Thank you for the questions regarding CAD Training Online's training. I'd be glad to help provide you and the other RevitCity readers with the answers you are looking for. First, please let me explain where I am coming from. Until a year ago I worked for one Autodesk reseller for over 18 years as a trainer, consultant and ultimately in training management. I was the National Training Director for the last 6 of those 18 years and during that time I pioneered several methods for providing remote training to many of the 4,500 students that frequented our 19 training centers each year. I presented at Autodesk University six years ago to several hundred people on how to create the recorded videos that eveyone seems to be putting out there today. We found these types of videos to be good for learning tips or tricks, but not to learning entire complex design programs like Revit or AutoCAD. Adult learners simply don't learn that way. We decided to not persue recorded video training due to our feeling that is was a dis-service to our students. Around the same time Autodesk dropped their video training program and laid off or reorganized nearly their entire staff dedicated to training videos that were produced to sell. Avatech and Autodesk both found that it just doesn't work for students to learn by watching a video. Adult learners need far more than that. When I left Avatech Solutions I began a new Autodesk Authorized Training Center that is dedicated to providing instructor led training both in our training center and over the internet. Our focus is on providing the world's best certified Autodesk Experts with at least 10 years of real world experience in the field and in the classroom. Thanks to most of the Autodesk resellers laying of up to 90% of their training staff it has been a boon to CAD Training Online for hiring the best instructors the industry has to offer. Now, after nearly a year of technical development, in addition to the best instructors anywhere, CAD Training Online has a far superior way of bringing them to the students' desktops. Now, to answer your questions:
Q. What is the minimum number of students you require before a class will run on schedule? A. We need a minimum of one student to conduct training. That's right, one. Our class average is 4 students; however, we still hold at least 6 one student classes each month. Our methods for training via a virtual classroom allow us to circumvent the normal financial restraints placed up resellers and training centers that require minimum numbers of students in order to meet their quotas. Q. What is considered a 'reasonable amount of time' between an individual signing up and the training being completed? A. Our students typically begin their training within seven days of registering for a class. The real limitation is typically in the student's schedule (their boss not letting them attend sooner) and in our getting the printed Autodesk authorized training materials to them. Sometimes we overnight the materials to them because they are in a rush, but that is not normal. I think the longest wait for a class so far was two weeks. We had to ship numerous manuals to Australia and shipping any quicker would have been too expensive for us to justify. Q. What happens if you don't get the minimum amount of students? A. We don't have a minimum number of students so this question doesn't matter to us or to our students. Our business model is such that it does not matter how many students attend our classes. In fact, one student is sometimes the best number of students to have in a class. Why? Because we are not in this business to make as much money as possible. As dedicated training professionals we are in the business of training to ensure that people receive the quality training that they expect and deserve. We love to teach only one person because as certified instructors we can focus on that individual's unique needs. Isn't that what this all about any way? Q. For those who have attended reseller training in the past, is this the same format as normal reseller type training but without the lab? If not please provide details. A. Our online training is 100% hands-on lab based virtual classroom training. With a few exceptions, the students who attend the training receive almost the same experience as classroom based computer lab training. Those exceptions are: No need to travel to the training center. We come to you. There are no associated travel expenses and no down time from the office other than the actual time the students are in the class or working in the virtual labs on their own after class time. Our fragmented schedules don't require them to attend training all day, every day. We break the training up into half day sessions so the students can retain more and so their employers can keep their employees busy while remaining productive for the other part of the day. Students do miss out on sitting next to someone in the classroom. (Maybe that's a good thing for some students?) While the students can still talk normally to each other in our virtual classes and interact 100% with the instructor, they can't physically lean over and look at someone else's monitor to see what they are doing. With that said, our instructor can share any given student's monitor with the entire class so that everyone can benefit from what that particular student has done.
