Learning transfer through industrial simulator training: Petroleum industry case

Efficient teamwork skills, high level of complex process knowledge and a vast set of operational abilities are essential for safe and economical operation in process industries. During the past decade, human factors have emerged as a strong research area in industrial simulator training, where traditionally focus is in the engineering technology. However, publications on the pedagogical aspects are still very few. In Norway, simulator training is one mandatory work-place training activity for process operators in the petroleum industry. In this study, we examine the industrial simulator training practices from the pedagogical perspective of learning transfer. We ask: How do different simulator training course designs, artefacts and practices promote learning? How can the successful practices be enhanced further? The data collection included interviews of the simulator instructors, trainees and simulator centre managers at five different simulator centres in Norway in 2012. The interview guide was organized according to the didactic categories, and the transcripts were analysed by open coding and axial coding. We found that the current team simulator training practices cover all the aspects of the learning design, and promote learning transfer extra ordinarily well. We suggest enhancement of the current practices by instructor competency support, individual pre-training and uniform qualitative assessment.