5day course

[lyledunn]

I often tutor on electrical matters at a private training centre and we do offer courses over three consecutive days for those in the industry. I rarely use PowerPoint, rather I do my best to deliver the plethora of syllabus material by involving the candidates in every way possible. Still, it can be a sore three days!
Last week the Centre ran a 5day fire risk assessment course over consecutive days for a local company. The course is normally one day per week over a five week period which gives time for candidates to ruminate on the information delivered.  I was allowed to sit in. The chap taking the course was very knowledgeable but he relied totally on PowerPoint and showing videos in a darkened room. Bless him, although he punctuated the course with little anecdotes to lighten the burden, he admitted to being "absolutely f*****" on Friday. As for the candidates, including myself, we could describe our experience in an equally succinct way. As I sit here on Monday morning my head is still swimming with flashing images and scrolling words. It is all just a useless blur!
Straight 5 day courses are definitely not for me!

[SeaBass]

I suspect that this is example of a subject expert presenting on a topic that they know very well, but with little idea of how to teach or impart information.  It is a common failing which is often exacerbated by  clients who expect training courses to be built around the number of days / hours that they can afford to pay for,  or which  they are prepared to release staff for.

Presenting / teaching are clear skills in their own right, but with a little coaching, a subject expert can become an effective imparter of information. mind you, irrespective of how good a teacher someone is, teaching a complicated and extensive subject such as Fire Risk Assessment and Fire Safety just can't be done in five days. Despite what some training providers will have you believe.         

[Messy]

. As I sit here on Monday morning my head is still swimming with flashing images and scrolling words. It is all just a useless blur!

How I hate that animated Powerpoint text - especially when the words are accompanied by a sound effect as they somersault into view from God knows where next. I swear I have been on three day courses that could have been done in two, but the remaining hours are taken up as we all wait for the whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 'Advantages' bullet point to fly in and land! 

[Golden]

You guys really need to man up a little - Leeds University fire safety law course as part of the MSc first day 700 slides that were photocopies of various pieces of legislation; to be fair they did reduce a little during the week but not by any significant proportion