online training

[Aristocrate]

Hi,

I have applied for a sponsorship at NI for LabVIEW-Training in the framework of my Final Degree. Since moving to NI Offices involves for me additional costs for accomodation and transport, I was wandering if I could rather take and online course.

The course I want to take is LabVIEW Core 3. There will be no other software used except LabVIEW professional Development which I can access at the company where I am intern now. So my questions:

-What's the main difference between online and class training except for the presence of a teacher.

-are there also excercices on online courses?

Thanks for reply

[mallorim · Accepted solution]

Hi Aristocrate.

Currently, the LabVIEW Core 3 Online course is very different from the LabVIEW Core 3 Classroom training course.

Because the LabVIEW Core 3 course looks at best practices for developing a project from definition to deployment, the largest change you would notice would be in the exercises: the example project and application the exercises are based on is different and the development model that we teach has been updated.

When the LabVIEW Core 3 Online course was released, the exercises built upon each other to develop a Theater Light Controller program, uniquely created for the course; however, some students provided feedback that they did not find this sample project relatable. Last year, we rewrote the LabVIEW Core 3 Classroom course to take advantage of the Queued Message Handler Project Template that now comes with LabVIEW Software and which our students felt more applicable to projects they might work on. Additionally, we changed the development model that we use from the Waterfall model to the AGILE development model. All this to say, the exercises and some of the content will be significantly different between the current Online and Classroom versions of the LabVIEW Core 3 course.

Apart from the content, the differences will mainly be learning style:

As you already stated, a live instructor is a huge benefit of a Classroom course, since you have someone who can immediately answer your questions, or look over your shoulder at your code to help you identify mistakes you might not have realized you made. However, if you have someone experienced with LabVIEW at your office who is willing to mentor you or answer your questions, that might help.

Other benefits of Classroom training include hands-on access to the hardware used in the exercises and access to the other students- we get a lot of feedback that the discussions in the Classroom, about what people are working on and how they are doing it, is a great benefit of the live course.

Really the only other thing I wanted to mention, learned from personal experience, is that Online training, while available on-demand, can be tricky to complete. Because you have not left your office, colleagues can interrupt you with questions or you might interrupt yourself, answering an email and chasing a tangent. Being away from your office is a huge benefit of Classroom training because it allows you to focus on learning, away from the distractions and priorities of your office. It’s very easy to close the Online training and not pick it back up when a high priority issue is brought to your attention- you are still “in office.”

I hope this helps you with your decisions,

Mallori

[Aristocrate]

Hi Mallori,

I am really thanksfull to you for your detailed explanation. I settle for classroom training for I actually think it is the better option.

I've received a sponsorship from NI for the training and I really want to thank you for allowing me to take part of this world changing company. In fact this will easy me the path to a RF Ingeneering career.

Thanks a lot