Rational University Instruction Guide: Part Number: 800-027242-000
Rational University Instruction Guide: Part Number: 800-027242-000
Rational University Instruction Guide: Part Number: 800-027242-000
Version 1.1
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Contents
Rational University Instruction Guide Contents 1. Introduction 2. Setting Course Expectations
2.1 Welcome the Students 2.2 Set Overall Objectives with the Class 2.3 Course Must be Tailored to Our Needs
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3. Instructor Style
3.1 Get the Class Talking 3.2 Handling Questions 3.3 Good Class Etiquette
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4. Course Materials
4.1 Follow the Course Material 4.2 Instructor vs. Class Focus 4.3 Provide the Framework 4.4 The Course Material is not Standalone 4.5 The Lab is Part of the Course too! 4.6 Review the Material 4.7 Bring Your Own Materials 4.8 Problems with the Course Material 4.9 Demo the Tool?
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5. Teaching Techniques
5.1 Cookbook Approach 5.2 The Parking Lot 5.3 Monologue vs. Dialogue 5.4 Refer Back to Their Everyday Experience
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6.8 Talker 6.9 Absentee Participant 6.10 Conflict Team 6.11 Dominant Team 6.12 Team with Difficulties
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7. Logistical Issues
7.1 Course Material 7.2 Room Requirements 7.3 Class Roster 7.4 Computer Requirements 7.5 Software Requirements 7.6 Taking on Extra Students 7.7 When and Where 7.8 Sign-Up Sheets, Certificates, Evaluations 7.9 Sample Checklist 7.10 Course Feedback 7.11 Instructor Post-Mortem Form
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1. Introduction
This instruction guide contains a collection of techniques and tips on teaching the IBM Rational Software courseware. This paper forms part of any Instructor Kit provided by Rational University. It describes how an instructor can create a more effective and more enjoyable course. This guide provides general teaching techniques. The Rational courseware family consists of methodology and tools courses that are somewhat different in approach. You will notice that some of these techniques are more relevant to the course at hand than others. Section 2 gives general guidance on how to set student expectations for the course. Section 3 in particular examines your role as instructor in creating an atmosphere that is conducive for learning. Section 4 describes how to use the course materials, taking maximum advantage of the lecture and the lab materials while adding your own personal touches. Section 5 discusses various teaching techniques that you can use consistently to effectively deal with teaching problems. Section 6 describes typical problematic student and team behavior, and how to counteract and resolve its impact. Finally, Section 7 describes some planning issues regarding the preparation of the course and administrative follow-up.
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The third component of the teaching environment is the structure of the class. Indicate the duration of lectures, when there are labs, and indicate how often (and how long) you intend to take short breaks, when you are breaking for lunch, and when you expect the course to be finished that day.
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3. Instructor Style
You, the instructor, are possibly the most critical element in the success or failure of the course. There are several roles you play. You are: The facilitator and motivator. Student participation is crucial to keep the attendees sharp and to allow you to double check whether they understand what you are talking about. The expert. The instructor (presumably) knows more about the product than anybody else in the room, and your knowledge will be sampled heavily, and sometimes even tested. The local representative of this product. Your impression will enhance or diminish their opinion of the product because you are being perceived to be part of that product.
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Try to find the answer in the manual, try it out on the computer, or have people available (other trainers/experts) whom you can call who will give you answers and/or references to the question. Report your findings back to the class. The value of this approach is that it shows your commitment to the class, builds your credibility, and shows that your organization has the resources you can draw upon for help.
4. Course Materials
The course material is the main source of information during class. You will have to find a balance between following the course materials and adding your own contributions to the course.
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4.3 Provide the Framework
Here we are and why are we doing this? asks the bewildered class. The course materials may not provide the reasoning that explains why a certain topic is being covered, i.e., how it fits in to the rest of the course and why it is relevant for their future use of the product back at their jobs. This may be left to the instructor to provide. Understanding, and articulating to the class, how all the course sections fit together and why they are being presented in the order in which they are, is very important if the students are going to be able to apply the concepts on real-life projects. Being able to tie it all together effectively comes from understanding the overall process framework, a definite requirement for all instructors. The instructor needs to understand which of the course concepts are important, which ones to stress for each section. The instructor should give an overall picture of where the class is going. As you progress through the course sections, explain how they fit together. Review and preview sections, and review and reiterate important concepts. There is a lot of material for students to digest during the course day(s). You are of course familiar with the material but they are not. Do not fall in the trap of assuming that what you are talking about is obvious or simple to understand. Even though you may cover all the planned material, continually reinforce the basics and key concepts. Make sure to repeat the basic concepts of the class until the response you get makes you reasonably confident that the class understands these concepts.
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you emphasized some key concepts during the course presentation, you want to concentrate on those same concepts in the exercise.
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5. Teaching Techniques
5.1 Cookbook Approach
An effective way to teach a technology is to give the class a simple recipe for what they must do. The class often needs this and sometimes asks for it. While teaching the course material, you can record the steps on an easel page as they are being introduced and taught in the material. The result is, in the midst of the second day, you have an easel page with a set of bullets on it. With this on an easel page hanging in the room, it serves as a good reference throughout the course, a refresher to them regarding what they should be doing during their exercises, as well as a good review form. Emphasize and re-emphasize that, in reality, the process is rarely as sequential and straightforward as taught in the course. Simply serialize it here to put a stake in the ground and give the students an example to learn fromin reality all this will be meshed together and happening in some fashion concurrently.
