Should Online Distributed Learning Applicable To AMT Training ?
The demand for AMT technicians has grown rapidly in recent years and predicted to continue for the next 10 years with demand outpacing supply.  However, in order to meet forecasted industry manpower projections, enrollments will need to increase significantly over current levels.Add to this increase, the current employed technicians continue to seek for skills enhancement, and the demand for technical education may be greater than schools can accommodate under existing campus-based models.

Todays AMT technician requires more skills than ever before.  The ability to check, repair, and troubleshoot sophisticated aircraft systems is critical, but so are communication skills, computer skills, troubleshooting skills and a broad understanding of the aviation industry.  Finding students with those varied interests will require looking beyond traditional recruiting strategies.  Many programs are working hard to find ways to attract non-traditional and new job seekers into AMT education.

For many years, the efficiency and effectiveness of the knowledge delivery has remained unchanged. AMT training has been limited to the use of traditional delivery methods.

Technology can improve access to educational opportunities by removing barriers facing learners. Common barriers include location, time, and access. For many, educational opportunities are lost or constrained because the expert is not accessible at the same time or in the same location as the learner. Through distance and online Distributed Learning, many of these barriers can be removed.

Distance and online Distributed Learning is defined as a formal learning activity that occurs when students and instructors are separated by geographic distance or by time, often supported by communications technology such as computers, the Internet, television, or video.

The online learning technology of the 21st century will demand a whole new range of high-end skills from aviation educators. For those who master the new way of doing business, technology will help them execute better trainings, more quickly, at much less cost and allows for the efficient tracking and monitoring of course progress by training management.

Current aviation training curriculum were not designed to specifically include distance and online Distributed Learning; and there is no language that precludes distance learning methods from being incorporated into the typical AMT training program.  Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Section 147.21 requires that an Aviation Maintenance Technician School have an approved curriculum.  The curriculum requirement does not specify the method of presentation.  In approved curriculum areas, Internet-based learning would be substituted for traditional classroom instruction.  While there are no restrictions on Internet-based learning, there are several sections of FAR Part 147 that would need to be addressed in the schools approved curriculum. 

While it is recognized that there are several regulatory and procedural details to be complied with, the overriding principle in the approval of a distance education proposal should be that the level of instruction and evaluation to be utilized will provide the student with knowledge and skills equivalent to the level of proficiency as defined in 14CFR FAR Part 147.  Distance education does not provide for teaching items to levels less than that shown in the approved curriculum. 

While Internet-based distance learning can provide a quality educational experience, there are many requirements within the AMT curriculum that are best presented using traditional classroom and lab/hands-on based instruction.

In an increasingly cost-conscious educational environment, it is easy to think of aviation maintenance as an expensive out-dated program to be judged simply by monetary cost and declining enrollments without regard to the great technological and employment opportunities that lie ahead.  The future of AMT education will belong to those educational programs that can attract and train students in a cost effective manner.  The 21st century educational breakthroughs will come from creative educators who can implement recent technological advances into AMT training.