AVIA245: Aviation Leadership

11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 08/23/2024

Course Description

The focus of this course is how an aviator can promote effective and safe aviation operations by developing and employing sound human factors leadership principles. Crew resource management, threat and error management, and safety management system concepts and programs will be evaluated against actual situations and aircraft accident case studies to help students develop their analytic and evaluative skills. Students will also learn their own personal strengths and how those strengths relate to human factors elements that contribute to effective aviation teams and an organizational culture that promotes safe mission accomplishment.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

The course provides discussion, critical analysis and application of human factors leadership principles for the purpose of guiding students in gaining an understanding of how to develop into effective and safe aviation leaders, and how to effectively promote an ethical, safe, and effective aviation organizational culture.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Each student will submit a 2-minute minimum video presentation introducing themselves to their fellow classmates. Specific elements described in the assignment are to be included. This will be a graded assignment and the student must reply to at least two other classmates’ introductions as well. Each reply must be 150 words minimum.

Service Project Assignments (2)

The purpose of this assignment is to actively learn and practice servant leadership by leading, coordinating, and executing a team service project involving the assistance of others, mentoring them, and working as a team.

Part 1 – Service project plan: The student will prepare a 1-2 page paper (utilizing the Service Project Plan Template provided) presenting specific elements of the student’s chosen service project. The student’s professor must approve the student’s service project before implementation. The student’s service project must adhere to LU standards of conduct, beliefs, and Doctrinal Position.

Objectives:

• Create a detailed plan for leading and accomplishing a team service project.
• Gain understanding and experience in leading a diverse team in planning a project.
• Gain understanding and experience in the complexities of planning a team project.
• Actively mentor a team to ensure successful service implementation.

Part 2 – Implementation of service project: The student will put their plan into real-life action between. Once the plan is approved, the student will have the next few weeks to actually implement this plan.

Part 3 – Implementation photo essay: At this time, the student will finally present how service implementation went. Please note that the plan must be fully executed before the Service Project Implementation Photo Essay Assignment.

Using the template, the student will create their Implementation Photo Essay. It should be a minimum of 7 pages.

A photo essay is a visual storytelling project that uses a series of images to convey a narrative, complemented by descriptive captions and reflective commentary. Think “High School Yearbook.” For the service project, this medium allows the student to document and share the process, challenges, and successes of the student’s implementation compellingly and engagingly. 

The purpose of this assignment is to visually represent and explore personal leadership traits identified through the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment using a creative medium. This assignment encourages the student to unleash their creativity and express themselves authentically through their strengths totem pole, fostering deeper self-awareness and appreciation for their leadership traits.

In this assignment, the student will explore the complexities of organizational culture by watching a series of video scenarios depicting situations where organizational cultures have gone awry. The student’s task is to analyze each video, focusing on the cultural, mentorship, leadership, and communication factors that hindered teamwork and propose actionable solutions for improvement. By dissecting these failed scenarios, the student will gain valuable insights into the impact of organizational culture on mentorship, leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. The student must analyze at least 10 video scenarios with detailed observations.

The objective of this assignment is for the student to explore leadership traits through the lens of historical and biblical figures, using AI to personify these individuals and conducting interviews to delve into their perspectives on leadership, and compare and contrast the leadership traits of both figures.

This assignment offers a unique opportunity for the student to engage with historical and biblical narratives while exploring timeless principles of leadership. Through the integration of AI technology, the student can gain insights into the perspectives of iconic figures and deepen their understanding of leadership dynamics, especially regarding the application of authority, accountability, and responsibility. The comparative analysis will be 50-100 words.

In this assignment, the student will analyze the movie “Twelve O’Clock High” through the lens of leadership, Crew Resource Management (CRM), Threat and Error Management (TEM), Safety Management Systems (SMS), and Just Culture principles. Instead of a traditional written essay, the student will complete a structured table to organize their analysis. This assignment aims to deepen the student’s understanding of the correlation between leadership and the development and sustenance of a safety culture in aviation settings.

Quizzes (2)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned Module: Weeks. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 50 multiple-choice questions, and have a 1-hour-30-minute time limit. They will have unlimited attempts with highest score recorded.