SecureTraining

Time Tracking

In all courses, the time spent by a student in any course activity is tracked and counted towards the minimum course time. Unlike the fixed timers used by other training providers, our timers are variable and take into account historical student performance. This allows fast learners to proceed quickly through the course without being impeded by artificially high time requirements, while allowing slow learners to accrue credit for the extra time they need to spend in an activity.

No time is credited for reviewing completed activities. In addition, the app caps the time that a student can accrue for an activity to prevent students from logging time without meaningful interaction with the course.

Course Requirements

To complete a course and obtain a graduation certificate, the student must satisfy 5 requirements:

• Complete all lessons
• Pass all stage check exams
• Take 5 simulated FAA exams, and score an average of 90% with no single score below 80%
• Meet the minimum course time
• Pass the end of course exam

Rules of Conduct

After installing a course for the first time, the student must agree to the Rules of Conduct, which are established by the student's school and enforced via SecureTraining. If the app detects suspicious behavior, the student's school is notified, course access may be limited, and SecureTraining settings may be increased to reduce the possibility of a recurrence.

The following are examples of suspicious behavior that SecureTraining detects and addresses:

• Use of multiple devices by the same account. In some cases, we have detected 10 different devices associated with an account, with multiple devices using the course at the same time.
• Schemes to inflate course time. The app utilizes machine learning to establish a baseline of performance for a given activity. For example, the average student completes a simulated FAA exam in 31 minutes. If a user's history is consistent with that average, but requires nearly an hour to complete several exams, that is indicative of time padding to meet the minimum course time.

Minimum Activity Time

Lessons

In all courses, students must spend a minimum time in a lesson activity before the "Next" button is enabled. Generally, the minimum time is based on 300 words per minute, which is 50% less time than the time required by an average adult to read and comprehend a passage of text. Because of the low minimum time relative to real-world reading speeds, students should never have to wait for the Next button. This, in conjunction with time caps, allows students to receive credit for actual time spent interacting time with the course, rather than for an artificial preset time.

For courses with SecureTraining enabled, the timer is not displayed to the student. Instead, if the student taps on the Next button before the minimum time expires they will be shown a warning.

Practice Sessions - Questions

A common behavior among students is selecting random answers to memorize the correct answer, however, this strategy leads to poor exam results and a lack of aeronautical knowledge.

For courses with SecureTraining enabled, if the student taps on an answer before a certain period of time elapses, the app displays a warning.

Knowledge Checks

Knowledge checks are used to assess student knowledge between activities in a lesson. A low score on a knowledge check signifies that the student has not learned the material immediately preceding the material.

For courses with SecureTraining enabled, a Knowledge Check score below 70% requires the student to repeat the material covered since the last successful Knowledge Check.

Maximum Number of Quiz, Stage Check, and Exam Attempts

A quiz, stage check, or end of course exam may be taken a maximum of three times. If the student fails the third time, the lesson, stage, or course will be reset from the beginning.

Activity Logging

The following activity may be logged for monitoring compliance with course and organization rules:

• Screenshots taken during question sessions
• Logins, including the device, location, and time

Course Access

Courses that are designated SecureTraining courses are available on iOS devices only, and may not be access via a web browser. Web browsers are inherently "open," and it is either impractical or impossible to prevent certain behavior, such as opening multiple browsers or multiple tabs in the same browser to take multiple lessons at the same time.

Inactivity Warning and Automatic Session Termination

In all courses, the minimum activity timer is enabled to require a student to perform the activity before tapping next, This method is not 100% effective because students eventually adapt by waiting for the timer to expire, rather than actively engaging with the course.

To discourage this behavior, and to ensure the accuracy of the course time being logged, courses with SecureTraining enabled display an inactivity warning that automatically closes the session if the student is not actively engaged. To avoid nuisance warnings, the period of inactivity is set extremely high relative to the time required by the average person to read a passage of text.

Inactivity Warning in Reading Activities

• A warning is displayed to the student if the app detects a lack of activity. The warning includes an OK button and countdown timer.
• If the student taps OK before the timer expires, the warning disappears, and does not appear again until the app again detects inactivity.
• If the student does not tap OK before the timer expires, the session closes and the student does not receive credit for that activity.
• The inactivity warning does not affect any time caps. If the activity is capped at 45 seconds, for example, the student would receive 45 seconds of credit for reading the passage regardless of how many times the inactivity warning is dismissed.

Warnings, timers, and time caps factor in historical performance of both slow and fast readers. For example, a child in the first grade reads an average if 85 words per minute, while a college student reads an average of 205 words per minute. Non-native English speakers average around 105 words per minute. Multiples are applied to the historical performance averages to ensure that students receive credit for their actual performance and are not unduly impeded by alerts.

Inactivity Warning in Quizzes and Exams

Inactivity warnings and time caps in quizzes, exams, and other question sessions take into account the time the average student needs to answer the type of question presented. Questions that require chart plotting, interpolation, and calculations have higher time caps and inactivity thresholds than rote questions.

Course, Stage, Lesson Reset

The app will reset a lesson, stage, or course, and force the student to start over, if the student:

• Scores less than 60% on any knowledge check, quiz, stage check, or the end of course exam
• Engages in prohibited conduct such as allowing another student to complete a quiz
• Fails a lesson quiz, stage check, or the end of course exam more than 3 times

Grade Feedback

In knowledge checks, the student is shown only the incorrect answer that he or she selected, and will not be shown the correct answer. This discourages random taps to memorize answers.