A New Season Approaches

I haven't written here for a long time now. I did very little over the winter related to sailing. Well, I read some books, tried to keep up with all the different magazines, and things like that. I also completed the basic "skipper" course at the Nuaticed website. They offer relatively inexpensive online courses on various sailing, boating, navigation, and other topics. Trouble is: they are inexpensive for a reason. They aren't very good. The information is mostly OK, I guess, although there isn't a lot of it. And sometimes it is a little odd; I mean, since when are stays and shrouds part of the running rigging?

No, the real problem is that it is mediocre (being kind here) education. Basically, there is some text, which often seems fairly random in the topics it covers. Clearly, there was little attempt to think about where they wanted people to be at the end of the instruction or why and to include the information needed to get them there. So, no real goals and objectives. Second, since there is most text, it is reasonable to compare the amount of information one gets to what one could get in a less-expensive book. The course does not come off well in that regard. Very limited info. In addition, the text reads as if it were dashed off and then never edited or proofread. Poorly done and sloppy overall.

That might not be a real problem, of course, if the instruction were more effective than a book, doing things that a book could not do. But it isn't. There are a few pictures in there, but not many and not often ones that really related to the goals of the course and its sections. There are a few diagrams that are better, but this could have been more extensive. Of course, photos and diagrams could be done just as well in a book, too. And again for less money. The handful of videos are a little better. There are animations of some important situations. These were pretty good, although it would have been valuable to have more control over speed and things like that. There were also a simulation or two that were helpful as well, although more control of how they worked would have made them more so. Obviously, these are things that cannot be done with a book; they are probably the best thing about the course. The simulations are the most interactive parts of the site.

The other thing that can't be done as well as with printed material are the quizzes or tests at the end of each section. These are the basis for getting a certification from Nauticed. They consist of a series of multiple choice items, usually but not always, twenty of them for a section. One must get 80% correct in order to pass a section. This is the other interactive part of each section and could be valuable. Of course, it would be even more valuable if they followed more extensive practice and interaction with the section, which usually consists primarily of several text-heavy pages to read.

There are problems with the quizzes, however. First, the individual questions are poorly written, frequently violating what we know about how to write good multiple choice items. They include All-of-the-above-style questions (or None-of-the-above). which are not very effective. And there are other problems such as giveaways from the language and grammar or absurd answers that are easily eliminated. More important, probably, is the content of the questions. There are questions that ask about information not found in the text. They sometimes focus on entirely trivial or subjective things. Very little can actually be concluded from these tests. Plus, the algorithm for deciding when one passes was clearly faulty at least once. And, yes, I passed them all, usually the first time.

So, now I have to decide whether to do another one.

In the meantime, I did go up to the boat on Saturday. I removed the tarps. Water had been trapped by them in the cockpit and on the foredeck. I will need to work on how I place the tarps next year. I'm beginning to think I need to build a support for them. Not much got in--just a little in the bilge. That's not a real problem. I also fumigated. This coming weekend looks lousy as far as weather goes. Rainy and in the 60s on Saturday. A little drier but only in the 50s on Sunday. Plus, I don't know whether there will be water out to the docks this weekend. If there isn't, it will be tough to do much cleaning.

The good news is that I have a launch date--May 11, right after grades are due! It was easy to get a date this year, probably the economy.