Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals (2021) / Chapter Skim
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From page 15... ...
Guidance to Academia S E C T I O N I I This section provides information to the academic community on the current state of airport-oriented education in academia and opportunities to enhance academic programming. As such, the primary audience for this section is the academic community itself, particularly faculty, administrators, and even students who wish to enhance their airport academic programming.
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17 The State of Airport Education in Academia C H A P T E R 3 Key Takeaways • Airport academic programming is found within a small subset of the nation's colleges and universities, mostly within traditional aviation, undergraduate programs. They are typically 4-year undergraduate, baccalaureate programs with roots in collegiate flight education.
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18 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals As described in Chapter 2, the technical needs of the current and future airport workforce are both deep and wide-ranging, covering a full spectrum of topics, from business to technology. Many of the skills required are rooted in fundamental academic topics, such as economics; finance and accounting; law; physical sciences and engineering; and many other disciplines offered at institutions of higher education.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 19 technology, business, and policy programs, or to faculty with some knowledge or expertise from previous involvement or relationship with airports. The study conducted for this guidebook identified an exhaustive list of academic institutions offering at minimum some sort of aviation (but not necessarily airport-specific)
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20 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Aviation Programs Most specific airport-oriented content is found within what are known as traditional aviation academic programs within institutions organized as a college, school, or department with aviation in their name, denoting the recognition of its mission to focus on aviation as a degree program. Approximately 66% of the programs in the United States offering airport-specific content are colleges, departments, or academic centers of aviation or aeronautics.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 21 Flight Student and Pilot Attrition Student Aptitude and Attitude A collegiate flight training program is demanding, with physical, mental, logistical, and financial pressures. Some may quickly determine that flight training is not what they expected, or they may find they do not have the aptitude or motivation to operate in a cockpit environment.
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22 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals global pandemic have had negative effects on the industry, which have resulted in aviation students needing to adjust their career goals and transferring to non-flight programs that are still connected to the aviation world. Career Compromise Regardless of the specific influence, the concept of career compromise in career development theory suggests that when faced with the denial of one's dream job, the next step will be based on the individual's motivation for initially pursuing the career.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 23 presents an opportunity for programs to enhance their curricula by providing more airportfocused material that leads to an airport-specific degree or specialization (ACRP 2017)
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24 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Curriculum Structure of Representative Programs The representative degree programs that were studied generally follow a curriculum structure standard to baccalaureate programs throughout academia, with an average of 120 credit hours of instruction organized along broad categories that include general education, core, and courses on topics specific to the degree program. The typical breakdown of credit-hour requirements by these categories is illustrated in Table 3.1.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 25 Aviation Core. The representative aviation management programs studied tend to have a significant number of courses that have a direct relationship with the aviation industry.
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26 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals • Environmental Aspects of Airports • Airport Economics and Finance • Airport and Airspace Capacity • Airport Management (including certification) Programs that offer a concentration in airport management generally include a minimum of 3 to 4 airport-specific courses (9 or more credit hours)
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 27 Fundamental/Introductory Airport Courses Nearly all curricula among representative programs have at least one airport course that is usually programmed to deliver an overview of airports as an air transportation facility. Topics typically include a historical perspective as well as legislation that directly influence airport operations and development.
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28 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals of the airfield and other areas of the airport is the primary concern of airport management. Courses also include the study of international airports as a function of the global air transportation network.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 29 Career Development, Capstone, and Culminating Experiences General accreditation criteria for higher education are moving institutions to ensure that their program curricula include a capstone course or culminating experience. Although a capstone project is not quite at the level of a thesis, it is generally organized to provide an opportunity for students to apply their collective knowledge, experience, and analytical and communication skills gained during their matriculation to a real-world topic.
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30 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals All the 65 aviation management programs studied have at least one aviation-related student organization or club. The most common of these include the following: • Alpha Eta Rho Aviation - Professional Fraternity (AHP)
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 31 Most faculty teaching airport courses are adjunct (part-time) positions.
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32 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Informal Emphasis on Professional Development and Communications Investigation of the programs indicates that cursory attention is paid to educating students on being a professional and effective communicator in the industry. Professional development is said to include what are commonly known as soft skills or business acumen, including such topics as adapting to corporate culture, following up on task assignments, being a proactive contributing member of an organization, and the like.
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The State of Airport Education in Academia 33 From this detailed examination of academic programs, it can be seen that there are opportunities to enhance airport-oriented topic coverage at all levels of a curriculum. Airport-related content may be included in general education and core courses, and a more robust study of specialized airport topics may be added through higher-level technical and general elective courses.
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34 Enhancing Academic Programming Although most existing aviation-oriented academic programs give some cursory level of airport-oriented education, opportunities exist to enhance these curricula to better meet the needs of industry. Also, programs that do not traditionally offer course content in aviation- or airport-related topics, such as traditional programs in business, public policy, and engineering, open up great opportunities to introduce airport content into these programs.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 35 • Academia lacks an expansive or in-depth education in traditional airport topics that are particularly relevant to the execution of occupations, such as airport management and airport operations. Furthermore, as airports increasingly operate under a business enterprise model rather than the historical government agency model, airport academic programs may consider enhancing their curricula by including more business and policy-oriented topics -- not limiting topics to traditional operations, planning, and development courses.
