While I'm all for mandatory safety training, I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the on-line course vs. classroom training.
Knowledge is knowledge, however it's acquired. Anybody who really wants to learn the
very, very basic info presented in the current boater certification material can easily do so using the on-line course. Boneheads aren't interested in being safe and courteous boaters and will do a "memory dump" as soon as they get their paper, however the material is presented!
Or, at best, comply with the rules only when in sight of the MP and ignore them most of the time (which will not do much to alleviate the present situation, since the MP can't be everywhere at once!)
Neither presentation method can impart common courtesy and respect for others (which is learned in childhood or not at all), or the sound judgement and boat handling skills that are needed for safe boating and which come only through experience.
IMHO, what's sorely lacking lately is what I'll call a proper "skipper's attitude", where one accepts personal responsibility for safe operation. This attitude is what makes one
want to have the proper safety gear, follow the nav rules, look out for the safety of nearby boats, learn the waters in which one will be boating, and above all else, think about the possible consequences of what one is about to do before doing it.
I learned it from my father (an ex-Coastie and Merchant Marine officer) as a boy, and have tried very hard to pass it on to my sons. Maybe the boating community can figure out a way to pass this attitude along to newbies through peer pressure. But no short course, no matter how it is presented, has a chance in heck of developing it in boneheads to whom it is entirely foreign.
Silver Duck