E-Learning: the way forward or maybe not?

[Diver0001]

It is indeed a brilliant marketing tool, but it's one that does a huge disservice to both students and dive shops.

The beauty of attending classes at the dive shop is that it gives students a chance to interact with staff at the LDS. In this day and age of dive shops struggling to compete with internet merchants, the importance of this can't be overstated. If the LDS is just a 'place' where folk go to do their pool skills - especially since it's entirely possible they'll do their open-water dives someplace else, such as a tropical dive destination - then it doesn't give LDS instructors and staff much of a chance to form a relationship with their students/future customers.

Attending lectures at the LDS also gives students a chance to socialize together which is (lets face it) one of the best things about diving. It's pretty hard to socialize in the privacy of one's own home, doing an online e-learning course. More fellow divers as friends = stronger likelihood of staying with the sport = more $ for the LDS.

The way I see it is quite the contrary. As an instructor I would love for students to come to class prepared so we could focus our energy on the diving instead of talking about diving.....

A typical OW course at the shop I work for includes something on the order of 12 hours of theory. If we could cut that back to 2 hours because the students were coming prepared and spend 6 hours on an extra day of diving then we'd still be done faster with the benefit that the students would have more time in open water for potentially lower cost. (or for the same cost but the LDS get's a slightly bigger margin).

As for selling stuff and client binding. My thinking is that even if they do the theory at home they're still going to need gear to go diving and as far as the social aspects and networking goes, making that work is more a matter of how you organise things than anything else. For example, nothing stops you from organizing a "club" of recently certified divers. You could give them discounts on gear and get them coming to the shop once or twice a month to go diving with a group of other divers with similar experience levels.... The shop I work for does this and the way it looks to me the "club" does as much (or more) for client binding than trying to survive listening to an instructor talk at you for 12 hours....

R..

 

[I Dive]

I totally agree. OTOH PADI doesn't tell you to become an instructor when you have 100 logged dives, it's just the minimum requirement. So ultimately you decide. I think the problem may be the lack of other prerequisites to become an instructor (just an idea) and an examination system where the majority of candidates pass at the first attempt.

I fully agree, but be careful with the "other prerequisites". I don't want to start any agency bashing, so I won't list the agency name, but anyone familiar with this agency should recognize this pretty quickly. I was reviewing the Instructor qualifications for an agency. There was a list of 9 experience categories of which a candidate needs experience in 5. So far, so good. This sounds like a smart idea, right? Well, instructor candidates with this agency need 100 dives. One of the experience categories in that list of 9 included 10 dives in freshwater and another was 10 dives in saltwater. Can anyone explain to me how a person with 100 dives under their belt won't have at least 10 in fresh or 10 in salt? These were just the funniest two to me, there were some others that had me scratching my head as well. And, to be fair, a few others seemed like good ideas. My point is that I agree with prerequisites but they need to be meaningful, unlike some of this agencie's choices.

 

[Interceptor121]

Guys let's not transform this post in agencyA vs agencyB
And also this is not about e-learning versus traditional teaching in general but only applied to diving
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[leapfrog]

I One of the experience categories in that list of 9 included 10 dives in freshwater and another was 10 dives in saltwater. Can anyone explain to me how a person with 100 dives under their belt won't have at least 10 in fresh or 10 in salt?

I have NO LOGGED DIVES in freshwater. I have dived in fresh water (more or less in the Stone Age) but my experience in fresh water is totally irrelevant to my work as an instructor now. And if given a choice I would rather build on my experience by diving in different oceanic and maritime environments than go dive in a lake or a quarry. I know in FL you guys have some amazing springs and cave systems, so it's logical a lot of people dive there. It's different strokes for different folks.

My point is that I agree with prerequisites but they need to be meaningful, unlike some of this agencie's choices.

Maybe we should start another thread to talk about those prerequisites?

 

[Interceptor121]

Maybe we should start another thread to talk about those prerequisites?

Yes please!!!

 

[leapfrog]

Yes please!!!

Are you saying that because you really think it's an interesting topic or you just want us to stop hijacking this thread?

 

[Interceptor121]

Are you saying that because you really think it's an interesting topic or you just want us to stop hijacking this thread?

Both. Could be a good one for I2I forum

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[I Dive]

Guys let's not transform this post in agencyA vs agencyB
And also this is not about e-learning versus traditional teaching in general but only applied to diving
Posted via Mobile Device

Sorry for the perceived hijack, but I had already seen a few other off topic posts so I didn't think this thread was sticking closely to the OP any longer.

 

[Interceptor121]

No worries it was not specifically addressed to you!!

 

[ericjespersen]

I am certainly no expert, I neither own nor teach, but my first thought is PADI is doing a disservice to the LDS and their instructors, this puts yet another nail in the coffin of an entire business that is necessary to divers everywhere. Air and nitrox fills will continue to be harder and harder to find. Diving in other than major tourist areas will become much harder to do. There needs to be a local support system for this industry and we will all be the worse for loosing local dive shops everywhere..