Internet-Based Education and Training

The recent rapid growth of the Internet as a global telecommunications medium has also led to significant innovations in relation to the delivery of education and training. Many aspects of the learning process, from the presentation of information and interpersonal communication, to assessment of learning outcomes and performance, can now be supported using widely accessible Internet-based formats. Within the aviation industry, the Internet has recently been embraced as an innovative means of providing education and training. Stating a common perception of unlimited potential, Wilson (2000, p.22) suggests, that “the Internet is set to revolutionise certain portions of the training curriculum, as distance learning takes more and more pilots out of the classroom and on to the web”. One typical vision of the future of aviation training involves flight-crew members on a longhaul stopover logging into the company’s secure web-site from a notebook computer in their hotel room and undertaking an Internet-based module on the A380 field-length requirements as part of conversion training. While this scenario might have been seen as an element of science fiction only a decade ago, today it is much more of a reality.