online day skipper theory courses

Having had the dubious pleasure of doing both, I thoroughly recommend Skippers Online (formerly known as Kipper Sailing) over Navathome.

Clearly both are qualified instructors, but Navathome comes across like a retired computer programmer decided to create a website, but he doesn't have any experience of user interface design and everything is a bit cludgy and clumsy. You can't navigate through the answer fields using your tab key, and they took exception when I complained about it. When I did it a couple of years ago they were still using flash animations, and the site had to be whitelisted in Safari.

Skippers Online is, in contrast, much better presented - he uses an off-the-shelf online education platform and has concentrated on the quality of the tutorials. The lessons are displayed larger and much clearer, with consistent style and better narration. An advantage of the 3rd-party platform is that you can download an app and download the lessons to your phone or tablet for offline viewing.

They both have a free trial of the first lesson, so try them for yourself and see the difference in quality.

You will also find a discount if you google "skippers online discount code".
 
I would avoid Navathome as I found them only interested in getting your money with no interest after this. Have a look at Ardent training
 
KompetentKrew said:
..... but Navathome comes across like a retired computer programmer decided to create a website, but he doesn't have any experience of user interface design and everything is a bit cludgy and clumsy. You can't navigate through the answer fields using your tab key, and they took exception when I complained about it. When I did it a couple of years ago they were still using flash animations, and the site had to be whitelisted in Safari.
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My experience of Navathome, also. Tutor support seemed limited to reiteration of the question and being pointed to the relevant text in the RYA documentation - no analysis of specific problems. A friend who is well versed in astronav suggested I use a different format of plotting sheet and explained the advantages but when I submitted my answers they were rejected for being too difficult to mark.
If I had to do the course again I'd buy a couple of books and ask for any help needed on here where there are all sorts of obsessives who know subjects inside out.
 
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capnsensible said:
If you would like to send me a pm with your complaint, I will bring it to the attention of their Chief Instructor. (y) (y)
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Thanks for the offer, but I have had extensive communications with them over an issue with course time extension due to a bereavement. Once they have your money they just want more and nothing will convince them of their error (my opinion). I have since used Ardent training who are a completely different company who focus on the customer and offer good value and good interface online.
 
I finally decided to get my act together and do some real training. I plumped for Skippers Online, and so far I'm very pleased. I have found some mistakes/discrepancies in the text or between text and audio, but nothing serious, and the presentation is otherwise excellent. I haven't had need to test the response of the support as yet. There is one smallish niggle, in that the server capacity seems to be restricted, as I had trouble connecting at what was probably a popular time of evening.
 
I appreciate that due to Covid many will have gone down the route of online courses, but now that things appear to be improving it may be worth considering traditional classroom courses. I know when I did mine years ago I found the social interaction with other students very useful and we learnt a lot from one another.
 
I recently took my Day Skipper Theory online with Ardent Training after checking out all the options and free trials.
They were brilliant! It looks like a new business with all new modern course materials, video all the way through (filmed on their boat), amazing attention to detail in the course material, and incredible instructor support. The instructors were always there with instant answers to my questions and seemingly all the time in the world to help me.
They also provide options for interaction with other students (if you want it) in the form of forums and discussions. They recently informed me that they are starting to do regular live Q&A sessions and extra webinars too, though apparently they are just testing the water to see if their students find it useful so I guess they may or may not continue with those.

I can't wait for them to finish their Yachtmaster course so I can take that with them too.
 
I recently completed my course with Ardent too!
Cracking bunch, Charly and Edd the instructors were so helpful and friendly!
When I turned up to my practical course I felt like I was better prepared than the rest.
 
From personal experience, I found SkippersOnline content was great, generally speaking.

The one point I would make is that throughout this course there are plenty of tests to review your learning, however you are expected to mark your own test questions with the answer sheet which is provided once you complete each test section. This is also the case with the DS mock exams.

This was a point of frustration for me as some questions were very vague and it was far from clear which answer was being sought.

I think they missed a trick here, as having someone review major end of section tests would be enormous value added.
Lets not forget that most of these online courses appear to have limited staff recourses behind the scenes, and while feedback is given with the exams, its a bit late in the game for my liking, I would have preferred at least that the mocks were reviewed by staff with any required feedback provided.

If I had my time again, I would have attended training in person, but online courses serve a purpose and did help me achieve my day skipper theory before attending my practical.
 
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