Should Students Learn General Air Traffic Management Skills Before NextGen Tools?

The goal of the present study was to determine whether the order of training of three specific NextGen tools (conflict detection, conflict probes, and Data Comm) affected student learning of air traffic management procedures, and, subsequently, their performance, workload, and situation awareness. We found that performance benefited from recent training of current-day air traffic management skills regardless of the order in which students were exposed to these skills. Overall, students were able to quickly learn how to use the NextGen tools implemented in the stimulation. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.