Diver Training, Has It Really Been Watered Down???

[CT-Rich]

As someone who was heavily involved in the development of online classes for high school students, I assure you the difference in quality from one to another is enormous. Many are made by a certain person with a bare understanding of how to do anything in his or her spare time. Our courses were built by teams of experts, with a cost per course of more than $100,000. I am sure PADI paid more than that for their course.

The course was actually not badly done, but it was in an urban school which was poorly run. The course was more designed for a home school student population that was certainly more disciplined than the students I was working with. Motivation trumps everything. A motivated student will absorb everything and the instructor is almost an afterthought. I would have been a sponge even if I bought the rig at the local sports shop in 1951. I would have read that package insert over and over again....

Content might have been a bit different though...

 

[BDSC]

Except that a VCR is not interactive.

eLearning does not merely present information--it has ways to check for understanding as you go along. If you're not understanding, you can't go ahead. You can't just fall asleep with the program running and call it good.

That's exactly how the courses are at work. At different points they present knowledge reviews. You have to do them to be able to proceed. Also, the slides or pages are timed. They know how long it should take the average person to read/review the material on that page/slide. You can't just click through until the expected time has passed.

 

[RainPilot]

I'm not sure if it counts, but I have done the online courses for RAID (OW-DM) and I did all classroom learning through NAUI when I first certified OW through to OWSI.

As part of my crossover to RAID, I had to do all the online theory for all courses I would be allowed to teach, since that would allow me to know what the students were getting and also to ensure that I was up to speed on the differences between my original training and the RAID standards.

I found the online learning to be as good as the classroom lessons I had in 2000-2004 and in some ways better. That may be more to do with me being an autodidact by nature so online, self-paced learning has always worked better for me.

I suspect that a good instructor, in a small class of motivated , evenly-matched students would be able to get better results but for the vast bulk of training actually being conducted, I suspect the online theory is a better proposition.

 

[TMHeimer]

Except that a VCR is not interactive.

eLearning does not merely present information--it has ways to check for understanding as you go along. If you're not understanding, you can't go ahead. You can't just fall asleep with the program running and call it good.

Agree. This point makes e learning a better way. My thoughts back then were if you understood everything, you go in to school and take a supervised test. If you got hung up on a point, you kept playing the tape until you get it. But sure, every jr. high student would do THAT! Cumbersome, yes, but still better that either being bored in class or not understanding something and having it pass you by.

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

I want to say Thank You to everyone that has responded, most of the answers did sway from what my intentions of the post were, and I think I know why. To me the Instructor makes all the differences in the world. We are all different and we all teach differently. I also believe there is a misunderstanding on how, at least in my opinion (which I wanted to leave out of this until I got some feedback from others) online training / e-learning / prescriptive teaching, should be utilized and presented to the students. For Lake Hickory Scuba Center, 4 of the 5 agencies we teach through offer online training. We conduct a 40 hour Open Water course (including PADI, SSI, PDIC, SEI------- CMAS is a different story all together), which include self study (online training) and has been reported from most of our students takes an average of 10 hours to complete, roughly a 10 hour practical application session (one on one with the instructor) where students apply what they learned online and review prior to taking their final (this is usually broken up over several shorter classroom sessions, a few hours each time), confined water where the students learn there basic skills as set by training standards from the respected agency, roughly breaks down to 10 hours of confined water training broken up over several pool sessions, open water check out dives for final evaluation, over a 2 day process, 5 hours a day including Pre-Dive, Dive, and Post Dive procedures. With all this being said, I believe the confusion starts because some instructors, be it right or wrong, completely opinionated at best, use the online training as a replacement for the practical application phase of the classroom sessions. Now I also believe location determines this as well. A shop in the tropics (major resort areas) compared to ours here in the foothills of North Carolina could not successfully operate in this manner, and it is understandable why that is the case. But I guess what I am truly trying to figure out is, the actual information given through the online training, regardless of agency (4 out of the 5 we train through all give the same information, this includes both PADI and SSI) is it up to par with the written text in the manual, and do instructors set themselves so high up on a pedestal, that they feel the students are incapable of reading, learning, and retaining the information given, without the instructor there verbally speaking it to the student. For the last 10 years out of the 30 I have been in this industry, the statistics I have noticed from the well over 1000 students I have trained, has been pretty positive with the online training. Maybe it is the clientele (students) we have, or maybe it the credit we give the students to utilize the self study time as a confidence booster to tap into their own learning abilities. Then again, maybe it just the fact we have been really lucky with our students. I truly don't know the answer, but the evidence we have gathered has shown the online training is in fact a good thing, as long as it is utilized in a manor that benefits the student. In return, it benefits the shop on the business end. If students have more fun during class by learning in an easier way, then they are more likely to return for continuing education, trips, and gear purchases. I would still like to hear from others on their feelings on the online training compared to traditional training(we will call it power point based lectures). Thank you again to everyone who has responded.

 

[Umuntu]

But the biggest difference to me, by far, is that back then certification was binary. You were a certified diver, or you were not. There were no courses after the first. The implications of this might not be obvious. We were expected to be fully independent divers, to be able to plan and execute our own dives (which emphatically did include gas planning), and to take full responsibility for the outcomes, once the ink was dry on the C-card. Today's recreational training seems to have de-emphasized this aspect of things. But in today's world, recreational charters with pre-planned dives at known sites seem to make that OK.

I think this captures how diving education has been "dumbed down"

Also, the profit motivated agencies have sliced and diced diver education to enhance revenue.

So many of the specialties are really basics that every diver should be competent with before the C-Card is issued. Peak Performance Bouyancy, Navigation, Gas management etc should be considered core skills.

"ReActivate" is a classic example of re-labelling and dumbing down the old Scuba Review so that PADI can earn additional fee income.

Just my 2c

 

[KevinNM]

Paragraphs are really helpful vs giant wall of text.

I want to say Thank You to everyone that has responded, most of the answers did sway from what my intentions of the post were, and I think I know why. .

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

Paragraphs are really helpful vs giant wall of text.

Duly noted. Thank You

 

[TMHeimer]

Kinda related-- At our shop (at least as of 2 years ago), the "2 weekend" courses were all e learning. The 3 week (2 days a week each with some class, some pool) & checkout weekend were done traditionally. To my knowledge, the instructors were paid the same for each. Years before, when the 2 weekend course was also traditional classroom, it meant 2 days of start at 9 A.M. and finish sometimes at the pool in early evening. With the e learning it meant start at 9 and done by mid aft., or start at noonish, done early evening. There were at times 2 classes using the pool each day that way.I know which way I would choose if I were an instructor.

 

[tursiops]

"ReActivate" is a classic example of re-labelling and dumbing down the old Scuba Review so that PADI can earn additional fee income.

You say this as if Scuba Review was free. What do you see as the content difference between the two classes?