Diving is a versatile hobby that opens up an endlessly fascinating underwater world. From freediving to scuba diving, there are many different forms of diving to choose from. Underwater skills and safety go hand in hand, so there is plenty to learn for both the novice and the experienced diver.
The Diving Federation provides training in the sport in accordance with international standards, and its courses are implemented in the domestic Priima learning environment. The basic courses are designed to give you the opportunity to try diving and learn the basics of the sport, while the advanced courses are designed to deepen your knowledge, and the specialised courses provide in-depth knowledge of the different aspects of diving.
– There are so many different kinds of diving, and our job is to make training possible for all amateurs,” says Mika Rautiainen, Training Manager of the Diving Association.
The Diving Federation trains club instructors to organise diving courses, produces the learning materials for the Priima learning environment and maintains a performance register. The progressive courses allow divers to develop their skills throughout their diving career.
– To make it all work, volunteer trainers need to be able to focus on what is fun and motivating, i.e. practical work,” Rautiainen stresses.
The problem of rapidly ageing learning material
The decision to move to an e-learning environment was made by the Diving Association in 2016. This was due to the need to increase training provision and to update learning materials more quickly and flexibly than was possible in the world of printed textbooks. At the same time, the aim was to enable effective and motivating learning for all those interested in diving
– Ease of use is key when you want a good digital learning environment for a large, volunteer-driven organisation,” Rautiainen points out. “With that in mind, we made comparisons between different options. We first chose Optima, the predecessor to the Priima learning environment, and at the beginning of 2019 we moved to Priima, which has proven to be a very functional platform.
– We first transferred the seven courses produced for Optima to Priima, and by the end of the year we had 15 different course materials in place. This was helped by the system’s ease of use and the fact that we had already learned how to produce the materials in practice.
Consistency, simplicity and timeliness
Rautiainen believes that Priima is a functional and practical solution for the content provider, the training provider and the learner. Priima is integrated with the diver.fi website and the diving association’s own systems, so that it is easy to set up, enrol in and record the results of courses.
In practice, the instructor sets up a course in the calendar on the website and the students enrol for it via the same calendar. The Oppi and the instructor sign off on the required passes, and at the end of the course the federation issues international diver cards to the participants.
Information on studies completed is automatically updated in the register of members. As a member benefit, Priima also provides an up-to-date reading version of all courses, allowing you to check and recall the content of the courses.
Rautiainen praises the smooth cooperation between Saarni Learning and the Diving Association.
-We received good sparring during the implementation phase, and there is always someone from Saarni Learning present at the content team meetings to talk about development opportunities. It has also been really rewarding to hear others’ experiences of Priima in customer workshops and the Priima Academy.
A flexible solution for business development
The future plans of the Diving Association are to diversify and become more interactive. There are also plans to combine the different language versions of the courses into a single package.
– In addition to diving courses, the clubs have a lot of competition activities, which involves, for example, developing the skills of judges and coaches,” says Rautiainen.
– In addition, new learning materials would be needed for induction into club activities.
In Rautiainen’s opinion, it is important that interaction works in the development of the learning platform.
– I feel that we are being listened to, and we are also well informed about the new features of Priima.
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