Twelve Days of CADD Care (Day Five): Autodesk Training

On the fifth day of CADD Care, my CADD Team gave to me…a full schedule of online Autodesk training classes!

The past 8 months or so has been a good time to get folks trained up in software. At the beginning of the pandemic, many firms had projects go on hold and found that they had time to train their staff - something that they knew needed to be done and that would help their employees, in the long run, be more efficient, work better, and enjoy their jobs more. So for this blog post, to build on my post from last year, I wanted to dive deeper into the different ways that you can learn online - live vs. on-demand - and ways to maximize your learning with both.

Pros and Cons

Live Online Training

Pros

• You have a live instructor who can help you learn the things that you want to learn and cater the class to you and your company.
• You have direct access to an expert to answer your questions.
• The instructor can teach you the way that you learn the best and repeat the steps more than once if needed.
• Because it's scheduled at a particular time it's hard to push it off until later.
• It doesn't matter where you are physically located.

Cons

• It's a set time and date, so you have to make yourself available during that time.
• You can't easily go back and review something again (although we can record custom training for you to solve this issue).

View the full list of Online Training here. 

On-Demand Online Training

Pros

• Self-paced so you can learn on your time.
• You can stop, rewind, and rewatch as much as you'd like.

Cons

• Not typically catered to your specific needs.
• There is so much out there, it's hard to know what is "good" and an industry best practice.
• You have to motivate yourself to do the training since it's not scheduled for a particular time/place, which can make it all too easy to push off to later (or never).
• No one is there to answer your questions in real-time and help you when you get stuck.

View the full list of On-Demand Training here.

Maximizing your Training Experience

If you are looking to get the best training in the shortest amount of time, there's no question that live online is the way to go, but not everyone has the resources to learn that way. On-Demand training definitely has value as long as you go about it the right way. I have a few tips for both ways to help you get the most of the experience.

Live Online

• Make sure that you have the correct software installed and ready to go a few days before class starts. This way, if you have problems, you can get help before it's a rush.
• Download all the files and make sure that you can open them.
• Carefully read the emails and attachments sent to you by the training company. They wouldn't include it if it wasn't important.
• Test your internet connection and hardware to your modem if possible.
• Day of, log in early to make sure that the technology is working properly.
• Let the instructor see your face at least at the beginning. It really helps us to connect a name and voice to a face.
• Actively engage with the instructor
  • PLEASE ask questions! You can use the chat function or unmute yourself. We want you to stop us if you have a question.
  • Answer the instructor's questions so that they know you understand and are following along.
  • PLEASE let instructors know if you need more time or are falling behind. There is usually no way for them to know where you are unless you tell them.
• This is YOUR training, so make it yours. The instructor's job is to teach you, so make sure that you are getting the most out of it.

On-Demand Online

• Do your research when choosing what to watch. Don't just go with the first video that shows up in your search. Check out the poster's social media and other posts to see what else they've done - have they presented at conferences? Have other's given them positive reviews? Are they highly regarded in professional social media circles?
• If you are just starting out learning a particular software, be more discerning as to what resources you use to learn something. Maybe go with a reputable site rather than just searching youTube.
• Set some time aside regularly to train yourself and STICK TO IT! It's too easy to say, "I'm too busy, I'll do it tomorrow." Don't sell yourself short!
• Don't be afraid to run something you found online by someone else who is more knowledgeable than you. They will be able to tell you right off the bat if the method is good or not and you may actually end up teaching them something in the process (true story, this happened to me a few months ago.)
• If you find something good, after confirming that it's a good method, share it with others! We all get better when we share our knowledge.

I hope that this has helped you to better understand the different types of "virtual" training out there in this crazy time when we can't really do in-person training. As always, CADD is here to help so drop us a line here if you have a question about anything.

View previous posts in the Twelve Days of CADD Care blog series:

(Day One): Revit Tips (Day Two): Named User Management (Day Three): AutoCAD Tricks (Day Four): Bluebeam Tool Chest

Check back tomorrow and the rest of this week to see what the CADD team has in store for all Twelve Days of CADD Care.