One Day Pool Session

[boulderjohn]

I'm with TM Heimer.

I don't see how it can be done. I don't see any possible way to get through the KRs and final in that little time, and I could not possibly get 8-10 students through all the skills in that amount of time unless they could all do them without problems immediately.

I was a product of a 3 day class in a resort area. My one pool session had only 2 people in it, and it was only about 3 hours long. They accomplished that by the fact that we both got everything immediately, and they didn't teach a large portion of the skills.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm with TM Heimer.

I don't see how it can be done. I don't see any possible way to get through the KRs and final in that little time, and I could not possibly get 8-10 students through all the skills in that amount of time unless they could all do them without problems immediately.

I was a product of a 3 day class in a resort area. My one pool session had only 2 people in it, and it was only about 3 hours long. They accomplished that by the fact that we both got everything immediately, and they didn't teach a large portion of the skills.

After a PM exchange I have learned that there is a confusion as to who was saying what in the thread and to what I was agreeing.

Let me be clear:

1. I think the time as presented here is too short. I could not do the required skills with a class that size in the time described. I could not complete the classroom work in that time, either. (BTW, this has not been brought up in this thread, but we have had some threads in the past in which we learned that the advertised time for a class was misunderstood and there was actually much more time involved.)

2. A DM is not allowed to demonstrate or evaluate skills. A DM can help with students who are having trouble. I will tell you for sure that with one instructor and 10 students, evaluating the skills takes a very long time. If I had 10 students by myself and one DM, I would want the primary duty of the DM to be to watch the other students for problems while I was evaluating skills.

3. A DMC is primarily there to observe. Many people will use DMCs in the DM role, but that is really not supposed to be happening because the DMC is not fully trained and (especially) not insured. I have had DMCs offer valuable tips to OW students on the shore or side of the pool, but that is different from performing a professional skill under water.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I guess I'll take that as mostly agreeing with what I had posted; :cool2:

Many of the 3-day courses will spend 10-ish hours the first day; morning Academics, afternoon Confined Water.

...

Students with good snorkeling experience, good physical shape and endurance, who have completely read the book, watched the DVD and completed as much of the Knowledge Reviews as they can (book/DVD/KR's takes ~8 hours IMHO) BEFORE showing up for the first day of class will probably do all right in this format, as long as the student instructor ratio does not exceed 4-1.

With regards to the post above; if 8-10 students are completing the Academic portion with one instructor in 1.5 - 2 hours, that is not enough time, and that is pretty much not an opinion. There are 4 quizzes, with each one being graded and discussed followed by a 50 question final that also gets graded and discussed, which is at least 2 hours for that many students. Pretty much means going over the KR's is not done to complete the Academics in 2 hours.

I have seen operators who seem to trim their staffing budget by using DMC when in fact the are required by Standards to use DM's or higher.