>>>>> "Smylers" == Smylers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Smylers> Generally allow 5 times as long to write material as to present it; Smylers> that is, allow a week to write a 1-day course. Possibly longer if Smylers> you're new to writing training materials. [...] Smylers> The way round this is to work backwards: [...] This is all very excellent advice, echoing what I would have said too. The only thing I would caution on is that "5x" is a bit low. I typically allocate 8x on a new course (a workday per hour), and only about things I'm familiar with. Even more time if I have to figure out what's important, and what I can leave out. The other thing to keep in mind (as we've presented in our "Teaching 'Learning Perl'" course a couple of times at conferences) is that you should be very clear about the "end points" of your course. Where will you imagine everyone is starting? Where do you think they all want to end up? And then be sure to communicate that. For example, we presume everyone knows subroutines and arrays before they start the llama, so we get to set the expectations very quickly in the first hour, and we don't have to spend time describing why someone might want a subroutine or array. Once you have the begin and end point, MAKE THAT A STRAIGHT LINE. You may be tempted to throw a lot more stuff in there, but if you do, you will quickly exceed the time allotted for your course (and for you to write the materials). People can add their own "bushiness" to the knowledge once they get the "trunk". But you have to teach the whole trunk, or people will be lost. -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 <merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!
