We’re facing a huge change on the online education market. It’s no surprise that the coronavirus crisis has caused on-site educators to suddenly lose their business field. It has also forced me to reinvent Spartacus Extended Training.
Throughout my mentoring career, I’ve learned that face-to-face contact between the trainer and trainee is crucial in creating a good platform for education. A trainer’s knowledge means nothing if he or she cannot adjust the message in response to the facial expressions of the trainee.
In February 2020, I was asked to provide Spartacus Extended Training online. I was a little bit concerned about it but, as it was an internal training, I decided to give it a go. It went well, I felt good vibes, attendees were communicative, and at the end, I received very good feedback.
This has changed my approach slightly and I asked myself a question: how can I make online training actually better than an on-site? Is that even possible? So I started from listing issues that on-site training sessions have and it turned out that the remote version of the training can overcome them.
4 benefits of online training for developers
Price overhead
Having an onsite training has an additional cost of travel of the trainer or trainees. It also requires a big meeting room, which I usually find to be a scarce resource. In remote training, there are no travel costs and no need to book a big room.
Minimum group size
Usually, onsite training takes place when a minimum number of participants gather at one location. This sometimes leads to a situation where some eager individuals don’t get the training because they are alone. In a remote setting, we can gather people from all over the world and hit the optimal number of people.
Exhaustion
Three-day long training is exhausting. Both for the trainer and the trainees. It would be great to spread it over time but the travel costs and logistics would be unbearable that way. Remote makes it manageable. What is more, spreading learning over a longer period of time is more effective. It is better to learn for two-hours-a-day for four days than spend one whole day on learning.
Limited practice time
Classroom training also limits the time for practice. Giving a fixed timeframe to finish exercises is stressful for the trainees. Splitting the training into non-consecutive days allows participants to practice at their own pace and come to the next session with some good questions.
The missing piece in online training
Of course, the face to face contact is something irreplaceable. However, it is possible to mitigate the negative effect of a lack of face time by making the training as interactive as possible. It requires the trainer to create a safe atmosphere where attendees can easily express themselves. It also requires the trainees to remember that the trainer cannot see them and it is up to them to inform him when they are stuck or there are some technical problems.
How I constructed the form of Spartacus Online Training
Having all that in mind, I came up with a new online training plan for Spartacus. I decided to spread the training over three weeks with two ~4 hour online sessions per week. On Mondays, I plan to do workshops where I do presentations and live codings explaining key Spartacus concepts. After that, from Tuesday till Thursday there’s time to practice. I suggest participants spend around 4 hours practicing. Throughout this time, I’m available online for consultations so that nobody gets stuck. On Friday, we have a demo session where participants show their exercise solutions, we discuss them and give feedback to each other. There’s also a time for a Q&A.
| Monday | Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday | Friday | |
| Week 1 | Workshop #1 | Practice / Consultations | Demo |
| Week 2 | Workshop #2 | Practice / Consultations | Demo |
| Week 3 | Workshop #3 | Practice / Consultations | Demo |
Details of Spartacus Online Training:
Duration:
3 weeks
24 hours with a trainer
12 hours of individual work
Group size:
6-20 people
Venue:
Online
Target audience:
Developers, Consultants, Architects
Are you ready to join Spartacus Online Training?
We are going to set a date and registration for the next online training soon. Follow this blog or contact us and we’ll put you on a waiting list.
Published March 24, 2020
