Why Do We Learn What We Learn? The Intersection of Leadership and Learning in Aviation Environments

Why do we learn what we learn? Teach what we teach? Train how we train? Largely, decisions regarding instruction and training in aviation environments are dictated by leadership. Industry CEOs beliefs on professional development, organization culture inspired by leadership, and the instructors’ personal leadership philosophies create specific learning schema while legislation, credentialing agencies, and public policies provide mandates surrounding licensing and certifications. This paper will explore the contexts and concepts in which learning and leading intersect and the impacts of those intersections on learner outcomes and instructional planning. Exploring pertinent historical, societal, philosophical, and psychological factors that guide instruction and learning through the lens of leadership theory, the author will provide a foundation for understanding the implications of leadership on learning in aviation

The Effectiveness of Placement Exams and a Free Remedial Summer Program at a Midsized Selective Private University

In order to explore the effectiveness of MSSPU\u27s remedial placement practices and the impacts of participation in the Free Remedial Summer Program on student outcomes, this ex post facto study examined performance in remedial courses, persistence to graduation, and time to graduation as it relates to mathematics and English composition placement level, high school grade point averages, entrance exam scores, and participation in the Free Remedial Summer Program. Five unique statistical tests were utilized to address fifteen hypothesis related to seven research questions. Several major findings were a result of this study. First, students who complete the mathematics placement exam and enroll outside of their recommended level, either above or below their placement level, perform better in both their first and second mathematics courses, on average, than those who enroll at the recommended level. The same was found for English composition. Second, students who place at a non-remedial level are more likely to persist to graduation, statistically. Third, neither high school grade point average nor entrance exam scores alone are strong indicators of time or persistence to graduation. However, fourth, the factors of high school grade point average, entrance exam score, and placement exam performance may be a better indicator of persistence to graduation when analyzed in a combined fashion. Finally, students who enroll in the Free Remedial Summer Program are less likely to persist to graduation than those who enroll in remedial coursework as part of their first term. These students also are more likely to fail their first and subsequent mathematics courses. This study concludes with a brief analysis of implications for practice, recommendations for further research, and a review of best practices

Utilizing the Mentor Badging System in SelectedWorks to Facilitate the Faculty-Student Connection

Identifying available faculty research mentors with the right background has been a challenge for student researchers and the teams that support them for many years. To address this challenge, the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) teamed up with the Scholarly Communications Team to introduce ‘Mentor Badging,’ creating a one-stop, searchable database of available mentors. Using a SelectedWorks Mentor Badge gives the OUR team, fellow faculty, and student researchers the opportunity to track available faculty mentors and the nature of the faculty research projects. In addition to providing a database, the ‘Mentor Badging’ program allows a direct email to be sent to OUR by students to start the mentoring outreach process. The OUR team then works with the student to craft high-impact mentor requests for the appropriate faculty member. An additional benefit, the mentor badge gives faculty who are not aware of or have not shown an interest in SelectedWorks a concrete example of the benefits of having a SelectedWorks page

Implementing CAS Undergraduate Research Standards for Assessment

The Council for Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) recently released specialized standards for assessing undergraduate research programs (URPs) including self-assessment instruments and tools for developing and implementing action plans. These standards align with the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) strategic pillars and include twelve primary parts: (1) mission, (2) program, (3) organization and leadership, (4) human resources, (5) ethics, (6) law, policy, and government, (7) diversity, equity, and access, (8) internal and external relations, (9) financial resources, (10) technology, (11) facilities and equipment, and (12) assessment. This project outlines the process of and lessons learned from the first phase of implementation of these standards within an Office of Undergraduate Research

Personality Types and Learning Styles of Collegiate Aviation Students

The personality types and learning styles of students have been studied across education populations, yet the research analyzing aviation students is lacking. A replication study assessed the distribution of personality types and learning styles of students enrolled in the aeronautical science baccalaureate degree program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Form M and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) were used to analyze the personality types and learning styles, respectively. When compared to the personality type distribution of the traditional college student sample using a selection ratio type table, a significant overrepresentation of the personality type of ISTJ was found among the aviation students (I = 4.36, p \u3c .001). The distribution of learning styles of the aviation students were also compared to the traditional college student sample; Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests revealed an overrepresentation of divergent learners, χ2 (3) = 7.40,p = .002. A Pearson Chi-square test for independence examined if personality type is a predictive factor of aviation student learning preference and found no evidence to support a relationship in the sample

