ABSTRACT
sUAS forms an emergent transformative technology requiring skills, knowledge, and experience not previously addressed by established educational and technical programs. Therefore, we, as a society, require a spectrum of such programs to prepare workers who can not only develop the knowledge, and expertise, to master current skills, but also develop new methods not yet on the horizon. To support employment opportunities, courses, curriculum models, and educational pathways must directly target industry’s needs. Thus, recognizing needs of industry is paramount to developing successful courses, educational programs, and academic pathways. The GeoTEd-UAS project developed a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum), dedicated to advancing UAV technologies, and to chart the tasks and duties associated with sUAS operational technicians.
Such a DACUM forms the foundation to develop curriculum models tailored for the sUAS mission, to identify proper course sequences, design new degree and certificate programs, and establish overall educational pathways for educators. Faculty are utilizing the sUAS OT DACUM to better facilitate informal learning through outreach programs, and by providing service learning opportunities for students. While the sUAS DACUM chart has been used extensively in Virginia, the chart can be easily modified to include other geographic areas to support sUAS education.
