And
finally, some very detailed feedback and suggestions for VLT’s
and HOW’s from one of my project leads below. Summary: he really
likes the
idea of a 2-hour tutorials, he just thinks there should be more than
“just
talking” as Rich casually suggested.
Doug
Hi
Doug,
I
do
not like the idea of a "just talking" VLT.
I
think that from whatever people go to on the "tutorial day",
they should have something
to
take home with them.
In other words, even if it's a short (2 hour) tutorial, people
should
be
able to pick up an example project as well as setup instructions, that
allows
them to
experiment
with the stuff on their own (in their freetime at EclipseCon, or later
at
home).
IMHO
it's not so important to do the actual hands-on exercises right in
class,
but to get
help
getting started with setup and an initial project.
I
agree that this hasn't been very effective last year, mostly because
speakers
typically
distributed
their examples in last minute. Having an USB stick handed out in class
worked
OK, but it typically took half an hour or so until everybody had the
examples
on
their laptops, and even longer until things were really set up. So I
think the key
part
in
making tutorials more productive, will be to ask speakers prepare their
material
well
in advance
and encourage participants to download examples BEFORE they
enter
the tutorial.