Developing New Streams of Undergraduate Submissions

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has been successful in attracting faculty participation in Scholarly Commons, its institutional repository. Other than dissertations and theses, however, student submissions have been slow in coming, despite university priorities to support and disseminate undergraduate research. In early 2017, the scholarly communications staff at Hunt Library set out to change that picture. Energized by a Digital Commons webinar exploring approaches to highlighting undergraduate opportunities, they approached campus colleagues with a new venture – capturing the research experiences of students going abroad during the summer of 2017. The idea was enthusiastically embraced and within a short time, a partnership developed among Global Engagement, the Office of Undergraduate Research, and the Library. This presentation will describe the process that the three departments developed to support summer Study Abroad students interested in creating publishable reports and projects. From marketing the idea to students, to offering a workshop designed to give them the tools needed to create a publishable work, to supporting their efforts while they are overseas, through to helping them submit to Scholarly Commons, the interdepartmental collaboration will be paramount in the success of this outreach to students. While still in its initial stages, the Publish the Results of Your Study Abroad Research venture has brought Scholarly Commons to the attention of student groups, faculty teaching in the programs, and campus colleagues who will be able to assist in future undergraduate outreach efforts

Flight Simulator Fidelity, Training Transfer, and the Role of Instructors in Optimizing Learning

Simulators have been integrated into flight training at various levels for decades, increasing in utility as they increased in fidelity. Today, practically all levels of qualification in passenger-carrying commercial airliners can be obtained entirely in the simulator, with the first experience in the aircraft on a revenue-producing flight. Flight training in the U.S. is a tightly controlled, highly regulated process overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It is also a very successful one; commercial aviation maintains a remarkable safety record. To that end, pilot training has been studied and analyzed extensively over the years, and as to the focus of this paper, the efficacy of simulator training has generated as much debate as consensus with regards to the utility of the devices. Much of this research, to include experiments, has focused on simulator fidelity – how well the device replicates the actual aircraft – and to what extent that training transfers to the aircraft. Very little research has focused on the role and interaction of the simulator instructor with the student(s) and what impact he/she has upon the final training result nor has elements of current instructional design methodology been considered. This paper analyzes vital simulator training concepts, examines accidents and incidents where the investigation revealed potential deficiencies in the training devices used by the crews of these airplanes, and then considers the role of the simulator instructor through the lens of modern instructional design concepts. The authors provide suggestions as to the direction of further research into the vitality of this role in maximizing the potential of training with flight simulators to further safety goals

Phylogenetic Dependency Networks: Inferring Patterns of CTL Escape and Codon Covariation in HIV-1 Gag

HIV avoids elimination by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) through the evolution of escape mutations. Although there is mounting evidence that these escape pathways are broadly consistent among individuals with similar human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles, previous population-based studies have been limited by the inability to simultaneously account for HIV codon covariation, linkage disequilibrium among HLA alleles, and the confounding effects of HIV phylogeny when attempting to identify HLA-associated viral evolution. We have developed a statistical model of evolution, called a phylogenetic dependency network, that accounts for these three sources of confounding and identifies the primary sources of selection pressure acting on each HIV codon. Using synthetic data, we demonstrate the utility of this approach for identifying sites of HLA-mediated selection pressure and codon evolution as well as the deleterious effects of failing to account for all three sources of confounding. We then apply our approach to a large, clinically-derived dataset of Gag p17 and p24 sequences from a multicenter cohort of 1144 HIV-infected individuals from British Columbia, Canada (predominantly HIV-1 clade B) and Durban, South Africa (predominantly HIV-1 clade C). The resulting phylogenetic dependency network is dense, containing 149 associations between HLA alleles and HIV codons and 1386 associations among HIV codons. These associations include the complete reconstruction of several recently defined escape and compensatory mutation pathways and agree with emerging data on patterns of epitope targeting. The phylogenetic dependency network adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that sites of escape, order of escape, and compensatory mutations are largely consistent even across different clades, although we also identify several differences between clades. As recent case studies have demonstrated, understanding both the complexity and the consistency of immune escape has important implications for CTL-based vaccine design. Phylogenetic dependency networks represent a major step toward systematically expanding our understanding of CTL escape to diverse populations and whole viral genes

Why Do We Learn What We Learn? The Intersection of Leadership and Learning in Aviation Environments

Why do we learn what we learn? Teach what we teach? Train how we train? Largely, decisions regarding instruction and training in aviation environments are dictated by leadership. Industry CEOs beliefs on professional development, organization culture inspired by leadership, and the instructors’ personal leadership philosophies create specific learning schema while legislation, credentialing agencies, and public policies provide mandates surrounding licensing and certifications. This paper will explore the contexts and concepts in which learning and leading intersect and the impacts of those intersections on learner outcomes and instructional planning. Exploring pertinent historical, societal, philosophical, and psychological factors that guide instruction and learning through the lens of leadership theory, the author will provide a foundation for understanding the implications of leadership on learning in aviation

A List of Open Labs to Tour: Click for more details

Please stop by the following labs anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to learn more about what they have to offer! Participating labs include: CERTS Lab (view lab details) Eagle Flight Research Center (view lab details) EcoCAR Garage (view lab details) Embry-Riddle Future Space Explorer\u27s and Developer\u27s Society (view lab details) Energy Systems & Women\u27s BAJA SAE (view lab details) Engine Repair Station (view lab details) Formula SAE (view lab details) Multidisciplinary Bioengineering Lab (view lab details) Robotics Association Lab (view lab details) Robotics Lab (view lab details) Welding Lab (view lab details