An Assessment of Intensive/Weekend Teaching Format of Aviation Education: A Case of Aviation Law

Abstract

Although most universities in the United States (U.S.) have launched off-campus education for working adults, the quality of such an educational format remains skeptical to many educators who exchange knowledge mainly via on-campus lecture means (Elliott et al, 1978; Swenson, 2003 Spring). In order to further examine academic performance based on such a non-traditional channel, the rigor and integrity of off-campus education should be investigated ' (Karwin, 1973). This study sought to evaluate the learning outcome of off-campus aviation education currently using intensivelweekend seminar format. Meanwhile, the main goals of this study also include the discovery of possible pedagogical gaps to continuously enhance off-campus teaching. Focus group was utilized as the research methodology. Purposive sampling was applied containing two groups of students, one on-campus and off-campus for another, recruited fiom aviation law class. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. The result showed flexibility of class study and convenient location of classroom were the two most attractive factors adult learners consider. In addition to opposing to a fully Internet-based aviation education, off-campus students' comments helped the researcher reveal specific pedagogical deficiencies that need to be reviewed for validating future educational service.