Late Afternoon Concurrent Sessions: Training and Education: Presentation: Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Simulation on Flight Training

Factors affecting the effectiveness of simulation on flight training. Jennah C. Perry and Jonathan M. Gallimore Flight simulation is commonly used to enhance flight training. Some of the key factors that contributed towards the use of flight simulation tools such as True Course Simulation (TCS) were examined. Three collegiate ground school courses tasked their students with using TCS. During the Spring 2015 semester, TCS was paid for by the university and participation was not mandatory rather incentivized through extra credit. During the Summer 2015 semester, the students purchased TCS and completion was required before the end of the semester. During the Fall 2015 semester, students were required to purchase, participate, and complete weekly assignments in TCS. Across all semesters we learned that incentives, financial investment, and TCS participation contributing to student’s grades, increased the use of flight simulation. We learned that students bypassed portions of TCS to quickly complete the simulations, instead of focusing on the quality of learning. Strategies are needed to encourage students to distribute their use of flight simulation evenly across a semester instead of mass practice before a due date. Approaches will be discussed for effectively encouraging distributed practice, investment in simulation, and methods for enhancing the quality of learning through simulation