In 2005 I set up an on-line course measurement seminar to teach measurement theory to new measurers. Seven trainees in the South of England passed through the lessons guided by myself as the on-line tutor, but also ably assisted at times by Pete Riegel who also provided helpful advice to me about mistakes in my text, and to the trainees when they misunderstood something. 6 of the 7 trainees then undertook a one day practical held at Exeter in Devon and all qualified and are now active measuring in South West England.
Since then two more have completed the theory lessons, and last week they qualified following a practical seminar held at Abingdon.
I should explain that in the UK, measurers are only accredited after a proper training seminar, just as for IAAF measurers. For a number of reasons we prefer to make sure are measurers are well grounded in the basic theory and to demonstrate their practical skills before we accept their measurements for courses which are to be certfied. One of the advantages of the online seminar is that those who find it too hard to follow and get right the calculations more or less eliminate themselves by failing to complete the lessons. Also I hope that by delivering the course over the web, the new generation of measurers will all be using email, submitting reports electronically, and generally making administration of course certification more efficient.
There is an introductory lesson which contains 10 pages and a set of questions at coursemeasurement.org.uk/lessons/. Any trainee anywhere in the world is welcome to try their hand. If they don't make any major mistakes in their calculations, then they are invited to enter the full seminar which consists of 10 lessons covering all aspects. At present these do contain details about the administration which are specific to the UK. However, if I do get any international interest I will generate appropriate details for them. Also, the present seminar is based upon driving on the left, so there again I may need to change it in a few places to a right hand version.
Of course there are several instruction manuals and booklets available on the web, so in one sense there is nothing new in the material in these lessons. What is perhaps new is the approach of allowing trainees to work through the material at their own pace with a simple test after each lesson and an opportunity to ask the tutor questions. In fact their questions often reveal a great deal about the trainees' capabilities and understanding of the theory. On the first run through they revealed several mistakes I had made in my examples.
I post this to invite any would-be measurers anywhere in the world to try this on-line theory seminar.