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Online training (not for a degree): tools, programming, etc.
Subject:Online training (not for a degree): tools, programming, etc. From:David Castro <thetechwriter -at- YAHOO -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 14 Jul 1999 17:15:11 -0700
Most technical writers are on the lookout for ways to learn new technologies.
But, unfortunately, a lot of the online training services out there are
expensive. Or require that you buy books (as with ZDU). Or require that you own
the software.
I just thought I'd let you know about one for which my company has gotten a
corporate membership. It's at http://www.dpec.com. I'm currently going through
the MS Visual InterDev courses, and am quite impressed with the content. It's a
bit simplistic at times (though this is due to my own knowledge of the
underlying technologies, not because they don't know their audience). The
courses are geared so that if you have the software they're teaching, you can
go do things in it (better reinforcement for the concepts they're telling you
about), but you don't *have* to have it. They even have multimedia "try its" so
that you can have the next-best-thing, and go through sort of a scripted set of
steps, where you're actually clicking the UI items from the program (they use
Macromedia Authorware).
The classes are completely online. You log in, click a class, and away you go.
It remembers where you are (handy for when you're splitting time between work
and home, or between different computers). It keeps track of your scoring for
the questions that it peppers the classes with (they're not all at the end).
The questions are good for keeping you from glossing over sections, though I
think they are a bit hung up on remembering the names of dialogs/windows/menus
(personal opinion).
The best part is that their pricing is pretty reasonable. For the base classes,
it's $150/year. For access to all of the classes, it's $495/year. And they add
~20 classes each quarter, according to their sales rep.
They even have a freebie Windows 98 course that you can go through to see if
you like it.
I'm not employed by or paid by the company. I'm just a happy customer.
-David Castro
techwrtr -at- crl -dot- com
thetechwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com
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