Snap-Courses: An Instructional Design Strategy for Aviation Mobile Learning

Abstract

The aviation industry is rapidly adopting mobile technology through the use of electronic flight bags (EFBs) in cockpits. In addition to EFB charts and manuals, mobile devices can deliver instructional content to facilitate mobile learning (m-learning). However, m-learning is still in its infancy, and little work has been done to explore how people learn through this technology. This article explores how the features of mobile devices may facilitate new aviation instructional approaches, as well as a blended learning instructional design model that incorporates snap-courses. Snap-courses are short, 5-minute segments of training that are designed to be distributed over several weeks or months. Snap-courses may be well suited to a mobile learning context and facilitate long-term retention.