Coached e-learning student - interview - 3
posted by John Rizzo
This is the interview of the first three students having taken the new JavaBlackBelt coached e-learning.
John is co-founder of JavaBlackBelt.com and has 10 years experience in Java training and skills management.
Véronique is a consultant with 8 years of experience including 6 years of Java experience.
Véronique followed the JavaBlackBelt's JPA Fundamentals Course in January/February 2009. His employer gave her one day to do it, and the rest was done home (evenings and week-ends). John was her personal coach.
John (JBB): How do you usually learn?
Véronique:
Usually, with ebooks from the web that I read. What I like most is downloadable code to see how it works. I'm more of a tutorial person. It's been years since I last bought a book.
I did a classic 5 day EJB 2 classroom training a long time ago, with slides and an instructor.
John (JBB):
You just finished the final exam of a Spring Core course from JavaBlackBelt. How would you compare that with your past learning experience?
The advantage with classroom training, is that you are coached from A to Z. When you're at home, you don't call for any old reason, so you do some research. I would have asked more questions if an instructor had been present. But the research you do leads to interesting discoveries. It depends on your character. It suits me to do some research, but others may need more support. For the JavaBlackBelt course, I didn't call the coach often, because I tend to find the answers by myself. I also talked to one of my colleagues who knows Hibernate well to solve a problem I had on one exercise.
I really appreciated the flexibility of the JavaBlackBelt formula. As I'm working on a project, it was too much for me to do the course in a classroom over a week's time. With JBB, I spread it out. You're not overwhelmed with information, you have time to process it. The exercises were fun. We still are developers so we have to put it into practice. I didn't do the workshop.
My main problem with the JavaBlackBelt training was time. I had to work from home. When you are on a client assignment, it's not easy to find time in the evening and at weekends. It's good that there was some flexibility for the exam date. The thing is to do it when you're ready. The inconvenient is to have a week between two resumptions. I worked two hours a couple of evenings per week and a bit during the weekends. No more than 2 days in total for the JPA course ( not including the whole day at her office). I could have asked my manager to get away from my assignment for a second day to do the course, but in the end it wasn't necessary.
A solution where I would have stayed at my employer's office for 2 days would have had the advantage of being able to focus on the course only. That would have been a good way to do it. At home I can easily be distracted by something else, whereas at the office there are no easy distractions.
John (JBB):
Has the final exam been useful for you?
Véronique:
The system I followed was good because there was enough flexibility for the exam date. It's important to have an exam. You need to measure your accomplishment, after a training.
When I do an exam, maybe I make a mistake, but I don't forget my mistakes, I won't make that mistake twice.
John (JBB):
How would you compare the atypical training you've had at JavaBlackBelt with learning alone with a book?
Véronique:
It would have taken me more time because I would have had to make up the exercises. I would have studied the theory and not gotten much hands-on experience. I would have waited to start a mission which required JPA.
Actually, I have no idea because I always had to study specific subjects. I can't compare.
John (JBB):
And compared with a classic classroom course?
A classroom training isn't as flexible, I liked the fact that each student could work at his own pace, we didn't have to wait for the others. That suits me best. Everyone does it with his capabilities. If someone doesn't have the basics he isn't punished. In a classroom, it's very rigid, and it doesn't work if there are different levels. In a classroom I would have been frustrated not to have done all the exercises in depth.
John (JBB):
Would you participate in another course with the same (JavaBlackBelt) methodology?
Yes, without a doubt.
John is co-founder of JavaBlackBelt.com and has 10 years experience in Java training and skills management.
Véronique is a consultant with 8 years of experience including 6 years of Java experience.
Véronique followed the JavaBlackBelt's JPA Fundamentals Course in January/February 2009. His employer gave her one day to do it, and the rest was done home (evenings and week-ends). John was her personal coach.
John (JBB): How do you usually learn?
Véronique:
Usually, with ebooks from the web that I read. What I like most is downloadable code to see how it works. I'm more of a tutorial person. It's been years since I last bought a book.
I did a classic 5 day EJB 2 classroom training a long time ago, with slides and an instructor.
John (JBB):
You just finished the final exam of a Spring Core course from JavaBlackBelt. How would you compare that with your past learning experience?
The advantage with classroom training, is that you are coached from A to Z. When you're at home, you don't call for any old reason, so you do some research. I would have asked more questions if an instructor had been present. But the research you do leads to interesting discoveries. It depends on your character. It suits me to do some research, but others may need more support. For the JavaBlackBelt course, I didn't call the coach often, because I tend to find the answers by myself. I also talked to one of my colleagues who knows Hibernate well to solve a problem I had on one exercise.
I really appreciated the flexibility of the JavaBlackBelt formula. As I'm working on a project, it was too much for me to do the course in a classroom over a week's time. With JBB, I spread it out. You're not overwhelmed with information, you have time to process it. The exercises were fun. We still are developers so we have to put it into practice. I didn't do the workshop.
My main problem with the JavaBlackBelt training was time. I had to work from home. When you are on a client assignment, it's not easy to find time in the evening and at weekends. It's good that there was some flexibility for the exam date. The thing is to do it when you're ready. The inconvenient is to have a week between two resumptions. I worked two hours a couple of evenings per week and a bit during the weekends. No more than 2 days in total for the JPA course ( not including the whole day at her office). I could have asked my manager to get away from my assignment for a second day to do the course, but in the end it wasn't necessary.
A solution where I would have stayed at my employer's office for 2 days would have had the advantage of being able to focus on the course only. That would have been a good way to do it. At home I can easily be distracted by something else, whereas at the office there are no easy distractions.
John (JBB):
Has the final exam been useful for you?
Véronique:
The system I followed was good because there was enough flexibility for the exam date. It's important to have an exam. You need to measure your accomplishment, after a training.
When I do an exam, maybe I make a mistake, but I don't forget my mistakes, I won't make that mistake twice.
John (JBB):
How would you compare the atypical training you've had at JavaBlackBelt with learning alone with a book?
Véronique:
It would have taken me more time because I would have had to make up the exercises. I would have studied the theory and not gotten much hands-on experience. I would have waited to start a mission which required JPA.
Actually, I have no idea because I always had to study specific subjects. I can't compare.
John (JBB):
And compared with a classic classroom course?
A classroom training isn't as flexible, I liked the fact that each student could work at his own pace, we didn't have to wait for the others. That suits me best. Everyone does it with his capabilities. If someone doesn't have the basics he isn't punished. In a classroom, it's very rigid, and it doesn't work if there are different levels. In a classroom I would have been frustrated not to have done all the exercises in depth.
John (JBB):
Would you participate in another course with the same (JavaBlackBelt) methodology?
Yes, without a doubt.
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