The Advanced Open Water Diver (AOW) program provides you with access to a host of topics to learn the basics of many diver specialties and ecology programs SSI offers. Two will be mandatory to complete: Deep and Navigation. Then you and your instructor will pick three more for in-water training but you can complete every topic in the course. The five you do with your instructor are introductory in nature. While you don't earn a specialty certification in them, your instructor can count the dive towards any dives require to earn the specialty. For instance your 1 deep dive for AOW can  be created towards the three required to earn the Deep Diver Specialty course  Pick Shark, Turtle or any other Ecology topic and there are no dives required, just complete the full digital course and earn the specialty diver certification in that ecology topic, nitrox, science of diving and others. Your 1 navigation dive will count towards the two dives needed for the specialty certification.

More information can be obtained with discuss with your instructor.