 |
Professional,
Technical, and Educational |
Avalanche Education Programs
What's New for the 2008 - 2009 Season
Online Level 1 Modular Course:
We have been developing a new Level 1 online course for several years, and a pilot program was run last season after several years of preliminary development. This approach has proven itself as viable and effective and was very successful. This season the entire AlpenPro schedule will be based on students taking the classroom material online at their leisure and completing field days at the appropriate points in the course (as outlined in the flowchart below).
The full Level 1 is very comprehensive and goes into some material many programs leave for Level 2, such as snow crystal metamorphism and an overview of detailed snow profiles. It also reviews all or most of the decision making tools in one of the longer modules of the course, rather than covering only the one which is the latest fad. This makes the full course more thorough than some people will want to invest in, so we have made the first part of the full Avalanche Level 1 an Avalanche Awareness Course with a certification of its own.
The modules can be completed at the students own pace. Each module contains assessments and prerequisites. You must have credit for all prerequisites before beginning a module. In the future there will be advanced modules, and various Level 1 modules (or a current Level 1 certification) will be prerequisites for most of those. It is possible to take individual modules independently as long as the prerequisites are met, and it is possible to "challenge" modules in order to attend field days, meet prerequisite requirements, or shorten the overall course commitment and reduce its cost for qualified students.
Because there are assessments throughout the entire course it is possible to provide students with a true Level 1 Certification, or an Avalanche Awareness certification for completion of the first part of the Level 1. Everyone offers a "certificate" these days, but at this time none of these are backed by any kind of assessment or standard. The certificate does not indicate that the student covered particular topics at all, let alone successfully. Our new certification will document your successful completion of all modules, and therefore a basic mastery of all topics and objectives. This will have many implications. We will be able to stand behind our certification in any way necessary since it documents a well defined achievement. For organizations with trip leaders, and for individuals such as ski instructors who may work off-piste at times, this is a step up in risk management. We will also be able to offer advanced modules on particular topics and use our Level 1 certification (or completion of select modules) as a prerequisite.
The flow chart for the program is shown below. There are several options for completing field days. The course fee covers the online part of the course only, but we will schedule free field days during the winter at a variety of locations. (See the schedule for this season.) Anyone meeting the prerequisites may attend these. While this is intended to be the primary way to meet field day requirements there are additional options as well. (See the Field day section in the FAQ's.)
More Information: [ Cost ] [ Register Now ]
You can read the objectives for any of the modules by clicking on its box in the flowchart. They will appear in a small pop-up window. As of November 30 these objectives are pretty accurate, but some may continue to be fine-tuned. Modules are based on these objectives when they are developed or updated, but occasionally at the end of the process we find the objectives need to be adjusted slightly based on the final content choices.
