Join the UAS Educators Community of Practice
A free professional community for educators teaching FAA Remote Pilot knowledge, UAS operations, and related aviation subjects
Are you teaching FAA Remote Pilot knowledge, UAS operations, or a related aviation course? The UAS Educators Community of Practice connects educators who want to exchange teaching ideas, classroom activities, flight lab practices, regulatory updates, assessments, and openly licensed instructional resources.
The community includes high school, workforce, community college, university, public safety, government, nonprofit, and industry educators. No UAS teaching experience threshold is required. Members may participate through email or the Google Groups website, and there is no membership fee.
Community discussions also help improve this textbook. Members may report outdated links, identify regulatory or guidance changes, suggest new examples, and submit teaching resources for possible inclusion in the educator resource library or a future textbook revision.
💡 Getting Started
To join the community, visit the Google Group at groups.google.com/g/uaseducators and request membership. Once your membership is approved, you will have access to all community resources, including the shared educator resource library, the teaching resource submission form, and the textbook correction reporting process.
Who Can Join
Membership is open to educators, trainers, curriculum developers, program administrators, and qualified practitioners who support Remote Pilot or UAS education. Appropriate settings include the following:
- High schools offering UAS or aviation technology courses
- Colleges and universities with aerospace, UAS, or aviation programs
- Workforce development and career and technical education (CTE) programs
- Public safety agencies with UAS training operations
- Nonprofit organizations and government programs supporting UAS education
- Industry training and professional development programs
- FAA UAS Collegiate Training Initiative (UAS-CTI) designated institutions
What Members Can Do
The community offers several ways for educators to collaborate and improve their instructional practice:
- Exchange teaching strategies. Ask how other educators teach difficult Remote Pilot or UAS concepts and share approaches that work in your classroom or lab setting.
- Share instructional resources. Contribute original lessons, activities, rubrics, laboratory exercises, slides, and classroom practices through the community resource submission process.
- Discuss FAA updates. Stay informed about changes to FAA rules, guidance, Airman Certification Standards (ACS), testing procedures, airspace requirements, and safety directives that affect course content.
- Access educator resources. Browse teaching materials contributed by educators in different instructional settings, organized by topic and instructional level.
- Improve the OER textbooks. Recommend corrections, identify outdated content, suggest new examples or media, and submit materials for possible inclusion in a future revision of this textbook or the companion Remote Pilot study guide.
How the Community Is Organized
The community uses a single Google Group with consistent subject line prefixes to organize discussions by topic. This structure keeps all conversations in one searchable location and avoids the fragmentation that occurs when related discussions are spread across multiple separate groups.
When starting a new discussion, members should use the most relevant topic prefix and a descriptive subject line. This practice helps other educators locate useful conversations months or years after they were originally posted. The following table shows the available topic prefixes and their intended use:
| Subject Prefix | Use |
|---|---|
| [PART 107] | Regulations, eligibility, certification, and operating rules |
| [AIRSPACE] | Sectional charts, Class E, LAANC, and authorization topics |
| [WEATHER] | Reports, forecasts, density altitude, and weather hazards |
| [PERFORMANCE] | Loading, aircraft performance, batteries, and limitations |
| [FLIGHT LAB] | Hands-on activities, flight exercises, and safety practices |
| [LESSON PLAN] | Teaching strategies, activities, slides, and assignments |
| [ASSESSMENT] | Original assessment design and feedback practices |
| [HIGH SCHOOL] | Secondary education implementation and program development |
| [COLLEGE] | Postsecondary curriculum and program administration |
| [UAS CTI] | FAA UAS Collegiate Training Initiative program discussion |
| [FAA UPDATE] | Verified regulatory, guidance, ACS, and testing changes |
| [EQUIPMENT] | Instructional aircraft, components, software, and lab equipment |
| [OER CORRECTION] | Specific errors or outdated content in an OER textbook |
| [OER SUGGESTION] | Proposed examples, sections, media, or educator resources |
📚 Example Subject Lines
[AIRSPACE] How are you teaching Class E2, E3, and E4 airspace?
