DAN E-Learning

Free Education for All Divers

DAN’s vision is to make every dive incident- and accident-free. Improvements in training, equipment, operations, dive boats, and dive computers have made diving significantly safer. The safety of a dive, however, relies heavily on the diver’s practices.

DAN has a long history of providing safety-focused educational content through articles, seminars, booklets, and brochures. Much of that content is freely available on the DAN E-Learning platform for anyone wanting to learn more about dive safety.

Industry experts and professionals continually revise the e-learning modules based on current knowledge, good practices, medical topics, and identified accident prevention needs. The interactive modules include numerous resources and tools, and some provide the knowledge you need for discussing concerns with your doctor. You can pick topics that are of interest or are relevant to your safety.

Best Practices Modules

There are two versions of the Prepared Diver program. The first is available to any diver. Dive professionals, for example, can send it to their new students to help them develop a safety mindset. The second version gives dive professionals more insight into what all divers can do to be safer.

Additional best practices modules include Assurance of Breathing-Gas Quality, Dive Boat Safety Best Practices, and two Environmental Stewardship courses — one for divers and one for dive operators and professionals.

Safety Modules

A range of tools is available to help ensure your safety, such as Emergency Planning for the Diver and Breathing Underwater Is an Unnatural Act.

The emergency planning, risk assessment, and dive safety officer modules are intended for operators and professionals. Be sure to ask your instructor, dive guide, or dive operator if they know about these essential safety and accident-prevention programs. Their knowledge and preparedness directly affect your safety.

Education should never stop, and the newest program, intended for all professionals, follows the concept of a continuing education program. Many professions — including medicine, insurance, engineering, law, and accounting — require ongoing learning, and dive professionals similarly should remain current with their knowledge and safety practices. Liability for the Dive Professional is the first module available in the program, and DAN will roll out new modules each year.

Medical Modules

With a long history of sharing knowledge in dive medicine, DAN has a repository of medical history and advice that comes from handling more than 40 emergency and nonemergency calls every day. Some of the world’s foremost and most experienced doctors, clinicians, medics, researchers, and engineers have contributed to the medical modules. Topics include Ears and Diving; Diabetes and Recreational Diving; Inert Gas Exchange, Bubbles, and Decompression Theory; The Optimal Path; Pathophysiology of Decompression Illness; and the core course of Essentials in Dive Medicine, which is designed for physicians contemplating joining the field.

DAN also provides education in recompression chamber operations. A newly developed online module that focuses on treating injured divers is primarily offered to facilities in remote areas, where training for local staff is very limited. DAN has already provided this training to facilities in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Middle East, East Africa, and the Maldives. The module is free and available by invitation.

Coming Soon

With more divers traveling to remote regions, DAN developed the Remote Diving module to help dive operators prepare divers who are concerned about their safety and assure them that suitable plans are in place. Operators and businesses can also take an associated survey to provide a safety score for each expedition. Divers who complete the module can discuss what they learn with their operator or trip planner.

The Briefings and Checklists training will have interactive components allowing dive professionals to develop tools that match their operations. Divers can enhance their safety education by learning what to expect from a dive leader.

First Aid Programs

DAN’s e-learning system is also the platform for a series of CPR modules, each of which have an associated certification cost. The courses include Basic Life Support, Emergency Oxygen for Scuba Diving Injuries, and the most comprehensive course in the industry, Diving First Aid. Divers should ensure that a suitably trained provider with current certification is on every dive excursion.

As the educational experts in dive safety and medicine, DAN strives to share that expertise with the entire industry. We hope that divers, dive professionals, and even potential divers take advantage of the wealth of free resources on the DAN E-Learning platform.