Re: intro

Wow! perl-trainers is alive :-)

[email protected] wrote:-
> Hi Will, and welcome to the perl-trainers list :) I guess I'll do an 
> intro too.

<AOL>Me Too!</AOL>

Chris Benson: 1/3 of a specialist training company:- distributed computing,
personal and corporate change, (with Perl and Un*x on the side).

I teach scheduled (public) Perl courses for IBM in the UK and have my own 
material which I use for on-site/one-company courses,  (this may get
integrated with IBM's material next year).
 
> The sorts of things I'd really love to discuss on this list include:
> 
> How do you advertise/publicise your courses?  

Website (www.treepax.co.uk) and UK-based training directories
(www.trainingpages.co.uk, www.trainfax.co.uk [I think]).

IBM(UK) manage to do a much better job with their course for some
reason!  :-)

> What requirements/prerequisites do you set for your courses?

"Programming in a procedural language.  Knowledge of Unix shell scripting,
regex-s an advantage."

> What sort of course materials do you use?

1. IBM's 3 day course which covers pretty much the Llama.  Text-based
OHP foils with some notes.  (I've just finished a major update to this
if you've heard bad things about the IBM course in the past!).  17
units, each with exercises.

2. My own 5 day course originally written for CAP Gemini Training: lots
of example-based slides, lots of exercises, lots of carefully planned,
impromptu diagrams to backup the OHP.  (No diagrams on the OHP: attendees
are primed to make their own notes + copy diagrams to improve the learning
experience).  I usually give out Programming Perl + John Vromans
reference + Steve Lidie's(sp?) Tk Reference.

> What platforms do you teach Perl on?

1. AIX + Perl 5.003 + vi/nedit

2. Whatever the customer's got!  If I supply equipment: choice of
Linux or Windows (optional Win32 module only on Windows obviously!) +
current stable Perl.  Class database server is a Linux box with MySQL
aka my portable.

> Do you teach any third-party software with Perl?

As in non-core modules or unrelated software?

1. Nope.

2. My material does (roughly) Llama level (but with references: enough
to use, not fully explained) in 3 days, then chapters on Using Library 
Modules, DBI/DBD, Tk.pm, CGI.pm, (Win32::*) for the last two days.

> What do you find hardest to teach about Perl?

Not to look for hard ways of doing things, trusting intuition/DWIM,
belief that there is an easy way, ...

Any non-programmers (whatever their job-title!) find it all v.hard:
I have exercise solutions for them to look at and run if required.

> Do you use analogies and metaphors, anthropomorphisation, puppet shows?

Haven't done puppet shows yet.  Make a big play of the links to human
language: TIMTOWTDI, style, idioms, defaults, ...

Re: someone's comment about hashes: hashes are dictionaries, put a
word (or phrase) in, get word/phrase/nothing out.

> Do you get your trainees to evaluate your training?  What do you ask?

Continuous feedback + standardised course evals.  

My evals have:
-2..+2	for overall, materials, venue, facilities, instructor, ... 
-1..+1 for pace, difficulty, coverage, ...
 
> ... and probably a heap more :)  I thought I'd throw those questions out
> into the ring and follow up with my own answers.  Other subscribers
> might like to answer as well, by way of an introduction.

Done!

It's interesting to see the different learning environments available.
I can't think of any more topics as useful as these, well asked!
-- 
Chris Benson