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ASCENT FAQ

1. Is this approved by the FAA, Transport Canada, or other regulators?
2. Does anyone recommend or endorse the ASCENT system?
3. What makes your online training system different from other web-based training system?
4. Can students cheat on their online exams?
5. What if there is a change needed to the training material?
6. What if I want to personally supervise the student’s exam?
7. Our network blocks a lot of our internet use. Will it affect our pilots trying to use this system?
8. Will this replace the need for human trainers?
9. We are a very small operator, with only 1 aircraft and 4 pilots. Could we possibly afford this?
10. We are a large company with over 300 aircraft in 19 locations world wide and thousands of pilots. Will this work for us?
11. Can you create exams with randomly generated questions in the ASCENT Aviation E-training System?
12. Do you have live, interactive chat features and discussion boards?

Q: Is this approved by FAA, Transport Canada, or other regulators?

FAA / Transport Canada

A: The FAA and most other regulators do not approve training systems or courses.  They only approve specific operator’s training programs.

In the U.S., each aviation company (ie: Part 135 or 91, Flight Schools, etc.) needs to get their training approved (usually by their FAA Primary Operations Inspector, or POI). Canada and other countries are similar.

So far ALL our clients using this system who have had their training inspected got it approved. We fully expect that none of our clients will have a problem getting this approval.

If necessary, we will work with your local FAA or regulatory office and inspectors to address any concerns they might have.

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Q: Does anyone recommend or endorse the ASCENT system?

FAA / Transport Canada

A: Most of our ASCENT Aviation E-training System sales in the last couple years were a result of a Transport Canada or FAA regulator recommending it. Neither Transport Canada or the FAA officially endorse it in any way (they are not allowed to), but the fact that we regularly pick up the phone and hear "Our inspector suggested we look into getting your system" speaks for itself.

Most of our sales have been the result of word-of-mouth from our clients and their inspectors.

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Q: What makes your online training system different from other web-based training system?

Exclusively for aviation

A. ASCENT Aviation E-training System was designed exclusively for the aviation industry by experienced aviation experts.

The key needs of the aviation workplace for training technology are customization, usability, and affordability. So, each ASCENT customer gets their own system that they have complete control of at all times. Training courses are easily customized to each client’s operation (thus enabling you to get it approved). And our system works on any computer from any location with no need for I.T. resources.

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Q: Can students cheat on their online exams?

Difficult to cheat

A: In our system, every question has randomized answers. Every time the question loads, the answers are shuffled randomly, so it’s pretty difficult to cheat. In fact, about the best "cheat" you can do is either figure out what the right answer is or which of the answers are not the right ones, in either case you’ve actually learned it.

The system tracks login times, seconds per page, attempts per question, etc. and there are several other features to prevent cheating.

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Q: What if there is a change needed to the training material?

A: That’s the best thing about ASCENT Aviation E-training System. If there is a change required, it takes literally seconds to make an edit. You can easily keep your course content up to date and make any changes you want, when you want.

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Q: What if I want to personally supervise the student’s exam?

Supervise an exam

A: No problem. Just proctor it by having them log in and do their exam in your presence, or in the presence of someone you trust to act as proctor – anywhere in the world! There’s even a feature where you can schedule or time limit an exam, which works great with proctoring. Courses and exams can also be scheduled for specific time periods or set as time limited.

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Q: Our network blocks a lot of our internet use. Will it affect our pilots trying to use this system?

Safe for networks

A: Our online training system downloads nothing to the user's computer (no applets, no cookies other than normal expiring session cookies). To networks and firewalls, it is just a safe, simple website.

You have the ability to thoroughly test out every part of the system from your location to ensure it works fine before you buy.

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Q: Will this replace the need for human trainers?

Trainers become more valuable

A: We have seen all our clients realize significant reductions in training costs and time spent by trainers on classroom related training tasks. We have not yet heard of one person losing their job to online training. Instead, those trainers have become MORE valuable to their company.

Remember when we all thought computers were going to create the "paperless office"? Didn’t happen, did it!

What happens is the trainers spend far less time doing the mundane aspects of training like...

    • preparing for classroom sessions
    • scheduling employees for training sessions (and that can be a doozie!)
    • preparing materials (handouts, tests, etc.)
    • doing classroom lectures
    • marking exams
    • preparing documentation of training
    • preparing for training audits

…and then are able to use all that time to do one-on-one instruction with people focusing on the areas they need help with.

ASCENT helps determine where individuals require additional training or assistance, then instantly informs their supervisor/trainer.

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Q: We are a very small operator, with only 1 aircraft and 4 pilots. Could we possibly afford this?

Small operations

A: Yes! Your company's own, customized, and complete system would be about $995 per year – all inclusive. And that gives you up to 25 users to expand to. You don’t need an I.T. department either.

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Q: We are a large company with over 300 aircraft in 19 locations world wide and thousands of pilots. Will this work for us?

Large operations

A: Yes! Scalability is a non-issue. We can add tens of thousands of users today and there would likely be no noticeable effect on the system.

ASCENT Aviation E-training System even has the ability to enable large clients to create additional, separately branded online systems for each department or region, and control all that from one central point.

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Q: Can you create exams with randomly generated questions in the ASCENT Aviation E-training System?

No random questions

A: No. And there’s a good reason for that. Randomly created exams are fine in educational institutions or some corporate environments, but can be a liability problem in the workplace. It is difficult to support an employer's claim that employees are trained the same standard when each employee receives a different exam.

However, if you are interested in preventing cheating, we have a number of features for that including the randomizing of the possible answers to each question, every time a question loads.

ASCENT also contains a Question Bank, which you can use to easily generate new quizzes and exams. And any time you want you can easily change your exam with a simple "Save as..." and change a few questions. In fact, for recurrent training, that's what we strongly recommend.

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Q: Do you have live, interactive chat features and discussion boards?

Did you hear the one about the air traffic controller and the duck?

A: By specific request of our clients, NO. In aviation technical and policy training (what most clients use ASCENT for), there is only ONE proper way to do things and you want them to learn that. No discussion.

Topics which benefit from open dialogue are best left in the classroom. This is often the case for things like some aspects of Customer Service, Sales, and initial Human Factors training.

However, we do include some great tools for communication between students and their designated coaches and instructors, and all that communication is documented.

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Any further questions?

Please contact us.

 
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