The "Official" SB Scuba Course?

[Kingpatzer]

Hey guys.

I see a huge amount of discussion on this board about what should or should not be taught within a scuba course. There's a lot of questions about what is necessary skills and what isn't. There is, in short, a huge variability in thoughts on how OW should be taught.

I'm wondering if there would be interest in a group effort to design an open format scuba curriculum? A consensus of content, methodologies, closed and open water skills, and the like?

It might be nothing more than an intellectual exercise, but if completed, maybe it would be an idea that could catch on with one or more agencies -- a curriculum built the way Wikipedia and other open sites are built -- with the wisdom of the masses driving the effort?

If anyone's interested in starting this, I'd love to help make it real. I'm in the process of building out a small blog for my own enjoyment, and have the room to toss a wiki and Moodle onto the server.

So, anyone want to step up and do more than complain about the existing training options and see what can really be done in a marketable short format modular course? Something that could be implemented in a way that could legitimately be seen as a market competitor to PADI?

 

[*dave*]

It's been done several times in various forms and always seems to end up as an exercise in mental masturbation. Let's see where it goes this time.

Hey guys.

I see a huge amount of discussion on this board about what should or should not be taught within a scuba course. There's a lot of questions about what is necessary skills and what isn't. There is, in short, a huge variability in thoughts on how OW should be taught.

I'm wondering if there would be interest in a group effort to design an open format scuba curriculum? A consensus of content, methodologies, closed and open water skills, and the like?

It might be nothing more than an intellectual exercise, but if completed, maybe it would be an idea that could catch on with one or more agencies -- a curriculum built the way Wikipedia and other open sites are built -- with the wisdom of the masses driving the effort?

If anyone's interested in starting this, I'd love to help make it real. I'm in the process of building out a small blog for my own enjoyment, and have the room to toss a wiki and Moodle onto the server.

So, anyone want to step up and do more than complain about the existing training options and see what can really be done in a marketable short format modular course? Something that could be implemented in a way that could legitimately be seen as a market competitor to PADI?

 

[ONESPEED]

You'd never get the let's make a quick buck, turn 'em and burn 'em agencies to agree with the agencies that stress actual skills and thorough training, and both already exist.

 

[Blackwood]

Seems to me that if you could get everyone to reach consensus on what should be taught, how it should be taught, etc., that there wouldn't be multiple agencies.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Wiki

A blank start. Go blow up my server

If it flies it flies, if it doesn't oh well. I'm just wondering what happens. It might be nothing more than mental mastrubation or a train-wreck as has been suggested. But I'm curious as to if all the effort being put into debating the problems in the current environment of training can be harvested to produce something.

The value wouldn't be in seeing some entity adopting it wholesale, but in being able, at some future date, to be able to point to the material produced and say "while no one may agree 100% this is something we can all agree would be acceptable as a good way to teach this stuff."

 

[Blackwood]

^^ Could be interesting, though can't people just write over what others have said if they don't agree?

 

[Cave Diver]

It could be interesting to see where this project goes.

 

[Kingpatzer]

^^ Could be interesting, though can't people just write over what others have said if they don't agree?

As the project grows, everyone will see the edits happening, and we can move those edits to the discussion tab related to a page where we work out a consensus position. Or we present alternatives based on the differing opinions, or it blows up into a huge mess.

But in any case, it should be fun

 

[ScubaSteve]

Interesting idea king....but I personally would rather see it here rather than yet another page to visit. At least my subscription to this thread is here so I can watch what people add (trainwreck or not ).

 

[DebbyDiver]

I predict massive member bannings. IJS.