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36 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals To this end, enhancing airport curricula requires a multifaceted approach to meet these needs: Enhancing Depth. Most airport topics, with the exception of airport operations, tend to get cursory, if any, coverage in current curricula.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 37 assortment of culminating experiences follows to add real-world applications to the program. This is illustrated in Figure 4.2.
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38 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Introductory Aviation and Airport Content Introducing airport content into a curriculum with introductory subject matter • Intro to Aviation course • Airports 101 course • Add airport examples into existing courses First and foremost, enhancing curricula with airport-oriented content starts with at least the most introductory courses on the aviation industry and airports. These courses include the following: Intro to Aviation -- An overview of the aviation industry, to include an understanding of all sectors, including government structures (FAA, National Airspace System, ATC, etc.)
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Enhancing Academic Programming 39 Adding Airport Examples into Existing Courses The airport environment has applications to nearly all areas of study in academia. Simply adding airport examples into existing classes can provide both airport education and motivation for further study.
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40 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Focus Tracks, Technical Electives, and Experiences for Deeper Learning In addition to gaining education in these fundamental core courses, an enhanced curriculum might include tracks of deeper core and elective courses focusing on the following areas: • Airport Operations and Maintenance • Airport Business and Administration • Airport Planning, Design, and Engineering Each track consists of a set of core courses and a selection of proposed technical elective courses. Core courses provide a required depth in the track, while the technical electives are designed to build on the core courses to provide the student with the opportunities to go even deeper into specialized topics.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 41 • Pavement and Infrastructure Maintenance. This course covers the practice of maintaining airport pavements and other airfield infrastructure.
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42 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals • Management of Operations During Airfield Construction. This course covers the strategies used to manage safe airport operations during periods of construction and other unusual conditions on an airfield.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 43 as FAA requirements for a competitive selection process and best practices for consultants and contractors. • Air Service Development -- An investigation of strategies to acquire air service into an airport that meets the needs of the community.
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44 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals • Airport Business Analytics -- An advanced study in applying data analytics toward gaining airport business insights, to include operational and revenue performance, customer service quality measurement, and competitive performance. • Airport Communications Under Irregular Operations -- Advanced study in how to effectively communicate the state of the airport and directions for airport users in the face of unusual circumstances, such as extreme weather, infrastructure disrepair, external sociopolitical events, and pandemics.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 45 signs, lights, and markings; runway orientation analysis; pavement design; airport capacity analysis; and terminal and landside facilities design. • Airport Master Planning -- A comprehensive overview of the elements of airport master planning.
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46 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals Capstone Courses Some of the most productive components of enhanced curricula are courses that allow students to apply what they have learned in their studies to a real-world issue over an entire term. These courses are typically known as capstone or culminating experience courses.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 47 a course or as a standalone course. In most cases, experiential learning generally occurs outside the classroom setting but requires deliberate control of the learning outcome that will result.
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48 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals involved a structured but self-paced sequence of readings from a course text and other materials (including VHS lectures) followed by written homework assignments that were sent by mail to the instructor.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 49 projects; and otherwise completely manage an academic class through online technology. To facilitate this, most universities have subscribed to formal online Learning Management Systems (LMS)
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50 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals but rely on opportunities to use online resources to make more efficient use of time and to improve the effectiveness of instruction, using additional opportunities for matching students' preferred learning styles beyond PowerPoint lectures. As with online course development and preparation, hybrid courses require significant effort upfront by the instructor.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 51 Airports located in cities where an aviation program exists will likely have at least one internship that draws from upper-division students. These internship positions will likely be highly coveted and competitive and will be exclusive to a select pool of outstanding students.
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52 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals students attending these events are often exposed to a rich array of educational and professional activities, including renowned speakers; expert panel discussions; and exhibits and displays of the industry's applied technologies, products, and services. In most cases, student chapters are required to be officially recognized by the institution to receive financial support and other resources.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 53 accessible resource for guest speakers. Some organizations will have a speaker's bureau or similar list of people who have volunteered to be a speaker.
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54 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals industry on behalf of the students, teaching and assisting with administrative responsibilities (such as management of a student organization's finances) , or simply generating excitement for these extracurricular activities.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 55 Partnering with Industry One of the great challenges in enhancing academic programming for airports is finding faculty with the education and experience to teach courses, advise extracurricular activities, and otherwise contribute to the program. One solution to this challenge is to actively engage with current industry professionals.
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56 Enhancing Academic Programs to Prepare Future Airport Industry Professionals to demonstrate independent investigations and observations conducted with scientific and ethical integrity. Sponsored research provides opportunities to financially support students, faculty, and additional resources the program may need.
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Enhancing Academic Programming 57 Summary This chapter identifies methods of enhancing academic curricula to provide students more education about the airport industry. Opportunities include greater depth and breadth in course curricula that are of importance to the industry, particularly to the MCOs, and additional opportunities to infuse experiential learning that provides real-world learning experiences are described.
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