The 5-day ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) course is designed to enhance the safety of navigation by providing the knowledge and skills necessary to fully utilize the ECDIS. The course incorporates the new Compass Radar School ECDIS equipment laboratory simulators. Compass Radar School uses Transas software and meets IMO performance standards.

Our 5-day ECDIS course is USCG approved.

It provides trainees with the knowledge, skills, and understanding of ECDIS and electronic charts to the thorough extent needed to safely navigate vessels whose primary means of navigation is ECDIS. The course emphasizes both the application and learning of ECDIS in a variety of underway contexts. This is achieved through sophisticated navigation simulation that provides each trainee with unrestrained access to ownship operations, and it's integrated with a complete type-approved ECDIS with official ENC chart data installed for all exercises and assessments.

Entry Standards

Trainees enrolling in this course are required to have accomplished some formal instruction in Terrestrial Navigation, have at minimum some familiarization with visual navigation, have accomplished a period of supervised bridge watch-keeping duties, and have completed basic radar/ARPA (equivalent to Model Course 1.07, Radar Navigation, Radar Plotting and Use of ARPA at the Operational Level). Trainees should also have familiarization with personal computing operating systems, keyboards and mice or trackballs, and digital information retrieval and storage.

ECDIS Workstations & Presentation room – The ECDIS training environment at Compass Courses consists of 6 ECDIS workstations in an open classroom setting. Each trainee has use (either alone or in groups of no more than two) of an ownship with dual monitors. Each workstation has a type-approved ECDIS displayed on one monitor, and other navigational functions (radar/ARPA, instruments, scene visualization, etc.) and conning control are displayed on a second monitor. Lecturing on ECDIS with practical demonstration and familiarization is conducted in this room also. The instructor has a fully functional ECDIS networked to the navigation simulation. The instructor is able to present, by projecting the image from a workstation or the instructor station, theoretical aspects of the ECDIS course material, as well as details of ECDIS functionality in both preparation and review of exercise objectives.

All workstations are networked to an Instructor Station that runs an integrated navigation simulation application and delivers to each workstation high-fidelity ownship conning controls and navigational aids including GPS, track control-capable Autopilot, AIS and radar/ARPA, and a visual scene, all of which are interfaced to the ECDIS.

Simulation software – The integrated navigation simulation application installed in the ECDIS presentation room and the Integrated Navigation Lab as outlined above includes type-approved ECDIS software to which the simulation delivers sensor input in an underway context. An assessment and evaluation system built into the simulation software offers considerable benefits, especially by unobtrusive and objective measure of “safe navigation” parameters, particularly in route monitoring exercises.

In accordance with federal training regulations and training guidance implemented by the USCG in 2014, this course curriculum meets the endorsement requirements of STCW, as amended, for approved ECDIS training for the following mariners:

Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch (OICNW) on Vessels of 500 GT or More (Operational Level), as specified in NVIC 12-14 (implementation of ECDIS training requirements in Section A-II/1 of the STCW Code, as amended) [46 CFR 11.309(a)(4)(xvi) and (c)(2)]:

Enclosure (2), Assessment Guidelines, Tasks 4.1.A and 4.2.A,

Enclosure (3), Record of Assessment, Tasks 4.1.A and 4.2.A,

Enclosure (5), Manila Amendments, Table A-II/1,

Enclosure (5), Manila Amendments, Section A-VIII/2, Part 4, pertaining to watchkeeping at sea with ECDIS, paragraphs 18 and 47,

Enclosure (5), Manila Amendments, Section B-I/12, paragraphs 19, and 36 through 65;

Master or Chief Mate on vessels of 3000 GT or more (Management Level), as specified in NVIC 10-14 (implementation of ECDIS training requirements in Section A-II/2 of the STCW Code, as amended) [46 CFR 11.305(a)(3)(vii) and (b)(2); 46 CFR 11.307(a)(3)(vii) and (b)(2)]:

Enclosure (2), Assessment Guidelines, Tasks 6.1.A through 6.7.A

Enclosure (3), Record of Assessment, Tasks 6.1.A through 6.7.A

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Table A-II/2,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section A-VIII/2, Part 4, pertaining to watchkeeping at sea with ECDIS, paragraphs 18 and 47,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section B-I/12, paragraphs 19, and 36 through 65;

Master or Chief Mate on vessels of 500 GT or more and less than 3000 GT (Management Level), as specified in NVIC 11-14 (implementation of ECDIS training requirements in Section A-II/2 of the STCW Code, as amended) [46 CFR 11.311(a)(3)(vii) and (b)(2); 46 CFR 11.313(a)(3)(vii) and (b)(2)]:

Enclosure (2), Assessment Guidelines, Tasks 6.1.A through 6.7.A),

Enclosure (3), Record of Assessment, Tasks 6.1.A through 6.7.,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Table A-II/2,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section A-VIII/2, Part 4, pertaining to watchkeeping at sea with ECDIS, paragraphs 18 and 47,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section B-I/12, paragraphs 19, and 36 through 65;

Master (Management Level) and OICNW (Operational Level) on Vessels less than 500 GT limited to near-coastal waters, as specified in NVIC 13-14 (implementation of ECDIS training requirements in Section A-II/3 of the STCW Code, as amended) [46 CFR 11.315(a)(3)(iv) and (b)(2); 46 CFR 11.317(a)(3)(v) and (b)(2); 46 CFR 11.319(a)(4)(x) and (b)(2); 46 CFR 11.321(a)(3)(v) and (b)(2)]:

Enclosure (2), Assessment Guidelines, Task 1.7.A,

Enclosure (3), Record of Assessment, Task 1.7.A,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Table A-II/3,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section A-VIII/2, Part 4, pertaining to watchkeeping at sea with ECDIS, paragraphs 18 and 47,

Enclosure (4), Manila Amendments, Section B-I/12, paragraphs 19, and 36 through 65;

Please call our office at 425-778-1923 for details.