Let's postulate a few things....
1. Nobody is going to pay more unless they "get more". You have to convince a person intending to learn to dive that they will "get more", or you will fail at getting them to pay more (both in money and time) over the "standard" 3-day wonder courses.
2. The value equation must be concrete and obvious to the prospective student. You simply cannot sell "good trim", because a student doesn't know why that matters until AFTER they learn how to dive!
So let's take these postulates and design a new OW class, shall we?
First, let's figure out what the standards would be. Let's start here:
1. Horizontal trim at all times while skills are performed.
2. Neutral buoyancy must be maintained while skills are performed.
3. Unguided (e.g. no resorting to a line, the bottom, or the surface!) ascents and decents must be performed.
4. We will stop calling dives "no-deco" dives, as that is dishonest, and instead call them "NSR" (no stop required) dives. ALL dives are decompression dives. Since we will admit this, we will also cover basic decompression theory, and give the student enough information for them to have a shot at getting out of the water and not be bent if they overstay their welcome. This is not a deco class per-se, but let's stop scaring people unnecessarily, ok?
5. We will stop the voodoo about "air" .vs. "enriched air." Indeed, we will explain why "deep air" is stupid - that is, narcosis AND O2 tox issues. Since we've now destroyed the "mysticism" of all nitrogen based gasses, we will include Nitrox (to 40%) in our "OW" class, since Nitrox is made up of those same gasses.
6. We will stop the voodoo about depth. Depth is really controlled by gas supply, redundancy, narcosis and O2 tox concerns - not some arbitrary number. Instead of an arbitrary number, we will teach what controls a "maximum safe depth" for a given dive site, conditions, gas supply and gas composition. At least one of our dives will be done beyond 60'.
7. We will teach diving in a dry suit. Even in tropical waters! Why? Because if you can dive dry, you can dive wet. The converse is not true. Drysuits are a good thing in water that is not tropical-warm, and most divers either learn in or dive in water that isn't tropical warm at some point. Let's be comfortable (warm is safer than cold, by the way - see the DCS and deco conversation we're going to have above!) Inexpensive shell suits are available AND DUI has solved the "seal problem" with the zip system! In real warm water you can dive dry in your underwear or a bathing suit. Let's teach the universal exposure protection system, which just happens to require the most care to use, and let's do so in a pool first, where screwups are funny instead of dangerous.
8. We will include a night/limited viz dive in our OW class. Why? Because you'll probably want to (eventually) do one, or you will do one unintentionally when someone who DIDN'T take this class silts out your dive site!
9. We will stop the voodoo about equipment. Regulators are simple folks. BCs are even simpler! While we will not teach people how to REBUILD a reg, we WILL strip one in front of the class and show EXACTLY how it works. Why? Because you damn well ought to know what some of the common problems are, understand the basics of how your gear works, and be able to make an informed go/nogo decision on the condition of your gear at any point in time! Is this important? You bet it is - in fact, you BET YOUR LIFE on this every time you get in the water!
10. This class will require a lot more dives and a lot more pool time than it takes now. I can't see this class being able to be taught in less than 10-12 actual dives, and for some people it will take quite a few more. Nonetheless, we will not set dive minimums - we will instead set performance bars that must be met. Further, we will prove for posterity, liability, insurance (and for the enjoyment of our students and their friends) the actual skill level of each diver we produce - the skill dives will all be videotaped and reduced to DVD, with a copy retained and a copy given to the student as their "graduation certificate." There will be no "cheating", since the skill levels will be documented visually. Either you can dive or you can't - no "maybes"; video doesn't lie.
Now what will we end up here with this?
Go back and count 'em folks. There are five "specialties" in the above list. Nitrox, PPB, Night/Limited-Vis, Dry, Deep.
Why is this important? Because our OW card will be the equivalent of an AOW and Nitrox!
Now you have the "value" proposition.
Will this class be more expensive? It sure as hell will! But what will you GET? You will have an AOW+Nitrox equivalent, and more importantly, you will know how to DIVE - not just breathe compressed air underwater.
How's this sound?
Are 'ya a current instructor? Interested in something like this? Let's talk - I'm seriously considering putting the bizness side of this together.