I've been in some discussions recently about different ways that education can be provided or knowledge acquired. With that in mind, here’s a bit that I wrote about training about 5 or so years ago. One thought I'd add to all of this, is that in my opinion, you should engage in learning with the mindset that you will in turn need to teach the subject to someone else. Some of the best knowledge I ever gained (and retained) was when I've had this attitude.
This piece is not intended to consist of absolutely everything that exists or is possible, and there is never one single solution - everyone tends to have a different way they prefer to learn. What do you think, do you agree? Disagree?
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Software is a critical and integral part of the business and workflow of building design. This software is constantly changing and improving, making education critical to the success of implementation or effective utilization – especially if you are changing from one software platform to another. With this in mind, there are many types of education available to consider taking advantage of, including:
- Instructor led classroom training (on or off site)
- Best for staff education where a lot of information will need to be delivered to the employees or project team
- Web based training
- Similar to Instructor led classroom training, but it avoids potential expenses and can lack some of the personal feel and accountability of a face-to-face class. These classes can sometimes have a reduced level of focus on the part of the students.
- Viewing pre-recorded presentations
- Good for archiving common issues or workflow processes
- User group meetings
- Excellent environment for making and improving industry contacts, and learning about aspects of the software that you may not use on a regular basis
- Lunch and learns (brown bag)
- Good for delivering information about workflow or CAD/BIM guidelines that is very focused to a small topic.
- Just-in-time, task oriented training
- Excellent method for teaching an individual about a single object or task, immediately before they start working on it. For example, teaching someone about stairs and railings immediately prior to that person starting work on a building core.
- Over-the-shoulder training
- Similar to just-in-time task training, but is not focused on a single object or topic. This is often used as a support delivery mechanism to reactively or proactively check with employees.
- Reading books or tutorials
- This is the most time-consuming educational process and it does not provide a structure for questions and answers for the material covered in the book.
- Blogs, social media, and video sites like YouTube
- These sources are great for tips and tricks, but it can take a large amount of time to search for potential solutions. You may find a large volume of information that does not apply to you, or find that the information is out of date.
Each of these methods have different hard and soft costs associated to them (in general, hard costs = out-of-pocket expenses, soft costs = time away from billable work) and each has its own place in an overall professional development program. In addition, what works for one person may not work for another, so keep all your options open!
Where possible, training should include development of customized project-oriented education classes to address your specific requirements. In other words, if you can avoid it, don’t go to a class and learn how to design a medical lab if you usually work on houses. :) If it is company-specific education, education should allow for standards and any custom routines to be explained. Time and resources should be provided for an expert to follow-up with on-site or web-based productivity training and support for all users. This instructor should be available while users are working on projects during the learning period after formal education classes have occurred.
Project Managers, Project Architects and Engineers who are not drafting regularly must be encouraged to participate in ongoing education programs. This will allow these non-CAD/BIM users the ability to know what is possible in the software, and what they can expect from their team members.
All staff should use a skills assessment to discover gaps in areas of knowledge, and highlight topics required for education. Education for employees should be based on the user’s previous experience and skill level. This education can be achieved by:
- Outside classroom training with a trusted partner.
- Internal classroom or one-on-one training either by external or internal instructor.
- Web-based either live instructor led, or self-paced training. This can be used to combine multiple offices into one web-based training series.
It is essential for the productivity within project teams that new employees are exposed to a structured training course on your workflow and processes. Education delivery can be by internal resources, or by an external partner.
- Internal resources are advantageous since the staff is familiar with your workflow and standards. However, if internal resources are used, regular scheduling, time allocation and budgeting is required.
- External partnerships are advantageous since there are fewer conflicts for competing resource time and instructors are more experienced with the product and teaching techniques. Through long-term partnership, and by using the same partners to assist with creation of standards and processes, these partners will be familiar with your workflow and be able to incorporate this into their teaching.
