Fast OW course for PADI

[Patrick Galvin]

I'm pretty sure I've found a new record in "way too fast OW certification".

Princess now offers what appears to be a 1.5 day PADI OW class, with pretty much zero classroom time. According to the guy at the desk on the ship, it works like this:

- At home: Read book, watch video
- First day on ship: A couple hours in classroom and 2 dives in an 8' pool
- Second day on ship: 2 dives in an 8' pool
- First island: 2 OW dives
- Second island: 2 OW dives

The course i am taking is over a number of weeks with one practical and one theory a week.

So is this stupidly rushing things?
PADI's standards dropping?
Or does it depend on the instructor and trainee?

[Post originated from ScubaBoard - http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=127527]

[Steve Pearson]

Padi standards dropping......nuff said :D

[Ed Howarth]

The brain works in strange ways.... If you train for an hour per week for 6 weeks, you're going to be better at it than if you did 6 straight hours; the brain, partly consciously, partly sub-consciously works away at it in the period between training and strengthens that learning.

Train over a two day period and you'll have forgotten it by next week.

Ed

[Andy Wade]

I'm pretty sure I've found a new record in "way too fast OW certification".

Princess now offers what appears to be a 1.5 day PADI OW class, with pretty much zero classroom time. According to the guy at the desk on the ship, it works like this:

- At home: Read book, watch video
- First day on ship: A couple hours in classroom and 2 dives in an 8' pool
- Second day on ship: 2 dives in an 8' pool
- First island: 2 OW dives
- Second island: 2 OW dives

The course i am taking is over a number of weeks with one practical and one theory a week.

So is this stupidly rushing things?
PADI's standards dropping?
Or does it depend on the instructor and trainee?

It's a sad reflection on this busy, time dependent life we lead.
Why bother having instructors at all.
Demonstrate, break the skill down, repeat, get the student to do it, repeat, repeat, hone the skills and knowledge, repeat, ask them questions along the way, discuss diving and answer their questions, encourage, assess, give constructive feedback. 'Bring them on' as divers, using your experience and knowledge as an instructor.
Just a few points people ought to remember when teaching/learning something.
How can they trim this course even further?
I hope they reduced the price accordingly, but I doubt it.
Or they could just let people buy some kit and go in straight after watching the video.
Or not even bother with the video.
Whatever next. :mad:

[Argo]

Now If i remember correctly Patrick .......... this is also something that was taken from another Forum board? SB perhaps? Was posted by web monkey. http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=127527 now its one thing to write something of your own and post on other boards BUT to AHEM...."borrow" another persons post and then print it as if it was your own is another thing. I See that you borrowed my thread........http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=26650#poststop
and posted it as your own on SB........ Not nice m8, not nice at all.......:mad: :mad:

[Rod Bateman]

[QUOTE=Patrick Galvin]I'm pretty sure I've found a new record in "way too fast OW certification".

Princess now offers what appears to be a 1.5 day PADI OW class, with pretty much zero classroom time. According to the guy at the desk on the ship, it works like this:

- At home: Read book, watch video
- First day on ship: A couple hours in classroom and 2 dives in an 8' pool
- Second day on ship: 2 dives in an 8' pool
- First island: 2 OW dives
- Second island: 2 OW dives
QUOTE]

Errr I make that self study (as long as it takes) 2 days diving in the pool and 2 days Open Water diving. How do you make that one and a half?

[tony J]

I'm pretty sure I've found a new record in "way too fast OW certification".


- At home: Read book, watch video
- First day on ship: A couple hours in classroom and 2 dives in an 8' pool
- Second day on ship: 2 dives in an 8' pool
- First island: 2 OW dives
- Second island: 2 OW dives

The course i am taking is over a number of weeks with one practical and one theory a week.

So is this stupidly rushing things?
PADI's standards dropping?
Or does it depend on the instructor and trainee?

Bashing opportunity.

Opportunity for the 'i learned in a club over 10 weeks' community to say how bad a crammed scheme is.
I think that it is better to have a one week trained diver than no diver at all.

I have taught BSAC club/sports in a few days, and the divers I produced were no different than those I taught in a club over weeks. In fact they were more motivated.

More specifically this looks like a four day course, and the self study is on top of that. I rather like self study, it does not work for all but it works for me. Study the bits you understand and then go to an expert to consolidate it (the 2 hours in the classroom for example).
An instructor is not always needed for learning to take place (At work many of us learn without tuition). An instructor may make it easy however .

Horses for courses, and be adaptable.

Tony

[Keith Lawrence]

Now If i remember correctly Patrick .......... this is also something that was taken from another Forum board? SB perhaps? Was posted by web monkey. http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=127527 now its one thing to write something of your own and post on other boards BUT to AHEM...."borrow" another persons post and then print it as if it was your own is another thing. I See that you borrowed my thread........http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=26650#poststop
and posted it as your own on SB........ Not nice m8, not nice at all.......:mad: :mad:I have to agree with you on this one, very bad practice not to at least credit the author :( I have edited the original post to include a suitable credit.

Keith L

[Patrick Galvin]

I do apologize to argo, i was realy eager to share the information. With web monkey however i did ask and he said it was ok in a pm, he asked to be linked if it brought up some discussion.

But i learnt too late i suppose, if i do post things on other forums i do have a tendancy of informing the "origional" user, but with you i didnt and do apologize

:(

[Argo]

Apologies accepted...........:cool:

[Nigel Hewitt]

I'm pretty sure I've found a new record in "way too fast OW certification".Sounds good to me.
Mine was smeared out over several weekends, lots of driving to sites, lots of sitting about doing nothing much.
Intensive works for me.

