Instructor Development Course (IDC)

It’s time to take your passion and make it your paycheck! Becoming a scuba instructor is a rewarding and challenging process. South Florida offers unique benefits for your Instructor Development Course (IDC) and Instructor Evaluation (IE). If you’re traveling in for your courses here is what to expect and a few tips to help you navigate your IDC in South Florida.

Academics

Your IDC starts at home! The online portion of the IDC is an elearning course that guides you through important concepts of teaching, physics, and gear. In-person or video call academic presentations by your Course Director expand on the elearning topics and give you additional skills and knowledge.

Presentations

One of the most important components of your IDC is your ability to present a topic. Your presentations need to be organized, thorough, and easy to understand. That’s where the presentation formats come into play. These rubrics give you the flexibility to add your personal touch while still maintaining the basic framework for learning. You’ll do presentation in the classroom, in the pool, and in the open water. Your course director grades each presentation and provides feedback on improvements to set you up for success when it comes to real-world teaching. By the end of our IDC, you’ll be a presentation master!

Confined water (Pool)

Your scuba instructor course in South Florida will have a heavy confined water component. You will do presentations, demonstrate skills, and participate as a “student” for your classmates. Expect to perfect any underwater skills you may be weak on under the guidance of your Course Director. Skill circuits include all the open Water Diver skills: mask, regulator, and emergency skills. You’ll need to perform all the skills with precision neutrally buoyant.

Open Water

South Florida is a great place to do your IDC and IE because of the coral reefs and shipwrecks. Teaching your mock students how to dive while drifting along the awesome shipwrecks is great practice for real-world teaching. Your IDC may have the option to teach components from the Advanced course, like deep diving. South Florida has awesome shipwrecks, many of which are deeper than 60ft (18m). A good Scuba instructor is well-versed at guiding, diving, and teaching at depth and it’s important to hone those skills with your course director.

Exam

The last portion of your IDC is taking the instructor exam. IEs are conducted over two days. The exam will test your presentation, teaching, and control skills across the classroom, pool, and open water. Most candidates find the IE smooth and easy after their hard work in the IDC.

The biggest challenge of the IDC

While the biggest challenge for a Scuba IDC varies from person to person, a common hurdle for candidates is shifting their viewport. As instructors, we have to frame our presentations and demonstrations so that our students can apply the knowledge to their own diving. Understanding their needs and adapting our teaching style to suit them best – while operating in our presentation framework – is something you should expect during your IDC.