Help me find qualified Instructors for VATSTAR...??

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Greetings --

 

I wonder if I might enlist the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]istance of my colleagues here.

 

VATSTAR is an Authorized Training Organization which offers the VATSIM P1 through P5 ratings. Aside from the P1 (which is a self-guided automated lesson sequence), we rely on one-on-one meetings between Students and Instructors to deliver the cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]room and practical instruction that our program dictates. Of late, we have become somewhat short-handed among our Instructor ranks, and we've just been given notice of another pending resignation due to family reasons.

 

We have had notices posted on this forum among others, as well as on our own website, advertising openings for the Instructor position for many weeks now. But p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ive advertising seems to be falling short. So, I wonder if I might enlist your [Mod - Happy Thoughts]istance in helping us identify and actively recruit pilots on the network who might be interested in becoming an Instructor.

 

The general requirements for the position are that candidates must have one year of experience on the network and a minimum of 150 flying hours, as well as the P1 and P2 pilot ratings. The time commitment to the position is an average of 6 hours per week.

 

I appreciate any [Mod - Happy Thoughts]istance you might lend. Please have any potential candidates contact me at [email protected].

[Robert Shearman Jr]

The time commitment to the position is an average of 6 hours per week.

Hi again -- so, in the brief time since I posted this, my staff identified the time commitment as one reason why retention is such an issue, and after brief discussion, I accept their [Mod - Happy Thoughts]essment. So as you p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] the word, let any potential candidates know that the obligation will initially be 6 hours (3x2hr per week) but will reduce permanently to 4 hours (2x2hr per week) shortly after their hire. Hopefully that'll help a few that were borderline about it due to the time commitment to go ahead and give it a try. Thanks again for your help!

[Luke Kolin]

I think your former students might be your logical first place to start when looking for instructors. You're not dramatically different from a virtual airline or other similar organization; recruiting internally seems the best way to go.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[Simon Kelsey]

Hi Rob,

 

Could you elaborate a little perhaps on the role of a VATSTAR instructor? What does the role involve? Are we talking flight instruction (in the live/shared cockpit sense), 'ground' theory/seminar type instruction, live or asychronous etc?

 

I'm not sure I would be able to be much help as I am fairly tied up running the training operation at BAV (and my experience is very much on the UK/EASA side of things) but certainly if I were considering applying I'd want to know a bit more information than I have been able to find by looking at your website (though I may be missing something!).

 

Best,

 

Simon

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Could you elaborate a little perhaps on the role of a VATSTAR instructor? What does the role involve? Are we talking flight instruction (in the live/shared cockpit sense), 'ground' theory/seminar type instruction, live or asychronous etc?

Instructors meet with students on a one-on-one level via TeamSpeak. They [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ist each student first with reviewing the knowledge they need to p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] the written exam. The student then books additional sessions to perform practice flights, which the Instructors watch via TeamViewer and provide coaching & other guidance. Finally, the student performs the checkride flight with the Instructor acting as Examiner -- watching, listening to communications, and grading the flight against the rating's checkride requirements.

[Tommi Karkkainen 1322309]

Instructors meet with students on a one-on-one level via TeamSpeak. They [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ist each student first with reviewing the knowledge they need to p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] the written exam. The student then books additional sessions to perform practice flights, which the Instructors watch via TeamViewer and provide coaching & other guidance. Finally, the student performs the checkride flight with the Instructor acting as Examiner -- watching, listening to communications, and grading the flight against the rating's checkride requirements.

 

Considering that instructors are volunteers and, apparently, there aren't enough of them, this doesn't sound like the best possible use of the instructor resources that you do have. Organize the course as a group learning environment, and have the students video their practice flights. The students can then provide feedback for each other. Peer learning, peer feedback and peer [Mod - Happy Thoughts]essment are very powerful tools in education. Same goes for the more theoretical parts of the course. The instructor can then provide more generalized feedback to the entire group, and has to spend less time on individual students.

 

Doing stuff like that would free up instructor resources and they could focus their attention more on the course material, exercises and the actual check rides.

 

Of course, I'm talking without knowing how your courses actually work, but the way you described the role of an instructor above it does sound like there's room for improvement. I just wanted put this idea out here in writing, as an observation by an educator in a different field. I'm not saying that your courses are in any way "wrong".

[Robert Shearman Jr]

I appreciate the advice. We definitely focus on the one-on-one nature of our instruction, but, that doesn't mean it's the right or best way to do things. I'll certainly take your comments into consideration, although implementing them would be a major restructuring of what we've been doing for the last year-and-a-half. Thanks!

[Tommi Karkkainen 1322309]

I appreciate the advice. We definitely focus on the one-on-one nature of our instruction, but, that doesn't mean it's the right or best way to do things. I'll certainly take your comments into consideration

 

Thanks for hearing me out. If you do decide to implement my suggestions, you can ask me for help.

 

although implementing them would be a major restructuring of what we've been doing for the last year-and-a-half. Thanks!

 

Well... if you really had managed to create a "complete" or "perfect" course right at the start of your training organization, you would have probably been the first in the world

 

Creating and improving courses takes a long time, and every few years you may need to do a bigger overhaul of how you do things - and smaller improvements practically every year.

[Andreas Fuchs]

What Tommi wrote is more or less how we hold our courses at VATSIM Germany. Actually, we do have two separate programs:

 

- our flight school, where ONE instructor teaches MULTIPLE students at the same time. It is like a lecturing-cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] where students can always raise their arms and ask questions. The practical training will also be supervised by this very same instructor and only the checkflights will be done/observed/performed by several instructors (if I am not mistaken)

 

- the coaching program, where new members can request the help other members. This is an informal "training" on a one-on-one basis, but just in the form of "holding hands" during their first online-flights, setting up software, clearing up doubts etc.. I deem the coaching program as very important, as it can be done by any member, VATSIM Germany only provides the platform where newbies can request help and more senior members can pick them up for a meeting or two. Obviously, this will prevent lots of new members from giving up after a mishap or two, that they find highly embarr[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ing, although it was just a simple mistake that is normal.