Out of curiosity, I took the training.
I found the format and content acceptable, and it seemed to cover the ground adequately. Some of the questions were just basic regurgitation of the content just presented, but others weren't and did require a small amount of consideration. I even got a couple of questions wrong.
The presentation covered what was acceptable contact...a concern to me since I often hoist the littlest kids into the cockpit of my single-seat airplane when they're too young to fly as Young Eagles. This, thankfully, is still allowed.
I have to take a lot of corporate online training at work (Government procurement policies, business courtesies, ethics, security, hazardous waste handling, clean-room operations, etc.), and this was similar. Some of that training does ask questions right after each section of the material, like the YE training does.
Some suggestions:
1. The training needs to lead off with WHY it's necessary. Thankfully, there aren't any Young Eagles examples to use, but EAA needs to define the basic reason training became necessary. Something along the lines of, "Revelations of child abuse at several large organizations has shown the need for formal policies and training to protect the children. While there have been no reports of such abuse during Young Eagles events, EAA management has recognized the need for heightened awareness...."
2. The training needs some "DO" and "DO NOT" lists to provide easier-to-remember summaries of key aspects of the policies. These lists could also then be made available to members as a refresher just before an event.
3. There's a section on reporting abuse, where the first line is that any suspected activities must be reported. The trouble is, it doesn't say to WHOM. It does provide the data later in the section, but that was my big question when starting to read the page. I'd add the words "as described below" to the line that says reporting is required.
4. The presentation is visually uninteresting. It needs a photo or graphic to go with each section, rather than a "wall of words." Show a volunteer buckling a kid into a seat when the section talks about appropriate touching, show a kid in a two-seat airplane when talking about the two-seater policy, etc. The pictures can be generic, but images would give a little more life to the thing. EAA had six months to put this together...supposedly.... so it should be more professional.
5. On the same note, would it kill ya to use a larger font?
The training itself just took 5-10 minutes, so folks don't need to be too concerned about it. I *still* wouldn't agree to the background check, but owning a single-seat aircraft, the issue is moot.
Ron Wanttaja
Originally Posted by cub builder
