Best Price for PADI eLearning?

[pf778c]

I'm planning a trip to Utila in a few months to pursue my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water certifications (Intro to SCUBA 101 & 102, as I see it). I did a full-day Discovery Dive earlier this year and enjoyed it enough to where I'd like to repeat the experience and be able to book dive trips in my future travels. My goal is to gain sufficient knowledge and experience so as to be reasonably confident, safe and capable enough to relax and enjoy any future recreational diving I do.

I'm thinking I'd like to complete the eLearning courses offered by PADI at my own pace, and then follow up with the classroom sessions in Utila, both as a refresher and chance to ask questions, but also as a means of "cementing" what I learned online. It looks like a few shops offer the online courses for much less than PADI does themselves - Saguaro SCUBA and Divers Direct as an example. Does anyone have any experience with these to suppliers or any others that offer the PADI eLearning courses at a discount?

Thanks!

 

[KatieMac]

I'm planning a trip to Utila in a few months to pursue my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water certifications (Intro to SCUBA 101 & 102, as I see it). I did a full-day Discovery Dive earlier this year and enjoyed it enough to where I'd like to repeat the experience and be able to book dive trips in my future travels. My goal is to gain sufficient knowledge and experience so as to be reasonably confident, safe and capable enough to relax and enjoy any future recreational diving I do.

I'm thinking I'd like to complete the eLearning courses offered by PADI at my own pace, and then follow up with the classroom sessions in Utila, both as a refresher and chance to ask questions, but also as a means of "cementing" what I learned online. It looks like a few shops offer the online courses for much less than PADI does themselves - Saguaro SCUBA and Divers Direct as an example. Does anyone have any experience with these to suppliers or any others that offer the PADI eLearning courses at a discount?

Thanks!

If I could do it over again, I would do it from a book with the dive shop. The elearning material expires after a year and I can't reference it any longer.

 

[tursiops]

I really don't know how those shops are able to offer PADI OW eLearning for $129; this seems less than their cost. If they just take your money and send you a code to go on the PADI site and start your eLearning, what's to lose? The shops are just a way for you to get the enrollment code. I assume they are doing that price as a loss-leader to get you to do the rest of the training with them. One question might be whether they are including the certification fee in their price...if not this could account for part of the low price.

 

[Dogbowl]

I think the best way to do this is to find a shop in Utila that offers elearning and purchase an OW and AOW elearning, confined water skills, and open water checkout dives package with them. That way you’ll get a bundle discount. They will give you a code and you can do the elearning at home. Then go to Utila and do the rest with the same shop.

Buying it separately, splitting up the elearning with the water skills most likely will cost you more in the long run. I’ve priced out these courses before and splitting them up usually cost more.

 

[pf778c]

Thanks everyone. I already purchased my OW & AOW courses with Utila Dive Center and want to do my coursework with them, so I have everything covered already. I just find the idea of taking my time with all of the theory and then going over it again in the classroom later as a refresher to be attractive. I think I would be more confident and also get a more thorough grasp of the subject matter, and for me, more confidence + better understanding = more fun! I just wasn't sure if it's common to find discounted rates on the eLearning online. I'm going to reach out to one of the suppliers I've seen and see what they have to say. Thanks!

 

[Pullnglide]

The thing I do not understand with PADI is they want you to purchase a book for future reference however if you use e-learning then it expires in 1 year and you can't use it for reference. I can't remember what we paid for e-learning but I am fairly certain it was somewhere near $129 or maybe less but I could be wrong, its been several years. Whatever it was we paid 1/2 of what we charged and thats what most shops I have worked with do. I've heard good things about the Utila Dive Center but I do not have any personal experience with them. Best of luck!

 

[Aloha Joe]

I hate e-learning and have been doing much better using the texts. I did my OW via e-learning, but I bought the book used and read half of it before registering for e-Learning. I did great on the first half, and horrible (for me) on the second half. The e-learning has so much repetition it’s sickening and actually makes me ‘tune out’ and therefore learn less.

And learning by text ends up bing cheaper

 

[Diving Dubai]

E Learning is only available for the core courses OW, AoW, RD, DM and IDC and then you have Touch - for the iPad on OW (at least)

Other courses have teh printed material

Tech courses give you a CD with the Material as a PDF (Tech 40-50 is 300 pages)

There are flaws with each

My personal opinion is that the E learning and Touch learning is a great idea, badly executed. Touch is little more than a scan of the book.

With Elearning you only have access for the course materials for a year. Having used it for DM and OWSI I can agree that it's dull listening to someone drone on.

Books are great but there is an environmental impact, as well as the cost of printing and shipping of the materials

As an instructor - I much prefer the students to bring the knowledge reviews to teh course and then we can discuss them further (although that adds time)
My ideal system would be the materials available as a PDF where the students can type the answers, and allow in some way students to have continued access to teh materials

The agencies need to protect their materials. Obviously (and rightly as publishers) they want each student to pay for their materials but also they want to ensure that only the latest variant is in circulation.

The danger with electronic is that they are put on the internet where people aan download for free pirate copies with no guarantee they have the latest version