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Subject:Re: Any advice for certificate training? From:"Jeff Scattini" <jeff -dot- scattini -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:25:52 +0200
Thanks, everyone.
I appreciate all of your thoughts and suggestions. I've spent most of the
last week coming up with questions and figuring who to go to find the
answers. It's still a very daunting process but I might just be able to see
the end of the tunnel. And now... I think it's time to get writing!
Jeff
On 6/13/07, Pro TechWriter <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Hi Jeff!
>
> I want to provide an answer for one part that others haven't addressed.
> This is based strictly on my experience teaching in a certification program,
> and also creating the materials. So your mileage may vary :-)
>
> First of all, the amount of materials on the slides is usually based on
> the instructor's preferences. If you know who (or you have a "group of who")
> will be doing the training, I would get myself right over there and talk to
> that person, and ask for some existing presentations to look at. Also ask
> them how much time they allow for each slide, but that will vary depending
> on the subject matter.
>
> For me, I usually figure times of one to five minutes per slide for
> fact-based introductory material, like "you must do this to have this
> result." For more advanced discussions, I have slides that say "Topic <Name>
> - Discussion" "15 - 20 minutes" if there is an area that would be better
> taught in a group discussion. This is good for classes with mixed levels of
> ability on the topic: the more advanced students help the newer ones.
> Usually, I start out with a question like "Now that we know that A does B,
> John, how would you handle that if the results were C instead?" Usually I
> did those at the end of a class period.
>
> For an overall average, about ten minutes a slide is a reasonable estimate
> for a baseline. That doesn't include breaks, lunch, discussions, or a few
> minutes for starting and stopping time.
>
> The classes I taught for certification were on the college quarter system,
> and we met once a week for 3 hours each time per class topic. There were, on
> average, 12 to 15 classes a quarter, depending on the time of year.
>
> I hope this helps you.
>
> Good luck with the project. It sounds interesting, and will be a great
> project to list on your resume!
>
> PT
>
> On 6/12/07, Jeff Scattini <jeff -dot- scattini -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> >
> > My manager's manager wants to create a comprehensive training system for
> > one
> > of our software products that will culminate in a certificate of
> > competence
> > to reassure the countries that we serve. The manager would like to start
> > implementing this training system by the end of the year. The program is
> > large and complicated and incredibly interdependent on different lines
> > of
> > parallel functions that eventually intersect to generate forms and
> > reports.
> >
> > There are only two of us tech writers in the office, and my manager (the
> > other tech writer) has created an outline for one module and has told me
> > to
> > "flesh it out." <snip> Also, because this training is, at first, going
> > to be
> > accompanied with a physical instructor, I'm not sure how much
> > information to
> > put on the slides, and how much to put into the instructor's notes, if
> >
> >
> > --
> > PT
> > pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com
> > I'm a Technical Technical Writer!
>
>
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