Online Ground School / Written Endorsement

Having just written a website for ham radio "study it yourself and pass the
exam", it struck me that such a website for aviation ground school might be
a good thing. ( www.rstengineering.com/hamradio )

I'm thinking of basing it on the Gleim Exam Study Guide and charging a
nominal fee ($10 or so) which includes an endorsement for the private
written exam IF the student can pass my final exam with a score of 90 or
better. No, I don't believe in exams where 70 is passing, no matter what
the FAA says.

Before doing a hell of a lot of work, has this already been done?
Adequately?

Comments on the thought appreciated either in this ng or by email


Jim

Yes it has here
http://www.dauntless-soft.com/

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Having just written a website for ham radio "study it yourself and pass
the exam", it struck me that such a website for aviation ground school
might be a good thing. ( www.rstengineering.com/hamradio )

I'm thinking of basing it on the Gleim Exam Study Guide and charging a
nominal fee ($10 or so) which includes an endorsement for the private
written exam IF the student can pass my final exam with a score of 90 or
better. No, I don't believe in exams where 70 is passing, no matter what
the FAA says.

Before doing a hell of a lot of work, has this already been done?
Adequately?

Comments on the thought appreciated either in this ng or by email


Jim

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Yes it has here
http://www.dauntless-soft.com/


That is 3 times more than he is wanting to charge.



"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Having just written a website for ham radio "study it yourself and pass
the exam", it struck me that such a website for aviation ground school
might be a good thing. ( www.rstengineering.com/hamradio )

I'm thinking of basing it on the Gleim Exam Study Guide and charging a
nominal fee ($10 or so) which includes an endorsement for the private
written exam IF the student can pass my final exam with a score of 90 or
better. No, I don't believe in exams where 70 is passing, no matter
what
the FAA says.

Before doing a hell of a lot of work, has this already been done?
Adequately?

Comments on the thought appreciated either in this ng or by email


Jim

And, it says nothing about being interactive via a weekly update meeting on
the chat server, a direct line to the instructor for questions, and most
important, nothing about a written signoff at the end of the trail. I know,
there is provision for "home study", but you've got to convince the examiner
that you actually took the class. A signature is much more effective.

Jim




"NW_PILOT" wrote in message
...
"Chris" wrote in message
...
Yes it has here
http://www.dauntless-soft.com/


That is 3 times more than he is wanting to charge.

RST Engineering wrote:
And, it says nothing about being interactive via a weekly update meeting on
the chat server, a direct line to the instructor for questions, and most
important, nothing about a written signoff at the end of the trail. I know,
there is provision for "home study", but you've got to convince the examiner
that you actually took the class. A signature is much more effective.

Jim

Jim,
Actuallly, they do offer a sign-off service:

http://www.faatest.com/script/signoff.asp

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane

Very interesting idea there Jim. My only experience has been with the
free study/practice test sites like Sporty's. I'm sure that anyone
taking your course would be getting a great value for his/her money.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, IA Student, airplane partnership student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Hey Jim,

I used the dauntless software to prep for a few written tests. There is no
chat server however the owner is a CFI and does answer questions via email
although the timeliness isn't very good. There is a written sign off
available after you present them with several practice tests but I think
there is an additional $25 charge for the signoff. The dauntless programs
basically help you study to take the test, they don't teach you the
material, that is what I was after and I found them very effective. Unless
they have changed, I would not send a green student to their site and expect
them to come away with "knowledge" of the subject matter.

Having said that, about a year ago I created a Instrument Ground School
based on Gleim's Instrument Study Guide and found it a great way to hit
every subject in a manner that "flows" and that uses the FAA verbiage that
is repeated in the FAA questions. It provided me with a terrific skeleton
to ad additional power point slides, movie and audio clips, as well as real
life experiences. After each class I referred the students to the dauntless
or Gleim test prep software to practice taking the questions. For this I
liked dauntless better than Gleim because dauntless' interface allowed
viewing charts directly across from the test question, I believe Gleim opens
another window with the chart and takes a lot of moving around to view the
entire chart.

I burned CD's of the entire power point presentation that also included
extra videos, web material, and magazine articles. Copies of the CD's were
made available to the students for additional study so a student had several
options depending on their level of need and understanding. When next weeks
class rolled around, we covered the previous weeks FAA test questions and
answered any questions the students had. All in all it really worked well.
I could envision the same style format working online.

Depending on how sophisticated you wanted to make it, you could limit access
to the next subject area to only those who have passed a previous subject
via an acceptable test score on that subjects FAA questions.

Just an idea.

Jim Burns

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
And, it says nothing about being interactive via a weekly update meeting
on
the chat server, a direct line to the instructor for questions, and most
important, nothing about a written signoff at the end of the trail. I
know,
there is provision for "home study", but you've got to convince the
examiner
that you actually took the class. A signature is much more effective.

Jim




"NW_PILOT" wrote in message
...
"Chris" wrote in message
...
Yes it has here
http://www.dauntless-soft.com/


That is 3 times more than he is wanting to charge.

I'll sign off anyone (for free) that shows a sample test of 80% or more
on the Gleim or King tests. There is a specific endorsement for this in
61-65D (it's the "I have reviewed the home study material of..", not
the "I have given the ground training" one. The FAA needs to just get
rid of these endorsements. CFIs and ATP don't need endorsements and the
tax payers no longer pay for the tests. Its the student's $80 if they
fail the test.

-Robert, CFI

Jim Burns wrote:

I believe Gleim opens
another window with the chart and takes a lot of moving around to view the
entire chart.

That's correct. I also find that I *really* need to be able to refer to the
chart(s) or other graphical info while working on the question, so I wind up
printing out those windows. A bit of a pain.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Having just written a website for ham radio "study it yourself and pass
the
exam", it struck me that such a website for aviation ground school might
be
a good thing. ( www.rstengineering.com/hamradio )

I'm thinking of basing it on the Gleim Exam Study Guide and charging a
nominal fee ($10 or so) which includes an endorsement for the private
written exam IF the student can pass my final exam with a score of 90 or
better. No, I don't believe in exams where 70 is passing, no matter what
the FAA says.


I haven't gone to the website, but Gleim has an Online Ground School that
I've seen in the latest AOPA mag. I believe it was $99, which is a lot, but
still cheaper than the video packages available. May want to see what they
have already done.

http://www.gleim.com/aviation/ogs


John K.
Student Pilot