Overview

The aim of this unit is to provide a comprehensive overview of the fundamental and important concepts in human factors as they relate to safe operation of aircraft.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Identify essential psychological concepts such as personality, inter-personal communication, attention and vigilance
  • Explain and discuss how humans interact with automation on the flightdeck
  • Recognise and discuss important models of human behaviour in relation to errors
  • Identify the fundamental principles of crew resource management
  • Explain and discuss how the techniques of CRM can be used to improve and enhance human performance on the flightdeck
  • Define and discuss the concept of threat and error management. Identify essential psychological concepts such as personality, inter-personal communication, attention and vigilance

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Lecture		2.00 12 weeks 24
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Workshop		1.00 12 weeks 12
Online Contact (Phasing out)
Online Learning Activities		1.00 12 weeks 12
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Independent Learning		8.50 12 weeks 102
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
ExaminationIndividual 45 - 55% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
Online TestsIndividual 5 - 15% 1,3,4 
PortfolioGroup 25 - 35% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
PresentationGroup 5 - 15% 1,3 

Hurdle

As the minimum requirements of assessment to pass a unit and meet all ULOs to a minimum standard, an undergraduate student must have achieved:

(i) an aggregate mark of 50% or more, and(ii) at least 40% in the final exam.Students who do not successfully achieve hurdle requirement (ii) will receive a maximum of 45% as the total mark for the unit.

Content

Aviation Human Factors:

  • Personality
  • Effective teamwork and leadership
  • Communication and assertiveness
  • The Reason model
  • Decision making and pilot judgement
  • Attention, monitoring, vigilance and situational awareness
  • Ergonomics and human-machine interface
  • Management of aircraft automation
  • Flight simulation

Crew Resource Management:

  • History of CRM training
  • Elements of CRM training and their evolution
  • Line-oriented flight training and line-oriented safety audits
  • Cross cultural perspectives in CRM

Threat and Error Management:

  • Basic Threat and Error Management Principles
  • An in depth case study of an aviation accident

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.