Qualifications and academic practice

The academy’s purpose

Excellence serves others; discipline means responsible judgment rather than blind obedience. Honest records, care for others and accountability are taught through decisions, not compulsory theatrical performance.

The oath may be taken as an affirmation by replacing “I swear” with “I affirm”. No learner must disclose their beliefs, legal identity documents or medical history.

No ship purchase, pledge tier, donation or prestige rank is required. Arrange equipment and role-appropriate access before offering a practical section. Text communication and written defence may replace spoken formats when the actual outcome is preserved.

Choosing a route

A crew-only learner can progress Foundation → Fleet navigation/coordination → Command without claiming pilot competence. An industrial learner chooses Mining or Salvage, then applies that emphasis in the integrated delivery assessment. Civil coordination alone does not satisfy the full certificate’s medical-gameplay requirement.

Command is optional, not the inevitable next rank. Candidates without an insider sponsor can request independent entry review. Shared exercises may serve several programmes, but each learner’s outcomes are separately observed; shared attendance never creates automatic multiple passes.

Governance and independence

Academic Board

Approves standards, versions, equivalence and material changes.

Commandant

Accounts for resources and delivery; cannot unilaterally rewrite a result.

Programme leads

Own materials, calibration and patch-impact review.

Registrar

Verifies award requirements and preserves versioned records, without inventing assessment findings.

Instructors and assessors

Teach or assess only within an actual appointment and subject scope.

Exercise director and safety lead

Control delivery and may stop independently of fictional command.

Independent review panel

Reviews contested findings without involvement in the original decision or relevant conflicts.

Compatible roles may be combined in a small team, but nobody approves their own qualification or decides their own appeal. Defer a decision if independence cannot be staffed. Each offering identifies its teaching lead, assessor and review contact in the joining instructions.

Initial faculty may qualify through documented equivalent teaching evidence and independent moderation. ED 101 plus subject competence and observed co-teaching supports instructor eligibility; ED 201 adds assessor eligibility; ED 210 and relevant experience support exercise direction. Qualification never automatically appoints staff.

Teaching and assessment

Each course connects three observable outcomes to explanation, a worked example, guided practice, independent application and a criterion-specific observation. Use short recall tasks and revisit learning later rather than relying on one exposure.

Record each outcome as demonstrated, further practice required, interrupted or not assessed. All mandatory outcomes must be demonstrated; high quiz scores cannot average away a missing critical action. A justified abort can show competence even when a mission does not complete.

Publish consent, stop, withdrawal and evidence-integrity conditions before assessment. Rotate roles or capture individual observations. Give targeted remediation and a changed but equivalent reassessment; do not automatically repeat a whole programme.

Public pages contain formative examples, not private learner evidence or active summative answer keys. Before scheduling, authorized assessors must prepare and moderate a controlled assessment variant in restricted storage. Learners receive their criteria and review procedure in advance; controlled assessment variants remain with the examining team.

Course delivery and quality assurance

Courses use seminars, tabletop cases, live practicals or a combination of these formats. Joining instructions specify the session schedule, preparation, equipment, assessed role and arrangements for interruption. Guided hours describe teaching time; preparation and reassessment are agreed separately.

Before opening: confirm a real organizer, appointed instructor and assessor, equipment access, accessible communications, prerequisites, observation capacity, current LIVE build/date, tested location/actions, recovery plan and independent stopping authority where needed. Record the scope and limitations of every practical test.

Curriculum review follows a defined sequence: subject review, teaching and assessment review, pilot delivery, corrections, academic approval and publication. Programme leads retain the review findings and identify changes to entry requirements, practical conditions or assessment criteria in the revised edition.

After a relevant patch, retest the smallest affected practical and mark stale readiness evidence. Historical awards retain their version; readiness changes do not erase past achievements or arbitrarily expire all knowledge.

The Crucible’s 72-hour operation is fictional chronology. Actual participation uses agreed bounded sessions and relief; continuous attendance, sleep deprivation and endurance demands are prohibited.

Privacy, wellbeing and improvement

Use pseudonymous exercise identifiers. Concise observation notes are the default. Record voice or video only with informed agreement and a documented deletion policy. Keep learner evidence, appeals and disciplinary records private; publish transcripts only with authorization.

Out-of-character stop requests override fictional orders. No humiliation, harassment scenarios or real-world medical procedures. Website material targets WCAG 2.2 AA; that target does not imply control of game accessibility or a completed conformance audit.

After delivery, separate learner gaps from instruction, staffing and technical causes. Assign corrective actions and check their effect. Track interruptions, reassessment patterns, assessor disagreement, feedback and equipment barriers—not a desired failure rate.

Academic records and corrections

An academic record identifies the learner, course and curriculum version, assessed role, outcome findings, assessor and evidence references. Reassessment is recorded as a new attempt so that the basis of the final decision remains traceable. Awards additionally identify the requirements satisfied, approved equivalences and any role limitations.

Learners may request an explanation or correction through the Registrar, identifying the course, assessment date and disputed entry. Clerical corrections preserve the original entry and reason for amendment; disputes about academic judgment follow independent review. Access to learner evidence is limited to the learner and authorized academic staff. Academic completion does not confer organizational rank or administrative permissions.