What 'Online Content Only' Courses Would You Like To See?

[drrich2]

Hi:

The move towards Nitrox courses that are online only, not requiring dives, got me wondering what other subject matter might be appropriate for this style of education.

On this forum, it's often stated that some instructors 'beef up' their courses (such as basic OW) with content such as gas planning (e.g.: SAC, RMV, estimating gas consumption & factoring in reserves, etc...), and of course, some people like to at least train with the tables at some point (whether they retain that proficiency and use it over time or not).

I assume that a gifted, dedicated person could design an 'online only' class, and perhaps get PADI (or SSI, etc...) to set it up as a distinctive specialty? This could make a relevant, excellent online course available to a very large number of students. And you know 'getting a new cert.' is a motivator to some people, regardless of how silly some of you may think that is (but let's not veer off on a tangent debating PADI's Master Diver cert. for the umpteenth time!!!).

Think outside the box - Jim Lapenta has posted before about how diving can be dangerous (if you don't know what you're doing). You could do a 'Risk Assessment' course, including content on relative frequency of diving related serious injuries and deaths, and risk factors leading to them. How about locally relevant courses on hazardous marine life?

I know adding 'hands on' real world diving experience is necessary for many things, and can add something to most anything, but there are topics for which it's not strictly necessary.

What content (if any) would you like to see taught this way?

Richard.

 

[btw2459]

Risk management would be good. Any course that would be used to raise awareness in a subject would be good.

 

[TSandM]

Gas management would be ideal for this. A good online course would give students a bunch of scenarios to work through, and give them much more practice with the calculations than they get in a simple lecture.

You could do a basic "Introduction to Decompression Concepts" course, too.

 

[DiveNav]

....You could do a basic "Introduction to Decompression Concepts" course.....

I think we did that one already ... but it has a different name

Maybe we should take module 3 and make it a stand alone course.

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I am not a fan of any "online content only" course, in diving or in any filed. Having taught at the University level for many years, I am convinced that the interaction between student and teacher and student and student is essential to the learning process, particularly when dealing with skills acquisition and knowledge application. You can learn data from a book or a computer on line, sure. But application of the data? Maybe, but unlikely. Easy does not always mean better, or even adequate. Instant education is not real in any field. It is, in my opinion, dangerous when applied to an activity like scuba. I am definitely "old school" about this. I would not only not add online content only courses, I would eliminate the online stuff that exists. That's probably why I'll never be in charge.
DivemasterDennnis

 

[boulderjohn]

I am not a fan of any "online content only" course, in diving or in any filed. Having taught at the University level for many years, I am convinced that the interaction between student and teacher and student and student is essential to the learning process, particularly when dealing with skills acquisition and knowledge application. You can learn data from a book or a computer on line, sure. But application of the data? Maybe, but unlikely. Easy does not always mean better, or even adequate. Instant education is not real in any field. It is, in my opinion, dangerous when applied to an activity like scuba. I am definitely "old school" about this. I would not only not add online content only courses, I would eliminate the online stuff that exists. That's probably why I'll never be in charge.
DivemasterDennnis

And why do you think online education is easier than regular education? Why do you think it is instant? Do you think there is some kind of a download process in which information is poured into the brain at so many gigabytes per second?

Statistics compiled by the College Board indicate that students who take Advanced Placement exams in online classes have a higher passing rate on the exam than students who take it in traditional classes. As someone who has taught online Advanced Placement classes, I assure you those students worked, very, very hard, and there was nothing instant about it whatsoever.

As for scuba...

The shop I currently work for does not use the online scuba materials, so all the instruction is traditional. After a career in education, I think I do a pretty good job working my students through the open water classes after they have done the independent reading and knowledge reviews. I don't let them take the final exam until my observation of them indicates they are going to do well. It is rare that I have students miss more than a few questions on the exam.

On the other hand...

