Objectives First, Tools Last

Embry-Riddle’s David Cirulli on what maintenance training can move online, what cannot, and the mistake almost every organization makes first

David Cirulli, Head of Flight Operations Asia, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, APATS 2026, Maintenance Stream

David Cirulli leads flight operations for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Asia Campus in Singapore, and came to the APATS Maintenance Stream with a question the stream has been circling for some time: how much of maintenance training can credibly move online, and how would you decide?

He opened with the thing organizations reliably do first and reliably should not.

“Don’t go out and buy a tool. A learning management system is a tool. Don’t do that. Don’t upload a bunch of PDF contents and presentations — you’re just going to drown your students, who will think this is time waste. Don’t think -- ‘This should work. It works when the instructor does it.’”

He returned to the topic twice more before finishing. “A tool is not a dump of PDF and presentation slides. That does not work. That will not work.”

The sequence that matters

Cirulli’s proposed order of work is short enough to put on a wall.

Start with the learning objective — what the trainee needs to be able to do. From the objective, design the experience: an on-site activity, a writing assignment, an individual or team presentation. Only then select the environment.

“Don’t do this,” he said, meaning the tool-first approach. “Focus first on the objectives.”

The consequence of taking that advice seriously is that the delivery mode stops being an argument. “It’s not the course that you’re in. It’s how you need to deliver it, in order to get to the specific learning objectives.”

And because every organization carries a different set of goals and a different infrastructure, the resulting path differs for everyone in the room. Cirulli was careful not to prescribe one. He had originally prepared a step-by-step implementation sequence, then cut it. “I sat there and really thought — you know what, it’s not for me to tell you the steps.”

What has already moved, and what never will

A good deal of maintenance training is already online, and Cirulli pointed to the regulatory subjects that have led the way: human factors, systems, safety management systems, EWIS (Electrical Wiring Interconnection System.) and fuel tank safety all carry components delivered this way. Technical knowledge and theory have proven they travel.

OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have already created substantial digital content, and regulators provide the compliance framework. That much is not in dispute.

What Cirulli argued cannot move is validation — and he was precise about its three elements.

The hands-on demonstration that a technician can actually perform the task. The demonstrated ability to use the specific tools in your organization. And the observation of connections and workmanship on the aircraft itself.

That second element carries a pointed implication for anyone shopping for a training provider. “That’s not something that a university or a training organization can do. You need to be able to build that competency within your organization.”

Between the two poles is a spectrum rather than a switch. The classroom at one end, the hands-on experience at the other, and a set of decisions in between about which components go online; these are decisions driven, again, by the objective rather than the platform.

Cirulli’s framing of the progression is knowledge, then application, then performance. Knowledge is contained online or in hybrid delivery. Application can be reached in several ways. Performance is where the hands go on the aircraft.

Embry-Riddle runs the same course in class in Asia, online through its Worldwide Campus, and in hybrid form at remote sites where the students sit together and the instructor is elsewhere. “Different modalities with the same courseware,” said Cirulli, stressing that the point is not the variety; it is that the variety scales.

The instructor does not disappear

Anticipating the obvious objection, Cirulli addressed it directly.

“And then you say, hold on — didn’t you just say modality online? Where’s the instructor? Yes. The instructor has to be in that online modality. You do not lose the instructional value there.”

The method of delivery adapts. The role does not. Interaction between student and instructor is key; so is access to the instructor, in whichever mode.

Embry-Riddle enforces this with metrics rather than encouragement. Cirulli is required to respond to online students within 24 hours, wherever in the world they are, and assignments must be returned within seven days. “That’s a metric the university takes seriously.”

Underneath the response times sits a theory of why online programs fail. Students need to feel part of a community — both the academic community and the student body. That is harder outside a classroom, though Cirulli noted it can be lost inside one too, “if there’s too much disparity within the instructional method.”

SkillBridge The Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) SkillBridge program is a nine-week, full-time program designed to train and place transitioning service members, honorably discharged veterans and eligible military spouses into aviation maintenance and technician careers with reputable aerospace industry partners who are committed to hiring them.

Participation runs both onsite and online. Graduates leave with two certificates: a Boeing 737 familiarization through AAR, and an FAA Part 65 technology certificate through Embry-Riddle. Cirulli reported the program just celebrated its 1000th graduate.

The program has been highly successful, but Cirulli shares that the structure is reproducible. “Since it began in 2019, over 90% of graduates have earned job offers, and more than 98% have received job interviews through the program. Embry-Riddle graduates have enjoyed great success. However, any maintenance training organization, and/or other certificate organization could create a similar structure.”

The element he emphasized most was what happens after graduation. The certificates carry credit into an associate degree program, giving graduates an entry step onto a longer path. “They may want to grow their capability, and that’s one of the things we built into our program,” said Cirulli.

That pathway thinking is, for a university, the natural vantage point. “We look not at the initial training, but we look at the pathway through the student through academia and their careers.”

Using AI to write the objectives — carefully

Cirulli offered one concrete accelerator for organizations starting from nothing, with an explicit caution attached.

Feed your standards, your regulatory compliance requirements, and the relevant industry documents into an AI system, and it will produce a succinct set of learning and training objectives in short order as good starting point.

The caveat was delivered twice. “Feeding content into AI must be done carefully and securely. Make sure you’re in a secure AI environment. You would rather not the AI to help you if anything that is proprietary or secure.” Embry-Riddle maintains its own system.

With objectives in place, he argued, everything downstream becomes a selection problem — which tools, built in-house or bought in, assembled against a specification that already exists.

What didn’t work

Cirulli’s list of failures is short and worth repeating, because none of them are technology problems.

Objectives that needed refining once the program was running. Lost connectivity between instructor and student. Content dumped rather than designed. And tool rollouts attempted spontaneously rather than strategically — pilot first, validate, then move.

His closing takeaway was directed at anyone still treating instruction as a leap of faith.

“Modality does not determine the quality. How you bring it in doesn’t necessarily determine the quality. It’s the interaction and participation of your students.”

And with competency-based training and assessment now visibly on the maintenance horizon, the organizations that have already done the objectives work will be the ones ready for it.

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