AOW vs e-learning AOW

[cpace]

My wife and I are planning a trip to the Philippines in May 2018 and would like to complete our AOW certifications while there. We completed our PADI OW certification while on vacation in 2015 and found the "book time" was fairly substantial. Any comments to the following would be greatly appreciated.

1) Is it was worth the extra cost (~$200) to complete the PADI AOW e-learning at home or is the "book time" for the AOW w/o e-learning considerably less than OW (think I read that somewhere)?

 

[tridacna]

Elearning is fine. First establish which sub-specialties your instructor is going to do with you. You do not have to do all of them. Some are mandatory - the others elective.

 

[Damselfish]

I thought the book time for AOW was much less than OW. You might just consider taking the book on the plane, you'll have plenty of time there.

 

[YYCLuke]

Book time was minimal. One chapter and a knowledge review for each of your Specialties, so maybe one evening is enough. When you get into completing Specialties then it gets to be a little more, but nothing compared to the tedious OW.

Best of luck! Where are you planning on doing your AOW? And where are you planning to dive in Philippines?

 

[pconsidine]

I would suggest buying and reading Book- which will cost you about $60 as opposed to roughly $180 for Elearning. you only have to read chapters pertaining to
elective dives you are going to take.
Deep and Underwater Navigation are required dives for AOW other 3 dives are up to student even though I would suggest taking Peak Performance Buoyancy and
you must answe knowledge reviews and end of chapters you are doing...

 

[Neilwood]

I didn't find it took too long for the book learning for AOW - depending on your flight there might be enough time on it to complete it.

I find it worthwhile reading most things twice though - I generally pick up bits that I missed the first time through.

 

[Bob DBF]

Talk to the dive OP and dive op and find the specialties you will take, buy the book and do the study before you arrive. You might get a break by purchasing your own book.

At your convience, read the rest of the manual as it has information on other specialties that might come in handy later on in your diving. I've always found having "unnecessary" knowledge has come in handy more often than being clueless , when diving.


Bob

 

[yle]

Talk to the dive OP...

I was just going to suggest this, but Bob beat me to it.

The best thing you could do for your AOW class is contact the dive op and coordinate with them. If you make your own plans without talking to them, thinking that you're making progress and getting a "head start", everyone (you and the dive op) will be less than happy if you find out afterward that your plans don't mesh nicely with the way they run their AOW course.

While the deep and nav dives are required for AOW, the other three dives you will do are electives. Many of those electives require either special conditions (like drift diving...) or special equipment (like DPV or photography.) The dive op will be able to tell you which of the electives they are able to offer you.

You also might find they either want you to use the book or they want you to use the e-learning. Every shop has their own way of doing things. If they want you to use the book, the cost of the book might be included with the cost of the course... and they might not give you a break of the cost of the course just because you already have the book.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would suggest buying and reading Book- which will cost you about $60 as opposed to roughly $180 for Elearning. you only have to read chapters pertaining to
elective dives you are going to take.
Deep and Underwater Navigation are required dives for AOW other 3 dives are up to student even though I would suggest taking Peak Performance Buoyancy and
you must answe knowledge reviews and end of chapters you are doing...

Agree here. Just check the cost of each. Not a whole lot of classroom time the old way. I'd assume either way you'd do some basic compass work on land first. If S & R you'll learn 3 very important knots.....(I can still do them blindfolded............).

 

[HantsDiver]

I can't see any reason to spend more money on the e-learning for this course. The online course will have exactly the same information as the book.

Classroom time will usually involve the instructor casually going over the knowledge review answers before each dive. There isn't an awful lot of book work to do at all.

If you truly want to learn more stuff and have a deeper understanding of diving the money could be more wisely spent building a small library of diving books than paying $200 more.

But the choice is yours.