Doh. The problem of having fat fingers.
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I feel your pain
Will Bader Learn be implementing self-study resources like Ultilearn?
Currently, cadets want to do different topics for senior (although weâve convinced most to do the same ones) but canât access any resources themselves without staff logging on and accessing it themselves and we canât teach every subject simultaneously.
any ideas on this or ways around it for squadron teaching? thanks
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itâs not currently planned to have sekf-study material on it. no
This seriously needs to change. I cannot understand why TG think itâs okay for cadets not to have access to the training resourcesâŚ
Currently every squadron is downloading the resources and then distributing them out to their cadets. This is a massive waste of volunteer time, and also will eventually lead to cadets learning from outdated material, where it is being stored locally and not being updated.
Simply making these resources available to cadets will save a lot of volunteer time. And will also create a better experience for the cadets.
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@JoeBloggs you could raise that as an Astra ideaâŚ
The current suggestion is that we are a Training organisation so should be delivering training, and not just material delivery.
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Even that argument dies pretty quickly when I remind people that cadets can also be instructors, but still not have access to Sharepoint!
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What about training them to be self starters and responsible for their own advanced learning.
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We still have the same problem that once they have done their Leading Exams the cadets discover that all they need is Google to passâŚ
⌠and there is no penalty for taking several attempts to pass
Not like the jeopardy of the old paper exams with Pass/Partial Pass/Fail - even if it was open book with the old ACPs
This is very âback-in-my-day-ismâ. Thatâs not meant offensively by the way, itâs just a common view I see!
I too did my exams when they were paper, but we have to move on.
A big part of delivering the syllabus is teaching an understanding of many topics, rather than them becoming experts. Take the MAS syllabus for example. There is an absolute truck load of pure information they would need to completely memorise, which is beyond what I think is normal. But they need a good foundation of understanding in the subject. Further to that, they need a good understanding of how to find out detailed information that isnât easily remembered! Which is where open book exams come in very nicely!
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Iâm sitting charter exams at the moment.
Of the 15 exams 4 are completely open book and others have permitted texts you can take in.
Teaching cadets how to properly do an open book exam is a valuable life skill in my opinion.
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Links in with my question on VoP about how we are progressing with updating our Training Material. 
I agree that these life skills are important
However, reality is a different thing. We donât have the tech to put Learn in a sealed sandbox where the cadets only have access to the right materials - therefore, Google becomes the defacto way to âresearchâ
I have seen late starting cadets go from 1st Class to Master in one weekend âself studyingâ.
I use â â where in reality they just paste the question into Google. Its amazing how many sites have a word for word question and answerâŚ
Maybe everyrthing on their should have a train the trainer course. Instead of a just guess what it all means approach 
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Maybe we shouldnât expect every cadet to study aviation to the level needed for Senior and Master? It should be a specialism, perhaps Silver or Gold Aviation, rather than a requirement that every Sqn delivers it and every cadet has to complete it to progress through the ATC (or CCF I assume?)
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And what exactly would those cadets do on âclassificstion training nightsââŚ
Or do we have to run a seperate room for them?
I am happy if my cadets access google, at the very least they have spent a few moments searching the perticulat question, read it and then chosen the best answer in their exam.
There are some CFAV out there who just give the answers so that the box is ticked and they can move on to the next thing on the programme.
Giving access to the training material as some have mentioned is key so that those keen cadets can digest the information in their own time. What we can control is that the cadets cannot access the exam without CFAV adding their name to the exam list. This would then stop a cadet going from 1st class to Master in a weekend.
The other thing to do is speak to the cadets and set expectations.
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I donât know. Something fun or interesting maybe??? Something other than sitting in a classroom doing learning like the kids already do for 25-30hours per week⌠at least at schools have somebody whoâs actually a teacher and knows their subject matter (and hasnât just downloaded a powerpoint from Learn and is delivering it off the back of an inhouse MOI course which doesnât actually cover the subject matter).
The presence of the BTEC at least gave a credible outcome to why weâve pursued Classification training. Without it there, thereâs no carrot⌠weâre doing it because weâve always done itâŚ
Sadly, itâs one of the few elements of âaviationâ left within the organisation⌠but it doesnât mean that the 900+ squadrons (plus CCFs) across RAFAC are best equipped to deliver it! Iâd rather focus parade nights on engaging activities and sack off classification training entirely - OR - have it delivered on via Wing Training weekends - by SMEs who actually understand - not to mention being passionate about - the finer intricacies of engines, radio and radar or aircraft handling.
Anyways⌠back to Bader LearnâŚ
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I passed airframes on paper by âeducated guessworkâ.
The goal should be to informally assess that they have a generalised working knowledge and awareness of a topic before putting them in for the exam, if it takes research and notes to pass the exam, then thatâs a skill check in itself - youâve still got to find the right answer.
Doctors look things up, Devs have Stack overflow, engineers refer to documentationâŚ
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A good 10% of my time is spent researching/finding out how to do things. This is a skill. You can point and say I âjust Google thingsâ but the fundamental understanding of what I am looking at had to come first.
The same applies to the cadet exams.