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• Establishing an environment that encourages students and instructors to learn, grow, and develop as they engage in a safe learning context.
• The key players having a clear and shared understanding of the learning outcomes targeted for the experience.
Making on-water, skills-based instruction most effective requires standards focused on this entire system of people, methods, context, and outcomes. The skills-based ANSs represent best practices associated with the complete system. They were developed as a result of one of the largest collaboration initiatives in recreational boating history: The National On-Water Standards (NOWS) Program. Funded in part through the USCG’s non-profit grant program, the NOWS Program included over 3,000 subject matter experts and recreational boaters from across the country in the process of developing and testing the core content to include within national standards.
The ANSs are voluntary8 consensus standards and were developed using the following comprehensive process:
• Engage a professional change management facilitator to design and manage an open, inclusive, and balanced process for developing and reaching consensus on the standards.
• Assemble a diverse core team of nearly 50 subject matter expert (SME) volunteers from across the recreational boating community to develop the initial content for the standards.
• Gather input on content of the standards from an additional 950 SMEs around the nation.
• Achieve consensus among the core SME team about the fundamental skills individuals should be able to perform in order to be considered safe entry-level recreational boat operators, as well as the characteristics and qualities of the on-water instructional approach used to develop those skills.
• Validate the content of the standards by field-testing them at over 20 different venues around the country using actual boats operated by real people.
• Attain American National Standard status using a process led by the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC), which is an ANSI-accredited Standards Development Organization.
In total, over 3000 subject matter experts and recreational boaters from around the country were involved in the process to produce the standards, with ABYC leading the final stage of the process. The overall process resulted in the development and testing of, and consensus on, 98 entry-level skills and over 1,100 specific safety-related behaviors associated with entry-level recreational boat operation across the three domains of Powerboating, Human-propelled boating, and Sailing. It also produced 14 characteristics and 42 criteria for developing and assessing the quality of an approach to on-water instruction designed to deliver those skills. Additionally, it resulted in assessment tools and resources education providers can use to help ensure the quality of on-water instruction.
For more information about the process used to develop the NOWS ANSs, visit
www.onwaterstandards.org. What are ANSs for on-water, skills-based instruction?
The on-water, skills-based ANSs identify the fundamental characteristics and qualities of on-water instructional approaches designed to develop entry-level skills in recreational boat operation. The ANSs and associated TSDs serve as primary sources of information that help raise the overall quality and availability of on-the-water, entry-level recreational boating education to further enhance the safety and enjoyment of the nation’s recreational boaters.
Recreational boating educators (course designers, instructors, etc.) with extensive experience and expertise in on-water, skills-based instruction developed the ANSs. They were designed so that education providers with widely different levels of experience can use them to design and deliver their own on-water, skills-based recreational boating instructional courses and programs.
There are currently four ANSs that address on-water, skills-based instruction for safer boating. ABYC EDU-4 On-Water Recreational Boating Skills–Instruction, also referred to as EDU-4, serves as the “umbrella” ANS, which is applicable across the three recreational boating education domains of Power, Human-propelled, and Sail. The domain-specific skills ANSs are titled:
• ABYC EDU-1 On-Water Recreational Boating Skills–Power (EDU-1) • ABYC EDU-2 On-Water Recreational Boating Skills–Human-propelled (EDU-2)
8. From ANSI OVERVIEW OF THE U.S. STANDARDIZATION SYSTEM: ‘Voluntary’ refers only to the manner in which the document was developed; it does not necessarily refer to whether compliance to the standard is optional or whether a government entity or market sector has endorsed the document for mandatory use.
3 This Technical Support Document was produced in part through USCG grant funds to develop National On-Water Skills Standards. ©2022 United States Sailing Association. Facilitated by Think First Serve.
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