Noooooooooooooo! Enough electronic disconnection!!!! That is my opinion. We need interaction and the opprotunity to comment and discuss face to face.
Agree here. Though I have never even viewed the e learning for OW course, my uneducated opinion is that it is a great thing. I had ideas like that for using VCRs in schools for home study back in the '80s (impractical as that was). There was (is?) an awful lot of time wasted in school--I recall being finished with my work or understanding a concept and waiting for others to catch on--and vice versa. Not to mention a host of other wastes of time.
Having said that, Sinbad, I don't know what you mean by "some face to face...to familiarize...with gear". "Some" is confusing. I don't think you mean replacing some of the already short pool hours with Skype, do you? Even the gear "skill" is required to be done 5 times over a certain period of time. Certainly you don't mean somehow doing some of the 24 pool skills any other way than in a pool with an instructor.
That basically leaves the what, the 1 or 2 hour classroom review and final OW written test (last time I observed), then off to the pool by noon. That's not time-consuming inconvenience at all. Doing the whole (short already) classroom part by Skype would reduce that by what, half an hour? Would the instructor have to skype each student separately (won't get into who's going to pay the instructor for all that time....)? If not, then it would seem exactly the same as all meeting at the shop before going to the pool.
Regarding the physical demos you mention, once you do the academics one way or another (plus final academic test), that's about all there is left. The instructor presenting and discussing the skill and demonstrating it, followed by each student doing it. Electronics just don't fit anywhere there, as I'm sure you agree. So again, that leaves e learning and 1-2 hours classroom. And of course such things as fitting students in exposure suits, other directions to the pool, OW site, timelines of that, etc.
Maybe if you could explain exactly what would happen with Skype that would replace the academics on the e learning. Do the e learning, do something on Skype (what?), then show up at the shop and go right to the pool?
