Scenario-based assessment in aviation education

The aviation courses Navigation and Flight Planning I and Navigation and Flight Planning 2 in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Civil Aviation) provide the aeronautical knowledge requirements of five of the eight Civil Aviation Safety Authority's Air Transport Pilot Licence examinations. Although scenario-based learning has been used for a number of years in these courses, scenario-based assessment has not been utilised until recently. In previous years, the final assessment of student learning was mediated by way of examination. This allowed an assessment of a critical aspect of aviation education-speed and accuracy. However, there is a question as to whether the examination accurately assessed the level of student learning in all areas of the syllabus, especially given the amount of material to be learned. To this end, this project investigated a compromise assessment, the one-day scenario-based assignment. This was hypothesised to both assess a student's level of learning in a larger proportion of the course, and impose some requirements for the assessment of speed and accuracy. In this paper, the author discusses the results of this project.