[FLIGHT LAB] Preflight risk-assessment activity for beginning students
[FAA UPDATE] Remote Pilot ACS revision and affected lesson material
[OER CORRECTION] Chapter 8 link points to an archived FAA page
Community Guidelines Summary
The community operates under a set of guidelines that support productive, professional discussion. The full guidelines are available within the Google Group. Key expectations include the following:
- Keep posts relevant. Focus on Remote Pilot knowledge, UAS education, aviation instruction, FAA information, classroom practice, curriculum, assessment, instructional equipment, or improvement of the OER textbooks.
- Be professional and constructive. Disagree with ideas without attacking individuals. Describe the instructional context when offering a recommendation.
- Protect assessment integrity. Do not post proprietary test bank questions, secure examination content, answer keys, or materials that members do not have permission to distribute.
- Distinguish requirements from interpretations. Cite FAA or other authoritative sources when practical. Clearly label personal experience, local policy, and interpretation.
- Respect copyright and licenses. Share only material you created, material you have permission to redistribute, or material already available under a compatible open license.
- Protect privacy. Do not identify students or disclose protected educational, personnel, medical, or operational information.
- Avoid commercial promotion. Relevant product experience may be discussed, but unsolicited advertising, affiliate links, repeated promotion, and sales solicitation are not permitted.
⚠️ Important Notice
Community discussions are educational exchanges and do not replace current FAA regulations, official guidance, institutional policy, or legal advice. Members should verify operational requirements using current authoritative sources.
How to Join
Joining the UAS Educators Community of Practice requires a Google account and takes only a few minutes. The group uses moderated membership to maintain a focused, professional community. New members are typically approved within a few business days.
Steps to Request Membership
- Visit the Google Group at groups.google.com/g/uaseducators.
- Click Ask to join group (you must be signed in to a Google account).
- Answer the three short membership questions: your name, institution, and instructional role; the Remote Pilot or UAS subjects you teach or support; and your agreement to follow the community guidelines.
- Submit your request. You will receive an email notification when your membership is approved.
Once approved, you can participate by email or through the Google Groups web interface. No minimum posting requirement or scheduled meeting attendance is necessary. When you are ready, introduce yourself to the group and share one Remote Pilot or UAS topic that is important to your students.
💡 Participation Tip
After joining, check your Google Groups notification settings to choose whether you receive individual emails for each new post, a daily digest, or no email (web-only access). Adjusting this setting ensures the community works with your preferred email workflow.
Community Links
All community resources are accessible through the Google Group. Once your membership is approved, you will find links to the shared educator resource library, the teaching resource submission form, and the textbook correction reporting process within the group.
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| UAS Educators Community of Practice | The Google Group homepage where members discuss teaching practices, share resources, and collaborate on UAS education topics |
| Educator Resource Library | A curated collection of lesson plans, activities, rubrics, slides, assessments, and other teaching materials organized by topic and instructional level (link available within the group) |
| Resource Submission Form | Submit original teaching resources for review and inclusion in the shared educator library (link available within the group) |
| OER Correction and Suggestion Form | Report errors, outdated links, or suggest improvements to the Introduction to UAS or Remote Pilot OER textbooks (link available within the group) |
Community Scope
The community is designed to serve educators working across all levels of UAS and Remote Pilot instruction. The following table clarifies the topics that fall within the community’s focus and those that are outside its initial scope:
| Included | Outside the Initial Scope |
|---|---|
| Part 107 knowledge and test preparation | General consumer drone discussion unrelated to education |
| UAS operations, safety, flight labs, and curriculum | Commercial advertising and unsolicited sales |
| FAA rules, guidance, testing, and airspace | Distribution of proprietary test banks or restricted materials |
| OER corrections, additions, and educator resources | Operational legal advice presented as authoritative guidance |
Attributions
This page is part of Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Fundamentals and Applications, an Open Educational Resource (OER) published via the MTSU Pressbooks Network. Content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license unless otherwise noted.
The UAS Educators Community of Practice is hosted on Google Groups and is maintained independently of Google, Inc. Google Groups is a product of Google LLC. Membership and participation are governed by the community guidelines posted within the group.