The shop I used to work for resisted online learning for a while, and then allowed it. We would talk with the students briefly when they came in after completing the online class to get a sense of how well they understood the material and add additional information that we thought was valuable. Then we would give them an in-person final exam as a check. I think I went through at least 10 online education students before I had a single student miss a single question on that exam, and I think the worst online student performance on the final exam I ever experienced missed two questions. The other instructors were seeing the same thing, and that shop was so impressed that it went to online instruction as the default process, using the traditional route only for students who insisted on it. They were convinced that the online students generally had a better grasp of the academic material than traditional students.

---------- Post added June 14th, 2013 at 09:36 AM ----------

One existing course that could easily be online only is altitude diver. Like the enriched air course, everything you learn in the class is done out of the water. You have to do two dives, and you don't do anything different during those dives except do them at altitude.

I have a distinctive specialty class called Dive Planning. It is extremely comprehensive, covering a lot of ground like gas management, decompression theory, altitude, tides--pretty much everything you need to know and be able to do to plan and execute a dive on your own. The only real in-water skill is deploying a SMB. I have them do three dives, but because I can't realistically require three very different locations for those dives, there is a lot of pretending involved. They are told to pretend the coming dive is under certain conditions and plan accordingly. There are minor complication involved with carrying out those plans, but it is similar to EAN and altitude--90% of the learning associated with the dives is academic in nature and done out of the water, and it could be done through an online process easily. Yes, there is some skill requirement, but not much.

 

[Crass3000]

I would like to see the DAN DEMP course online even if it had short in person portion to show what you learned and let you play with the 02, etc.

 

[ianr33]

Hypoxic Trimix.

Seriously.

 

[jaycanwk]

And why do you think online education is easier than regular education? Why do you think it is instant? Do you think there is some kind of a download process in which information is poured into the brain at so many gigabytes per second?

Statistics compiled by the College Board indicate that students who take Advanced Placement exams in online classes have a higher passing rate on the exam than students who take it in traditional classes. As someone who has taught online Advanced Placement classes, I assure you those students worked, very, very hard, and there was nothing instant about it whatsoever.

As for scuba...

The shop I currently work for does not use the online scuba materials, so all the instruction is traditional. After a career in education, I think I do a pretty good job working my students through the open water classes after they have done the independent reading and knowledge reviews. I don't let them take the final exam until my observation of them indicates they are going to do well. It is rare that I have students miss more than a few questions on the exam.

On the other hand...

The shop I used to work for resisted online learning for a while, and then allowed it. We would talk with the students briefly when they came in after completing the online class to get a sense of how well they understood the material and add additional information that we thought was valuable. Then we would give them an in-person final exam as a check. I think I went through at least 10 online education students before I had a single student miss a single question on that exam, and I think the worst online student performance on the final exam I ever experienced missed two questions. The other instructors were seeing the same thing, and that shop was so impressed that it went to online instruction as the default process, using the traditional route only for students who insisted on it. They were convinced that the online students generally had a better grasp of the academic material than traditional students.

---------- Post added June 14th, 2013 at 09:36 AM ----------

One existing course that could easily be online only is altitude diver. Like the enriched air course, everything you learn in the class is done out of the water. You have to do two dives, and you don't do anything different during those dives except do them at altitude.

I have a distinctive specialty class called Dive Planning. It is extremely comprehensive, covering a lot of ground like gas management, decompression theory, altitude, tides--pretty much everything you need to know and be able to do to plan and execute a dive on your own. The only real in-water skill is deploying a SMB. I have them do three dives, but because I can't realistically require three very different locations for those dives, there is a lot of pretending involved. They are told to pretend the coming dive is under certain conditions and plan accordingly. There are minor complication involved with carrying out those plans, but it is similar to EAN and altitude--90% of the learning associated with the dives is academic in nature and done out of the water, and it could be done through an online process easily. Yes, there is some skill requirement, but not much.

The use of internet technology in education and training, is nothing more than another tool in the tool box. I see nothing wrong with experimenting, as long as we properly acknowledge the the advantages and limitations as we do so.

 

[jbomb001]

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