geometry

28 28

3 Computer Science and Language Programming

56 56

4 Physics 28 28

5 Chemistry 28 14

6 Special Mathematics 42 28

7 Descriptive Geometry and Technical Drawing

42 56

8 Physical Education I,II 0 28

9 Maritime English I,II 0 56

Fig. 1. Assigning the number of hours for compulsory disciplines in the curriculum of

undergraduate study program "Electro-mechanics"

CHEMISTRY CURRICULUM CONTENT AND DESIGN METHODOLOGY

To establish the design methodology, is necessary to fulfill the following requirements:

- Chemistry is studied in the first year of study;- is considered a fundamental and compulsory discipline;

- verification form is a final exam and discipline has 4 ECTS points allocated;

- Chemistry discipline consists of a series of general knowledge that creates cognitive basis for understanding other specialty courses (for example - Technological Methods and Procedures,

Material Science and Engineering, Strength of Materials, Material Engineering and Dimensional Control, Internal Combustion

Engines);- chemistry specific knowledge is accumulated in class courses and

laboratory works. According to the academic year structure, Chemistry classes and laboratory, have of 42 hours total of which

28 hours lecture and 14 hours of laboratory work; - To ensure the specific skills necessary to achieve the maritime

officer profession, the entire curriculum for Chemistry discipline is based on the STCW course model proposal, which highlights a series of specific chapters concerns to technical water quality,

corrosion phenomena and petroleum products properties.

According to the previous presented requirements, Chemistry schedule of discipline contains the following main chapters:

1. Chemistry General Notions (general theoretical concepts related to the atom and its internal structure and several knowledge regarding basic types of substances used in

chemistry);

2. Service Water or Technical Water (theoretical knowledge about technical water quality on board ships);

3. Corrosion of Metals (theoretical and practical knowledge which refers to the metals oxidize, electrochemical corrosion

mechanism which is specific to the marine environment and the importance of corrosion protection methods applicable to

ships);

4. Marine Fuels and Lubricants (theoretical information on petroleum products - fuels and lubricants - and their

properties).

The main laboratory works performing to ensure the practical skills needed to determine some principal physical and chemical parameters of technical water and petroleum products are:

-pH determination for different types of water (drinking, technical distilled or sea water) using classical and electrochemical methods;

-p and m alkalinity determination of for different types of water using classical methods;

-total hardness determination for different types of water (drinking, technical, distilled and sea water) by complex-metric methods;

- chloride ions and water salinity determination by titration methods;-evaluation of the electrochemical corrosion rate;

-determination of cinematic properties for petroleum products.

The number of hours allocated to each chapter, both for classes courses and laboratory works is presented in Table 2.

Chapter name Hours of classes

Hours of laboratory application

s

1. General Notions of Chemistry

2of 28 means 7.14%

2 of 14 means 14.28%

2. Service Water 8 of 28 means 28.57%

6 of 14 means 42.86%

3. Corrosion of Metals 10 of 28 means 35.72%

2 of 14 means 14.28%

4. Marine Fuels and Lubricants

8 of 28 means 28.57%

4 of 14 means 28.58%

Total Hours 28 14

Practical skills obtained through completion of these laboratory works are:

- training skills needed to perform physico-chemical analysis of technical water; using experimental data obtained in the board ship

maintenance schedule;applying the appropriate methods of protection against corrosion on

board ship;developing the skills needed to assess the importance and

implications of achieving continuous monitoring of fuel and lubricants quality in the efficient of the diesel engines operation;

applying the appropriate procedures for fuel and lubricants testing: density, viscosity, water percentage, total base number,

microbiological contamination;training skills needed for testing fuels and lubricants;

using the values obtained in experimental data in the process of machine operation and settling the storage conditions;

learning and applying the decontamination procedures of lubricating oils with water;

applying the procedures for bunkering and centrifugation arrangement;

prevention the marine pollution with petroleum products and combustion substances

Fig. 2. Overview on Chemistry Laboratory (Constanta Maritime University)

Conclusions

Constanta Maritime University by here’s programs of study that develops, provide quality academic education which is

internationally recognized. To prepare students for maritime electromechanical specialization, curricula include basic and

specialized disciplines. They, through curriculum, provide theoretical knowledge and practical skills and facilitate the forming

of a series of competencies and abilities required on board.

Chemistry discipline has as main objective acquiring general knowledge of chemistry, focusing on three major chapters: technical water engineering, corrosion of metals and petroleum products. Specific competencies that ensure skills of sampling and water and petroleum products analysis are formed during the 14 hours of laboratory practical application.

REFERENCES 1. Government Decision no 1418 of 2008 approving the external evaluation methodology, standards, reference standards and the list of performance indicators of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. 2. Government Decision no 1512 of 2008 amending the external evaluation methodology, standards, reference standards and the list of performance indicators of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, approved by Government Decision no. 1418/2006. 3. Law 87/2006 for the approval of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 75/2005 regarding quality assurance of education. 4. National Education Law no. 1 of 2011. 5. Quality Standard ISO 9001/2008. 6. www.aracis.ro, External evaluation methodology, standards, reference standards and list of performance indicators evaluation. 7. www.cmu-edu.eu. 8. Sub-Committee on Standards of Training and Watch keeping STW 55/WP.6/Add.2 ”Draft Model Course on Officer in Charge of an Engineering Watch”. 9. www.aast.edu. 10. www.mainemaritime.edu. 11. www.fnb.upc.edu. 12. www.maritime.itu.tr.