Q. How do you meet student quotas while accomodating the global time zones when scheduling classes? A. Again, thanks to our revolutionary training business model we don't have student quotas, so this is not an issue to us. We have instructors all over the world to provide our global training to students in their regional time zones. In fact, some of our North American instructors actually prefer to teach during their nights (not me) so we can accommodate our students in Asia and Oceana. Q. Other than the fact that people can attend from the office or home what does this offer beyond local reseller type training available pretty much everywhere? The prices are the same. A. I'm very glad that you asked this question. Please note that our training actually costs less than most resellers and Autodesk Training Centers (ATC) charge. CAD Training Online's instructor led virtual classroom training brings several things to the students that are big issues with reseller or traditional ATC based training: We do not have a minimum number of students that must register before we run a class. Normal resellers cancel classes all the time due to their old school (pun intended) business model. It's this same business model that have forced these same resellers to lay off instructors by the hundreds. CAD Training Online never cancels classes unless there is an emergency that requires us to do so. All travel is eliminated. As the training director for the largest Autodesk Training Center in North America I had a lot of resources to conduct in depth analysis regarding traditional classroom based training methods and the costs associated with those traditional classes. We literally sold training into every corner of North America, so travel cost was a big factor for me to focus on. I found that typical travel expenses associated with attending a class that was over 75 miles away from one of our prospective students' offices was $250 per day (meals, travel and lodging). That amounts to $1000 for a four day class. That's nearly what the class costs by itself! Eliminating travel for many students sometimes literally means the difference between not receiving training from industry leading instructors and being able to attend the class that they really need and want to attend. This makes us very happy to allow these people to better themselves thanks to how we have established our business and training model. Eliminating travel allows us to fragment the classes for better student retention and to allow them to remain productive at their jobs for part of the day. Here's a huge benefit. When asked what the number one reason their employees were not allowed to attend training managers mostly reply "that they can afford the cost of the training, but they can't afford to lose a production employee for day, after day, after day". CAD Training Online's business and training methods eliminate this reason and allow more people to better themselves.
Q. Does your research show that attending online training in 3 - 8 hour consecutive days is optimum for the customer 's retention? A. While some students elect to attend our 3 - 8 hour sessions for scheduling reasons on their part, most students elect to attend our 4 hour classes for the reasons that I have already explained. Q. What does your research show happens to the students learning process after the 3 days is up? A. As a trainer of 15 years you know that people best learn when they can see, hear and do. That is exactly what our pedagogical process offers. Unlike recorded training videos or interactive computer based training the students attending instructor led classes get to interact with other students and with the instructor to engage and most importantly, to learn. At CAD Training Online we know that our students never stop learning and we are here for them every step of the way. Instead of having to remember where they watch something in a video that covered what they have forgotten, CAD Training Online offers free instructor led post training support to help our students when they get stuck or forget something from class. Q. How do you accomodate the wide variety of individual needs and expectation to the training? A. Our instructors are professionals at providing instructor led CAD and BIM training. All are Autodesk Certified Experts, some are CompTIA Certified Technical Trainers and all are Autodesk Authorized Instructors. Their decades of real world training experience allows them to best accommodate each individual's needs. In the event that we cannot immediately meet a student's needs we regroup and apply additional resources to that students unique needs. Our multitude of instructors are available to handle most any need that arrises. In the event that we can't fully meet someone's needs we have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that the student can invoke. We have yet to be asked to return anything to any student or company. I guess that means we're doing something right. Q. Do your prices include the cost of the 'audio' and video connection required to attend the training? A. Our pricing includes: Autodesk Authorized training materials (several hundred page training manual and CD) The class time with the instructor in the virtual training lab (This is where our proprietary training methods and technology come into play) Use of the virtual training lab for the duration of the training (Students can login from home to practice after hours) A 30 day license of the software for home use after class (Keep in mind that we train a lot of unemployed people who can't afford to purchase the software) Audio and video during the class (We can even record the class if requested, but who would want to watch 32 hours of video?) Free post training support
Q. Is there courseware provided and if so is the cost included? If not how much? A. CAD Training Online's training includes everything that a student could possibly need to learn any Autodesk product. All courseware is Autodesk Approved Courseware and not home grown. Sorry for the length of this thread, but you asked some very pointed questions and I felt compelled to give you the best answers that I could.Please let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.
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Rick Feineis, CTT+, AAI Managing Partner CAD Training Online (757) 619-3614 www.cadtrainingonline.com |
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