Capstone: Enhancing Instructional Design for Basic Recurrent Regulatory Training in Commercial Aviation

Audience

• My university mentor and aviation education managers and instructional designers. 

The problem

The capstone project was a final assignment to obtain my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. This paper investigates educational psychology learning theories and models that can apply to adult corporate learners that are required to complete basic regulatory training, also known as compliance training. 

A medium-sized airline could spend up to $10 million dollars each year this training. In an industry challenged with maintaining profitability with narrow operating margins while retaining skilled personnel to ensure efficient and safe passenger service, it is essential to continuously seek opportunities to address and improve these issues. The existing, mostly computer-based, basic regulatory training courses are the focus for enhancement in this paper. 

The solution

This paper investigates educational psychology learning theories and models that can apply to adult corporate learners that are required to complete basic regulatory training, also known as compliance training. To find an explanation, scholarly and trade publications were researched online using a variety of databases, including Google, the U.S. National Archives, JSTOR, and EBSCOhost Web, by filtering to the Academic Search Premier and the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC). Educational Psychology and Education courses and textbooks were also used to conduct research for this paper. The results reveal a significant number of academic studies for learning have been conducted for K-12 and college levels. However, analyses for corporate learners are limited. Pedagogical learning and assessment theories and models were identified for their theoretical and practical use in adult corporate learning.

The investigation conducted for this paper suggests that aviation education professionals can integrate a blended model of mastery learning and personalized systems of instruction by way of outcome-based objectives and using criterion-referenced measurements to improve the efficiency and efficacy of recurrent compliance training for airline employees.

What I learned

This project was challenging and very educational. intense and informative project. I was able to gain in-depth knowledge of adult education and learning design methods that are being used in the field. Additionally, I enhanced my information literature and source reference skills.