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6. Stereotypical Students and Teams
The following sections describe stereotypical students and teams that instructors may find in this course, along with ways of dealing with each type of student. Keep in mind that these descriptions are abstractions. No single person will ever fit the stereotype completely. Be aware never to reduce your participant to a stereotype.
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6.3 Technology Expert
The technology expert is similar to the student with tangential questions, but his or her tone tends to be more aggressive. This is a student who already believes that he or she is an expert in the tool being taught. They have read all the documentation, listened to other peoples experience with the tool, possibly have even applied it to a significant application. They are often characterized by some selfpromotionwhen they ask a question, its more like a long-winded statement of what they know or what they have readand, at times, by answering in class the questions of other students. Sometimes they will openly disagree with you on a topic. A favorite pastime seems to be inventing questions about the products behavior under the rarest circumstances. In some cases, this student may not grasp how much they dont know yet. In other cases, the technology expert has been using the tool in many real applications and really does know all the answers: Handle this student in a way similar to the student with tangential questions. Take questions that are tangents off-line. Clearly explain questions on the fundamental concepts to the whole class. Try to ignore aggressive and possibly insulting behavior towards you. As an instructor you should never react in a similarly aggressive manner, because you have a special role and are different from the participants. Do address their behaviorif possible off-lineif it starts interfering with the learning process of other participants. Often you will find the other participants supporting you at this time.
6.4 Implementer
But how does it work? This student is characterized by continually thinking of how the tool functionality is implemented. The instructors task is helping the student focus on the objectives of the course. If they are in an introductory course, they should be focusing on how to use the tool, not how the tool does what it does.
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6.7 Predisposed to Other Technology
This student doesnt believe the technology being taught will bring all the benefits it claims and that there is another way that works just fine (the other way may be the way they have been doing it forever or another new technology). In most cases, they are not attending voluntarily but were forced by their company to attend. At a minimum, the instructor needs to keep this type of student from being disruptive to the class, and ideally the instructor can move the student from being hostile to the technology to just being neutral/accepting of the technology.
6.8 Talker
Some participants have an urgent need to talk. As long as their whispering does not distract you or the other participants, you do not need to take any action. However, when they talk at a level that clearly distracts you and/or others, you will need to address it. There are various approaches, ranging from fairly passive, like waiting and staring at the offender, to making an appropriate joke, to asking them whether they had a question you can help answer. Take an approach that fits your presentation style. Also, try to prevent this situation from arising by inviting student participation at specific times during the lecture. For many people it is simply impossible to sit and listen for 30 minutes straight or longer.
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6.10 Conflict Team
In a conflict team the people cannot agree on how to do things. Focus them on the fact that there is limited time and that they have to get something done to progress to the next section. Maybe they should just follow the answers in the back of the book. If all else fails, see whether you can reshuffle teams.
7. Logistical Issues
The following sections describe the logistics that the instructor needs to consider before showing up to deliver a course, and administrative issues during and after the course.
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7.2 Room Requirements
Talk with the training coordinator to ensure that a room has been reserved and that the room will be set up properly and have the supplies you need. You should make sure there is a way to project slides (either transparencies and a projector or a PC and a projection device). Make sure that the room is large enough for the number of students that is expected.
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If you are traveling, ask for a reference to nearby hotels. If you need a badge to get into the facility, ask for an unescorted badge to be ready for you. Ask what the dress code is for the classso you can determine if you should be business casual or more formal.
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Course materials received at the training site
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7.10 Course Feedback
The course product manager is committed to continually improving the quality of this course, so please contact the product manager with any comments, questions, corrections and/or concerns on the course materials. Use the Instructor Post-Mortem Form in Section 7.11 as a guide. The Product Managers email address can be found in the Course Release Notes or at the elearning Web site at <http://elearning.svl.ibm.com/index.html>. On the elearning Home page, click Deployed ILT. The Product Manager, with email link, is listed with each course record.
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7.11 Instructor Post-Mortem Form
Instructor Name. Instructor's Company. Course Name. Version. Customer. Dates Taught. Number of Students. Rational Products used in the course (e.g., RUP, RSA).
Class Evaluation Summary. At minimum, provide the average of each question across all students and the overall average across all students and questions. Include any specific comments from the students that you feel are relevant.
Departures from the standard offering. Attach here any charts you added or additional examples you brought on your own.
Problem Areas. Mention any general problems with logistics, with the materials themselves (e.g., some
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copies had lessons out of order) or with the course content (e.g., not enough or too much material to cover in the time allotted).
Change Requests. Include typos you found, any errors in the materials, areas you think are weak, areas not adequately covered, additional topics to be covered, things you want deleted. Attach a separate sheet if necessary.
The Best Part. Mention at least one thing that you liked in the course. E.g., the students really liked the third exercise.
General Comments.
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