Could we convince a college to do a ground school on Coursera.org?

[supernovae]

So there is this amazing project / site called Coursera.org where colleges/universities offer courses free of charge to people anywhere across the world in what some refer to as "MOOC" or "Massive Online Open Course".

They have everything from genetics and algebra to chemistry and psychology and computer programming courses right now.

Would you guys think that a course that focuses on aviation or multiple aviation fields is something we could convince some aviation schools to offer? A ground school course, an aviation related engineering / design course?

Could we convince AOPA to persuade some of the aviation colleges to join Coursera or EDX (another competing Mooc site)?

Do you think something like this would help general aviation? I realize for 99.9% of the people it wouldn't be a "certified" certificate of ground school without some interaction of CFI approval, but it could be a huge boon to standardize on some of the courseware used and make it available to everyone free of charge.. I realize it may step on some peoples toes in their ideas of wanting to charge money for something like this to pay for their own flying habits but if you ask me, i'd love to see a MOOC with 100k students learning about general aviation as the average class I've taken has been anywhere from 50-150k students registered with an average of 20-30k completing the course through its entirety.

I've taking the astronomy class, a few programming classes and some mathematics classes - all from professors at MIT, Harvard and schools I could never afford and classes I could never get into. This isn't some effort of no name schools here and I think the aviation world is missing the boat by not jumping in with some type of offerings.

 

[flyingron]

What makes you think it would take a "personal interaction of a CFI?" You do the Gleim computer test prep and a certificate prints out for you to go take your test, untouched by human hands.

 

[supernovae]

What makes you think it would take a "personal interaction of a CFI?" You do the Gleim computer test prep and a certificate prints out for you to go take your test, untouched by human hands.

Doesn't a CFI at Gleim actually "sign" (even if printed) the certificate? i'll have to dig through the FAR AIM again.. anyway, the signing part is semantics, i'm curious if people think this is even possible.

Anyone have any aviation college / school contacts or AOPA contacts to pass this through?

 

[rrmkru]

It would be like any home study program. All you would need is a log book sign off from your CFI. I took a print out of a free online practice test to my CFI. If you combined a ground school on corsera, and took a few practice tests with exams4pilots.org I think it would work out pretty good.

 

[AuntPeggy]

So there is this amazing project / site called Coursera.org where colleges/universities offer courses free of charge to people anywhere across the world in what some refer to as "MOOC" or "Massive Online Open Course".

They have everything from genetics and algebra to chemistry and psychology and computer programming courses right now.

Would you guys think that a course that focuses on aviation or multiple aviation fields is something we could convince some aviation schools to offer?

You might get a private CFI to do it, but s/he would not have the standing of MIT or Stanford, etc. I doubt you could get the biggies like King or Sporties to give away their courses for free.

A ground school course, an aviation related engineering / design course?

Could we convince AOPA to persuade some of the aviation colleges to join Coursera or EDX (another competing Mooc site)?

Do you think something like this would help general aviation?

I think it would help, but not noticeably. The problem is mostly the cost of flight time and the availability of aircraft and instructors.

I realize for 99.9% of the people it wouldn't be a "certified" certificate of ground school without some interaction of CFI approval, but it could be a huge boon to standardize on some of the courseware used and make it available to everyone free of charge..

I think the FAA would be interested, but they don't have the money to create the courseware. With spending cuts, it just won't happen.

I realize it may step on some peoples toes in their ideas of wanting to charge money for something like this to pay for their own flying habits but if you ask me, i'd love to see a MOOC with 100k students learning about general aviation as the average class I've taken has been anywhere from 50-150k students registered with an average of 20-30k completing the course through its entirety.

And there is the rub. Flight schools, like gym memberships, really make money on the dropouts. The big name schools offering these free courses don't need to worry about the cost since they have more applicants than they can accommodate.

I've taking the astronomy class, a few programming classes and some mathematics classes - all from professors at MIT, Harvard and schools I could never afford and classes I could never get into. This isn't some effort of no name schools here and I think the aviation world is missing the boat by not jumping in with some type of offerings.

 

[pilotod]

Just wanted to say that I'm taking the coursera course in astronomy right now and I would have never known that the gold we have here on earth can only be formed from supernovae. I'm becoming an astronomy fan.

As far as ground courses for PPL there are plenty already that work for the homeschooler. But a freebie one would be nice

Jamie

 

[Jaybird180]

At work, I get a (nearly) blank screen and in the middle it says

Please use a modern browser with JavaScript enabled to use Coursera.​

I'll have to go home to view the site
But this is interesting, considering that I was just thinking of pursuing parchment.​

 

[flyingron]

Doesn't a CFI at Gleim actually "sign" (even if printed) the certificate? i'll have to dig through the FAR AIM again.. anyway, the signing part is semantics, i'm curious if people think this is even possible.

Anyone have any aviation college / school contacts or AOPA contacts to pass this through?

Nope, it's printed by the program. There's no communication with the mothership at all.

 

[supernovae]

Just wanted to say that I'm taking the coursera course in astronomy right now and I would have never known that the gold we have here on earth can only be formed from supernovae. I'm becoming an astronomy fan.

As far as ground courses for PPL there are plenty already that work for the homeschooler. But a freebie one would be nice

Jamie

Taking the same course as well and loving it I'll email some universities and colleges that have flight programs or even aeronautical courses and see if they have any interest or plans for coursera

I don't expect it to add zillions of pilots, but if aopa and flight schools get on board and cfi's participate like virtual ta's it sure as hell could be a great opportunity to spread knowledge about general aviation / flying.

 

[livitup]

What (if any) certification is required for an individual to offer ground school instruction, if the individual does not intend to sign logbooks?

If someone went through a ground school program instructed by someone who didn't sign logbooks, how do they get signed off to take the written? Simply convince their "regular" CFI that they are ready (by showing notes taken, or practice tests passed)?

I ask because I'm currently an adjunct instructor at a community college (I teach because I like teaching, it's not my day job) and I'd consider teaching ground school either on-line or in person... If 1) it didn't require additional paper from the FAA, 2) it was useful to the students and 3) I'm any good at this whole flying thing by the time I pass my own check ride.

 

[supernovae]

Cousera offers certificate of completions when you meet a score and deadline. The system actually grades you and tracks your score and could fit really well into a ground school syllabus. The certificate could be forged but that does no one any good considering they would just fail a written anyway.. I guess I'm more interested in not just the potential of people using this to pass a ground school but to also introduce a huge audience to it and get more people educated about aviation. Could also be used for engineering, maintenance and advanced aeronautics and space classes as well.. I even took a class on cpu / processor design.. I didn't pass but was intrigued how such a class could be done online and it had huge registration and decent success rate. More people passed the class in one mooc session than had ever passed it since the college was founded.