You or your company are running a training class. You have a great opportunity to learn some great, new skills with expert tutelage. We highly recommend you take as much advantage of this training as possible to grow your skills.
Before the Class
There is very often some preparation that you need to do beforehand. This may include downloading certain resources or installing some software.
This pre-class work is not busy work. It really is important for you to perform this work before the class starts. I’ve seen students lose significant amounts of in-class time by not doing the pre-class work. As a result of skipping the pre-class work, they lost in-class time.
During the Class
Each instructor will have a different in-class style. Here at Big Data Institute, we highly encourage in-class participation. In our experience, the students who participate the most will get the most value out of the class.
Worrying about asking a “dumb” question or looking foolish with their observation often inhibits students. This should not hold you back because you need to clear up any misconceptions or questions during the class. It’s far easier to clear these up with an expert instructor than later on your own.
There may be times during the lecture or during a break where you can’t ask a question. We highly recommend writing down the questions so that you can ask them later on.
Some questions may be based on a misunderstanding of a new concept. It can be difficult to ask the question to get the answer that you want. You may need to rephrase or add less detail to the question to make it understandable. Your instructor may ask you to take the question offline or ask it during a break. At this point, you should write down your question to ask it again.
Class Etiquette
While you’re in class, the rest of your coworkers may not be. There could be a problem that arises that you need to take care of immediately. Those sorts of issues happen. We recommend creating an email auto-responder that says you’re in class and may be delayed in getting back to them. Add that if the email is urgent, they should contact your manager to get ahold of you.
If you get a call in class and need to take it, please step out of the class to take the call. Otherwise, please silence your phone.
There may be times that you need to talk to your coworker in class. Talking in class disturbs and distracts the other students in the class and that isn’t fair to the others. We recommend using your favorite chat software to communicate with your coworker. Otherwise, it can wait until break.
Finally and very crucially, you need to arrive to class on time. Your instructor will not wait for everyone to arrive at the start of class or after a break before starting the class again. Missing out on large pieces of the curriculum due to tardiness will inhibit your learning. Our curriculum expects that you were present and continues to build on those concepts.
Conclusion
Training is the fastest way to learning new technologies and concepts. You as the student need to take it upon yourself to get the most out of the training by following the recommendations laid out in this post. As Benjamin Franklin said “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Want to get the most out of our innovative training? Contact us.