ERAU offers free online courses to students, public

“We want to help children keep learning while they are out of school,” Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler said in a March 19 news release.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines suggest social distancing to limit potential exposure to the coronavirus, and the action resulted in countless school systems closing their doors and left many parents scrambling for learning options. Traditional flight schools and college flight programs were also affected.

The online courses introduce core concepts and offer enrichment activities to help spark young people’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Aviation is Your Future is a free, massive open online course that offers an introduction to aviation for youth ages 8 to 17. The course, which runs through May 31, was introduced in early March and was created in cooperation with Women in Aviation International to help celebrate the advances of women in the fields of aerospace and aviation. The university describes the self-paced, six-hour online course as a way to help “fuel a passion for aviation by introducing young people to aviation fundamentals.”

Aviation 101, an introduction to aviation, is another self-paced course that will begin soon.

Embry-Riddle also offers online courses for Arizona and Florida high-school juniors and seniors that allow them to earn college credits if they meet certain criteria. The courses are: Aeronautics Pathway, Aviation Legislation, History of Aviation in America, Meteorology, Introduction to Computers and Applications, Introduction to Sociology, and Foundations of Biology.