Review Poor Quality of Agencies' Online Training

[Scott G. Bonser]

I send students TDI e-Learning for: Cavern, Cave, Advanced Nitrox, & Decompression procedures as needed. I don't think they suck, but they certainly are not top notch or anywhere near what they could be. Many NSS-CDS instructors use this e-Learning even though we teach to CDS standards and not TDI.

What these do accomplish is it allows the student to immediately begin learning the topic without having to wait on a book to be mailed to them. It allows me to be able to cut down on face-to-face classroom time with the basic basics and to be able to more thoroughly explain the finer points, and details of the topics. The e-Learning has a written exam included which is also a time saver. Learning does not suffer; it is simply streamlined.

Some argue that e-Learning detracts from facetime with students in an academic/classroom setting. I agree with this *IF* the instructor relies 100% on the e-Learning to complete the academics. *IF* the e-Learning is used as a launching platform for learning with instructors supplementing what was learned online, in the classroom I find these materials worthwhile.

As an aside we at the NSS-CDS are working on, and 90% finished with an e-Learning module for cavern and cave diving! Stay tuned.

That seems like a better way to do these classes. There needs to be some actual class and OW time to certify any diver in any discipline IMHO. Having students ‘start’ with these on line classes in this way IS a good idea. I hope all instruction programs just don’t ‘certify’ just relying on on-line class material and exams…

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Of course there is. People who think otherwise do not understand human development, psychology, and other factors related to learning processes.

My brother's worst professor in his opinion was a Nobel Prize winner in physics. Brilliant man, just couldn't teach worth kaka.

 

[Nick_Radov]

I'm not going to defend TDI here as I haven't seen their materials, but the reality is that creating and maintaining high quality online training courses is tremendously expensive and time consuming. I've done some corporate learning and development work and it's not easy. If you have a huge student population then you can amortize the cost, but for a niche subject like tech diving that might not be realistic. GUE only has some online videos, plus course PDFs that they update occasionally, and that seems to be good enough.

 

[Flamebut57]

I’ve only had experience with PADI OW and nitrox e-learning. I thought both of these were pretty good. They are IMO expensive for what they are, but I do think they mostly contain good information, repetition, etc.

I also have books and e-learning tools for pilot training. Here it is also a mixed bag, however, I will say I pretty routinely get updates on pilot training but have never gotten any announcement about the PADI courses being updated. I’m not sure if that is because they do not send out alerts or because they haven’t touched them.

 

[boulderjohn]

but have never gotten any announcement about the PADI courses being updated. I’m not sure if that is because they do not send out alerts or because they haven’t touched them.

They are not ever going to send you notices about updated versions of courses you have already taken (What would be the point), and they aren't going to send you updates about revisions of courses you may never take. What would be the point?

Instructors get those notices, though. They obviously have to know if things have changed in the courses they teach.

 

[Flamebut57]

They are not ever going to send you notices about updated versions of courses you have already taken (What would be the point), and they aren't going to send you updates about revisions of courses you may never take. What would be the point?

Instructors get those notices, though. They obviously have to know if things have changed in the courses they teach.

In aviation there’s the issue of legality, so as regulations change it’s important pilots stay up to date. Also new technology and equipment changes how things are typically done. So I get notified if there are changes so I can stay current.

I can see it being helpful for scuba if procedures or standard equipment change. I would want to be notified so I could learn the new way of doing things (or at least be aware of the new way of doing things).

 

[ofg-1]

In aviation there’s the issue of legality, so as regulations change it’s important pilots stay up to date. Also new technology and equipment changes how things are typically done. So I get notified if there are changes so I can stay current.

The FAA is a huge federal agency with thousands of employees that receives billions of taxpayer dollars every year. They can afford to send you notices.

Comparing aviation and diving is like comparing a new Corvette to a bran muffin. Both may get you going and give you some enjoyment, but they are just not the same.

 

[Flamebut57]

The FAA is a huge federal agency with thousands of employees that receives billions of taxpayer dollars every year. They can afford to send you notices.

Comparing aviation and diving is like comparing a new Corvette to a bran muffin. Both may get you going and give you some enjoyment, but they are just not the same.

I was more so referring to the notices I get from the training companies (like sportys, king air, etc).

I have no idea how much PADI or Sporty’s nets.

The two online programs are of similar cost (Private Pilot $300, PADI OW $249).

I don’t think sending an email to a list of people PADI knows has taken a course is very difficult or costly. They sure send me enough emails trying to get me to buy more stuff.

I do think managing and updating course materials is expensive, but I’m ok if that’s where my money goes. When I see that the training center updates the material I feel that they care.

The two industries are very different though, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

[halocline]

I had a similar experience. However I found the gas planning portion much worse with no questions where you had to actually plan a dive.
This was covered in person but still not great.

The gas planning segment was pretty awful, both pedantic and almost useless for planning. I guess if you’re using V planner, those segments have some value. But they seemed to deliberately avoid any real-world gas planning strategies. Maybe they felt that instructors vary enough in their gas planning approaches so it was better to be pretty minimal in the e materials, and of course the type of dives that you plan for vary tremendously, and with that comes variation in planning.

I also had the feeling going through those e materials that they were pretty compromised by having AN and DP as separate courses. There were some language gymnastics to keep the two courses apart even though in reality nobody uses high FO2 blends for NDL diving, and almost nobody uses air only in deco diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

I also had the feeling going through those e materials that they were pretty compromised by having AN and DP as separate courses. There were some language gymnastics to keep the two courses apart even though in reality nobody uses high FO2 blends for NDL diving, and almost nobody uses air only in deco diving.

TDI allows the courses to be combined, and that is how I always taught them when I was with TDI. You're right--they make no sense whatsoever taught as separate courses.