If you pass the exam and achieve the in water standards where's the problem? Taking longer doesn't mean you get more ticks on the exam or more time actually doing the drills and is there a problem with watching several hours of video at home rather than in the shop? It's hardly the kind of stuff where if you blink you miss an important point. Dog slow is more the phrase that comes to mind.

[Tony F]

f you pass the exam and achieve the in water standards where's the problem?

Exactly and I couldn't agree more.

Furthermore while I confess to initially being PADI trained so maybe I have a soft spot, frankly I don't believe the PADI bashing does us any credit here. It would be so much more useful for every agency and it's divers to look closely at what the others do well. Each agency I've received training from has something comendable to be learnt from.

[Janos]

My own PADI course was from a Video and three days of OW instruction. I am relatively strong on theory (I am a very numerate person) and I picked up the knowledge quite quickly. I had the same amount of pool time as someone doing a five day course.

If you are comparing the relative merits of a short course compared to the extended learning that goes on in a club enviroment (and remember there are PADI clubs too) then I think the club environment is better for UK diving. However remember that BSAC often teaches skills in a two day SDC, although one of the strengths of BSAC is that not only does it provide a chance to learn the skills, but also the opportunity to practice them.

Janos

[kuki9591]

i'm not PADI bashing here, but an online Nitrox course is taking the mick..

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/elearning/dean.asp

M

[JamesW]

What about these then

http://www.ssiuk.com/why.htm

http://www.sdi-onlinetraining.net/

http://www.psai-training.com/

Its looks like the way forward or are some of us being left behind in the dark ages.
Thanks:cool:

[Ben Panter]

I disagree with it being wrong - I think it's a good idea. If you look at the course discription, it's only the theory that takes place online - and there is an instructor contact for you to talk to aswell. There is then a practical section which consists of testing a fill. If you ignore the distance learning approach, this fits in nicely at the level of our Basic Nitrox SDC. Distance learning works for some, not for others. If it suits the student, it looks like a very reasonably priced qualification.

There is no rocket science in no-stop, fixed-mix nitrox diving - hence the moves to incorporate it into all our qualifications from OD upwards.

Ben

(Edited for clarity)

[Nigel Hewitt]

An online nitrox course is great. A BSAC OD or a PADI OW already has all the diving skills to dive nitrox. You do some sums, easily learnt and tested on line, and go diving. The only restriction is on depth but you already had to observe restrictions on depth and now you have a reason.

Measure your gas or watch the shop do it and mark up the cylinder with the max depth. Shallower gas is more expensive so there is plenty of reason to be careful about depth even if the course doesn't put the frighteners on you.

Any problems and you just dive air.

Trimix is the same. The problem is decompression diving not what you breath on a no-stop trip.

[tony J]

An online nitrox course is great.

Yippee.
Any online course is great (for the non practical elements). We all have different learning styles and paces. The 'intructor - student' didactic method is not the best for everyone.

Lecturing and teaching is not the same as 'learning' the two are related but one is not necessarily the result of the other.

Or do think the open university know nothing about distance learning and education.

One often needs the input of a teacher/instructor but they do not need to be there for 100% of the time.

Tony

[Alan Ewart]

i'm not PADI bashing here, but an online Nitrox course is taking the mick..

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/elearning/dean.asp

M


I'm not sure it is taking the Mick. After all our own basic nitrox does not require any in water time.

I've seen instructors who think that teaching is reading out what is written on the power point slides. If that is the standard of instruction you get why not do the course online as long as it can be effectively checked by knowledge review etc :confused:

[Mike Halligan]

Yippee.
Any online course is great (for the non practical elements). We all have different learning styles and paces. The 'intructor - student' didactic method is not the best for everyone.

Tony

Thanks, Tony, you've just helped me a great deal. :cool:

As a matter of fact, I did the PADI "Enriched Air Diver" in association with a liveaboard trip abroad. All the reading-in was done in UK before setting out, without supervision. Some knowledge was developed during the filling and analysing and the review took place a week later, at a barbeque (as one would in NZ).

If the student's learning style can accommodate distance learning, why not go for it?

Mike

[Argo]

i'm not PADI bashing here, but an online Nitrox course is taking the mick..

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/elearning/dean.asp

M
Not standing up for PADI on this one BUT at least they do nitrox training dives........TDI doesn't require it at all to certify a student:mad:

[Keith Lawrence]

i'm not PADI bashing here, but an online Nitrox course is taking the mick..Why? I can see nothing whatsoever wrong with this personally. I have long argued that there is nothing difficult in basic nitrox, nothing that is beyond simple home study. I see no difference in an instructor droning on in person with a knowledge transfer test at the end to somebody learning it at home and then doing exactly the same test!

This has been my personal view for many years. I am IANTD nitrox trained myself and in all honesty most of that course was irrelevant padding in my opinion (that was years ago, 1999 IIRC!). Simple recreational nitrox is not difficult, I would say that it is a prime candidate for distance learning.

Keith L

[DISCLAIMER : Purely a personal view, not necessarily endorsed by the BSAC!]

[PeteM]

Not standing up for PADI on this one BUT at least they do nitrox training dives........TDI doesn't require it at all to certify a student:mad:

Neither do we for basic nitrox, and for simple one mix no stop qualification why should you? What in water skills are there to teach? Don't exceed your MOD is about it and any qualified diver of any grade should be able to do that

About the only thing that could not be done on line is showing someone how to analyse a mix and that could be done at the same time as the exam

[Chris Cherrington]

Just had a look at the online trox. Its the academics. You still have to get an instructor to sign you off to get the trox ticket.

Great idea.

Chris

PS Congratulations, You passed the module assessment.
You answered 6 question(s) correctly out of a possible 6.
Your score is 100%.

Wey hey....