Representatives from five leisure organisations have met with the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and technology firm Cap2 as part of plans to improve the ASA-approved learn to swim programme management software, CoursePro.

CoursePro, developed by Cap2, is a software programme designed initially for swimming pool management, enabling poolside administration using an iPod as well as course co-ordination, reporting and parental interaction via a 'HomePortal'.

Each of the five operators who took part in the consultation - DC Leisure, SLM, Leisure Connection, Fusion Lifestyle and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham - use the software.

Ross McCaw, founder of Cap2 Solutions, said: "It was a really useful think tank session. The operators are all using CoursePro, through a range of providers, and so were able to give valuable feedback.

"We want to work on all of their suggestions, but have taken the top 10 for now, for further investigation and progression."

The top 10 feature requests were put to an online survey to investigate and rate their importance, which found that continuous courses, where the customer can be booked onto multiple sessions per week, was business critical to a third of respondents.

Two thirds would like to see a stopwatch option on the iPod that records lap time against a swimmer, and all those responding said training video clips on the HomePortal and handheld teacher iPods would be an important feature for them.