The General Angst Over the PADI eLearning Program

[mitosblog]

No one said it was for everyone. What I found interesting at this year's forum is that the ones who typically bash PADI had no objections, but the people who are usually the most enthusiastic PADI cheerleaders were the ones who had a problem.

Yeah I agree with you

 

[oly5050user]

pretty true.

PADI just pulled the five star resort rating from a friend of mine, a Master PADI Instructor who I think teaches the best OW, the best rescue course here. He is the ONLY guy who bought a defibrillator for his boat, etc, etc The reason? They won't "say" but many of us think it is because other operators asked them to, and it was a bottom line money lobby.

PADI is losing clout, maybe not cash. I don't really want anything to do with PADI.

Here is the page he claims they requested he remove:

Scuba Diving Hawaii with AAA Diving of Honolulu, Oahu

On the home page he refers to SB..I had nothing to do with any of this, it's old news at this point. Let's just say, I've seen all I need to see.

Yea, just like the sub-prime mortgages.

PADI may have pulled the 5 star because he also teach's SDI/TDI, as he has posted on his site. He does not have a retail store front either and that is another requirement,as he posts on the site he closed it and only operates out of his van and boat with a cell phone..If a facility is a 5 star they cannot teach any other agency courses that PADI also has..If it a course that PADI does not have then it is ok...Probably will not affect the business

 

[PhilEllis]

So, financial success is moral justification? I bet RJR Reynolds would LOVE to have you on their PR staff. Very often such success is just proof that P.T. Barnum was right. No one ever went broke for underestimating the taste, intelligence, or judgement of the average consumer. Half our economy is built on exploiting the least common denominator.

You know bfw, that first sentence is the most over-the-top, bull**it statement I have ever heard. It has NOTHING to do with RJR and cigarettes. Recreational diving harms an amazingly small number of participants. What cigarette companies do kills them by the 100,000's of thousands. Get a little more intellectual argument. Geez!

Phil Ellis
Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com - Buy Scuba Diving Equipment & Snorkeling Equipment

 

[Papa_Bear]

You know bfw, that first sentence is the most over-the-top, bull**it statement I have ever heard. It has NOTHING to do with RJR and cigarettes. Recreational diving harms an amazingly small number of participants. What cigarette companies do kills them by the 100,000's of thousands. Get a little more intellectual argument. Geez!

Phil Ellis
Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com - Buy Scuba Diving Equipment & Snorkeling Equipment

Your right of course, but cigarettes are safe because they are taxed! The only reason! Do we want our sport taxed? It is safe compared to many other activities! NAUI, PADI, SDI, and all the rest, what does it matter? All it does is relieve the industry of liability! The instructor worth his salt knows whether a person has learned what was taught and it comes down to that! I have a card from just about every agency for one thing or another, but it doesn't make me a better diver, diving does and putting the knowledge I learned into practical application! If it works for me I use it and retain it, if it doesn't then it is soon forgotten!

We need more basic divers who will "Learn" to love this sport and continue to dive and therefore be industry consumers! We need more all across the spectrum from beginner to instructor who has the passion to breath under water and spread that fever to others until the whole world is under the water changed for ever in to SCUBA divers!

 

[Cacia]

he also teach's SDI/TDI,

I wonder why they did not just say that?

Yea, he had a TDI Captain but I never saw any course taught that were not PADI...

Anyway, I thought he deserved a better explanation considering he fillled their coffers for the last 15 years and had some astronomical cert numbers and what I considered very high standards, relative to other operators.

 

[resortdiver]

I hope PADI open elearning up to its independent instructors not just offering it through the stores and resorts.

PADI is a for profit company and will make decisions that are in their long and short term interest.

 

[oly5050user]

I hope PADI open elearning up to its independent instructors not just offering it through the stores and resorts.

PADI is a for profit company and will make decisions that are in their long and short term interest.

I very highly doubt that elearning will ever open up to independents.It is a benefit of being in the business full time with a store to support.The store gets a piece of the $120. the student pays on line to do elearning.
Try to deal with a facility that you can work with and send the students thru their access to elearning.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

PADI will never open it up to independents because most indies do not buy enough other stuff in the form of con ed materials. They count on this revenue. Initial ow is more or less a loss leader for them even allowing for the lower standards. The goal is to put as many people in the pie to give the greatest chance of picking up the sales from further courses. The easier they can do this the better. Face it the actual percentage of those who continue to dive actively after initial cert is nowhere near 100%. I'd be surprised if it was even close to 30. By active diving I consider those who do more than just the once a year vacation with a few dives. THose people usually are quite content with ow and bicycling around the reefs. That number is not what they care about. The ones who matter are those who go on to AOW, Rescue, Specialties, and Pro ranks. You can't knock them for their marketing. It brings in the sheep in droves. More sheep, bigger pool to draw revenue from, even if some of those would be better off taking up another sport like walking.

The E-learning is also a way to insure that indies must affiliate if they want any kind of support. Not only does the store get a piece of the on line fee but they are encouraged to not adjust their regular price. The increased fee is in no way indicative of a better course. It is for CONVENIENCE ONLY! Nothing more. Get those who don't really have enough time to do a proper course with full classroom sessions, instructor input, and the other things that go along with it and get em in the water ASAP so they'll buy gear, take more courses, whether they are ready for em or not, and pump up the coffers. It also seems to go against one of the older tools which was to have the student spend as much time in the classroom that was in the shop or had to be gotten to by going thru the shop. In this way they would see all the shiny regs, d rings on bc's, doodads, etc. They would be more likely to buy.

Now a quick trip to the shop for a "quick quiz" and toss them into the pool and then open water. Seems to me that the lds's would prefer to have people exposed to their products as much as possible. To me if can learn on line, hey, why not buy my gear on line? PADI says I should go to the lds in the course but I'm already here and the price is 10,20, even 50% lower.

Remember the people they are catering to are already conditioned to doing everything on line. And that being the case and even though they read the cautions and advice about buying in person they don't have the benefit of instructor input to know that they really don't know squat. So if I've just spent 120 bucks on line why not get it back by saving on gear. I'm not the most tech savvy person in the world. I just replaced my phone last night with one of the new blackberry pearls. My son says that's not a phone it's a mobile command center. We'll see. I just needed it because of the deal and because I'm finding I need more access to email and I now have unlimited time for that with this new unit. The other features are very nice as well. Calendar, address book, contact info etc. But I also bought a new analog organizing device called a date book. I still need hard copies and the feel of the book when planning classes, appointments, events etc.

Maybe it (e learning) will work. I just have serious doubts about it. It's why I'm becoming a YMCA instructor. Everything is still done on paper with personal contact with the student from beginning to end. I also don't see any way to do the initial swim tests on line to see if the person taking the course has any business being near let alone in water.

I have only seen limited materials from the on line course. This is another rub. If you are going to promote this let the pros have full access to it to evaluate it. As it stands now only dive centers have full access. Another way of freezing the independent out and forcing them to affiliate. Or is it assimilate.

 

[Thalassamania]

I've watched an industry fail to mature, an industry that will, unfortunately, never mature, because at its root is not a solid foundation of industry leaders trying to make an honest buck by putting out a product that is better than competing products. It (diver training) is, by-and-large, an industry of hucksters who run about attempting to do two contradictory things simultaneously:

1. market to an uninformed public a product of ever decreasing quality, whilst
2. increasing their profit margin by trying to reduce the costs associated with operating the program.

This creates an industry that eats its seed corn, that will implode ... its only a question of when.

 

[Cacia]

I don't dislike PADI, they just are not a good value for my dollar.