Instruction Duration

[Diversauras]

I haven't taught for the past few years and may well be out of touch with the way things are done today, so if this is a stupid thought please feel free to let me know, and for the record this is NOT a DIR thread.

Please identify if you are an instructor and what your agency allows. If you are a recent student in an OW class I would like to know what you really did there, not just what was advertized to get you in.

Question 1: How long was the class portion of your course, did you watch video, did your instructor teach the old fashioned way, or were you allowed to do homework and review questions in lieu of actuallt attending class.

Question 2: How many and how long were your pool sessions and did you drill for the majority of the time or did you just breathe and swim around.

Thanks,

 

[Lead_carrier]

Question 1: How long was the class portion of your course, did you watch video, did your instructor teach the old fashioned way, or were you allowed to do homework and review questions in lieu of actuallt attending class.

Classroom was probably 24 hours, give or take. I did homework, and reviewed the questions in class, and there was a lot of presentations that I had to do, to demonstrate my technique, and I sat through a few discussion and answer sessions.

Question 2: How many and how long were your pool sessions and did you drill for the majority of the time or did you just breathe and swim around.

There were probably 6 hrs of pool sessions and the only swim and breath parts were doing my watermanship bit. The rest were working demos and such. BTW I had been working as a DM for 2 years so I'm sure that helped a bit.

 

[Diversauras]

je ne comprends pas,

Lead-carrier,

I don't understand, you were working as a DM for 2 years before what?

 

[ScubaFishee]

I was OW certified last May.

Mine was a semi-private course. No classroom time, just self study and watching the video at home, then have the chapter reviews graded at the store. If you missed a question, the staff would review the answer, but if you got them all right and didn't have any questions about the material, you were done.

We had three pool sessions, 3 hrs. each, including set-up to shower. The first pool session started with the swim test. The rest of the pool session and all future ones were all drills except for one where we finished drills early and were given the chance to swim around and play underwater frisbee.

 

[Wendy]

My class was 6 weeks long


2 hours of classroom every Monday, included videos, hands on instrcution, and lecture.

Pool sessions were divided between Tuesdays and Wednesdays because of the class size. You had the option of attending both days if you wanted extra practise. Pool sessions lasted 2 hours each night and skills were done the entire time, except for the last 20 mins of class we were allowed to play.

Check out dives were done over 2 days at a local lake and then after the written test we got our c-cards. The following weekend the entire class went to West Palm for 2 days of drift diving.

 

[Redshift]

I´m CMAS certified (in Portugal) and although you probably are an other agency's instructor the directives of the courses are similar, what changes is the way they are taught.

My course was as follows:

Total duration: one month

Class room: 13h30min (9 x 1h30)
Pool sessions: 18hrs (12 x 1h30)
Sea sessions: five dives (including exames)

We had a textbook and where allowed and encouraged to do homework. But no movies.
We were about 10 (I think) in the pool whith 2 instructors. We drilled a lot. Even when just swimming the instructors would take our masks of, or close our tanks...

I hope it helps

 

[MikeFerrara]

My student read the book, watch the video and answer knowlege review questions a home.

We spend about 9 hours in the classroom. During this time I go over knowlege reviews, elaborate on the material, tell them what wasn't in the book, answer question and administer quizes and tests. I also show some video of "good divers" and some of "bad " divers to help illustrate some of the lecture material like that on the mechanics of trim and streamlining. I also show a video called "A deceptively Easy Way to Die" which warns students about entering overheads.

We spend about 15 hours in the pool. Students have time to practice and work out their trim. We set up a buoyancy control course and play a number of other games which give students a chance to use skills. All skills are demonstrated off the bottom excepth the two that require use of the bottom by standards.

We schedule the class different ways but class is usually over three nights. Pool is usually over 5 nights.

 

[jbd]

6 sessions of four hours each divided between classroom and pool time. I don't use video or powerpoint. I expect the students to come to class having done the assigned reading and answered the questions in the work book.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Diversauras once bubbled...
je ne comprends pas,

Lead-carrier,

I don't understand, you were working as a DM for 2 years before what?

My fubar Diversauras. I though the thread was about instructor class duration.:crazyeyes

 

[Diversauras]

I am trying to figure out how someone could be certified OW without having ever done any class time. I have been an instructor for more than 20 years and understand the use of all training aids like video, etc. I don't think that reading the book and turning in and grading review questions is adequate to be called instruction. If the student thinks they understand a subject, remembers enought to pass the review and test, and never asks about it because they think they understand it, then I see a huge potential for disaster.

I thought I understood my first wife... but that is a different story.

I know there was another thread on this subject, but it is now no longer hypothetical, I know the person that got cheated (my phraseology) out of their class hours, and this student paid extra for private lessons...

What are your thoughts Lead_carrier?