Cascade Backcountry Ski Patrol teaches the Mountain Travel and Rescue course for the National Ski Patrol in Seattle. As the Instructor of Record for a couple of years, I decided, along with the other instructors, to make some major changes in the presentation of the course material. Part of the problem was that our navigation instruction was limited by evening classes (dark and wet in Seattle), which resulted in inadequate practice and a lot of re-teaching in the field on the overnight trip where the students were supposed to demonstrate competency.
To solve this problem, I used Prezi software to create some tutorials for using a map and compass. The students were given the link and were able to follow these at their own pace and time. We then added a weekend session in a local park and environmental learning center where we reviewed the skills in a classroom in the morning, then they spent the afternoon doing field exercises with coaches. The result was fantastic! The students really got it and we had a higher level of competency on the full-scale field exercises. The students really enjoyed it, too.
Langley Backcountry 