Instructors React to Your Feedback

Carlos Contreras: Hello, everyone. We're technical trainers from Inductive Automation's Training Team, and we're here to read some of your guys' feedback for our classes. So let's go.

"I have been to three SCADA trainings like this, and this is by far the best!" We do get a lot of that from our students. They've attended other classes and they feel that our classes are a little bit of a step above.

What do you guys think?

Rob Huddleston: Yeah. I hear that a lot too.

Jayson Thorpe: "Thank you for the class!" You, you, or me? "It was very helpful to see lots of the practical examples and all of the explanations you provided."

Carlos: I think the practical examples aspect of it is really good because part of the redesign of all of our classes, one of the main things we focused on was the inclusion of practical real-world examples, for all of our classes and all of the things that we share with our students.

Jayson: That is true. We did add a lot of, pretty much anything that we include in the classes, we kinda had to justify putting it in, in order to have it take up time in the class.

Carlos: That's right. That's right.

Rob: "Great course, thank you, the information was very helpful in moving along with my projects and it's going to also make me a very, very busy man."

Well, we certainly hope so. That's part of our goal is to make it so that you can take what you learned in class and apply it back at work and hopefully not be too busy.

Carlos: "The fact that Inductive Automation has their training in-house, it doesn't have to offshore any kind of work... It's amazing." So all of our training is done literally out of our offices here in Folsom, California. And, we train all of our instructors, follow exactly the same process for everyone.

And, although we don't offshore any of our trainings and classes to other companies and stuff like that, we do have authorized training providers that offer our training products in other languages and other time zones as well.

Jayson: "Coming from system platforms, this course is wayyyyy" five Ys "easier to follow along and understand thoroughly. Night and day difference." That's what I like to hear.

Carlos: You know, a major part of that, to me at least, is how the classes are structured. We introduce examples by following an "I do, we do, you do" model. Which means that any example that we introduce in class, we first demonstrate that example to students. We then do it together, where we the instructor does an activity with the students, all of us together. And then finally, the third part is the "you do" part, which means that, you know, students get to practice the stuff on their own, whatever example it might be, in the form of a lab. So that was a major part of our class redesign, so I'm very happy to hear that feedback. I think it's fantastic.

Rob: "I see Inductive as being a leader in terms of training and certification in the industry and really appreciate the effect that they're having." Well, I'm glad to hear that. I always like hearing that people who have experience in other products, and come to our training, and like what they see.

Carlos: We use subject matter experts for all of our classes. Anybody that, if you're attending one of our classes, the person at the front is a subject matter expert. They work with Ignition. They have ample experience with the software. And I feel like that's something that sets us apart. 

Jayson: Is it my turn? 

Carlos: Yes.

Jayson: Okay. Good vibes. Good vibes. "I met people in that training class that I still talk to regularly all over the globe." So have I. That was one of my favorite parts about class too. I always think of it as an international meeting of the minds.

Rob: Yeah. One of things I like about our in-person class in particular is lunchtime where the students will sit with students from other companies and get to know each other and you see that by the end of the week, they've exchanged contact information and that they're definitely gonna keep in touch and I love that.

Jayson: Oh, and they're talking about each other's projects and how they can improve them. Oh, yeah. It's super fun to sit in on conversations like that.

Rob: "I don't think I could have done what I did without that background from the training classes."

Jayson: I wish I knew what they did because that could be very good or very bad. 

Rob: Yeah, broken, like, deleted all of their tags, thanks to that training. 

Jayson: Are we an accessory to some kind of industrial espionage? If nothing else, this person left the class feeling more empowered than they did before. If nothing else.

Rob: Yes, that's great.

Jayson: And that's a win. That's a W.

Getting down. Last few. Alrighty. "Very interesting content and you have delivered it masterfully. Really appreciate it. All the best." The content is interesting no matter how experienced you are in Ignition, I believe. Because I've never had anyone not learn something new.

Carlos: I agree with that. I mean, personally, I've been using Ignition for eight years. I feel like every time I teach a class whether it be an advanced class or even a beginner class, like a core class, I always learn something new, I feel. 

Jayson: I do too.

Carlos: It's something that literally never stops. Whether it be something small or something big, it's something that I'm constantly doing.

Rob: "The training content was very well organized and hands-on." Yeah. I mean, we go out of our way to make sure that our training is hands-on. We're not just talking at people for hours on end. There's lots of studies to show that talking at people isn't an effective way to teach.

Jayson: I think hands-on and well organized were two of our top punch-list items when we were preparing the classes. 

Rob: Absolutely.

Carlos: I really think a lot of this comes down to our training environments that we set up for all of our students. You know, if you come to one of our classes, you come to a fully set-up learning environment where, you know, you have databases in place already, you have everything that you need for your Ignition Gateway to interact with, so that you can really, you know, explore and play with the product. Which I think, you know, is part of the things that makes the hands-on aspect of our classes really special.

Jayson: That's funny. I never really thought about that. Like you just need a computer and everything else is set up for you.

Carlos: Right. Next. 

Jayson: You hit the last one?

Carlos: I get the last one? Alright. It says, "I kinda just drank from the fire hose on all the Ignition stuff, but it was incredible."

You know, this is a very very interesting piece of feedback.

Jayson: It's so good.

Carlos: One of the biggest challenges that we face as instructors here is having to teach somebody how to use Ignition in a short period of time. Ignition is a hugely vast, complex, powerful tool that can help you build almost anything.

Jayson: So there's a lot to learn.

Carlos: There's a lot to learn. A lot of topics. Yes.

Jayson: And there's a lot that we try to teach in the classes and that's not the first time I think any of us have heard fire hose referred to. Yeah. The amount of information that you gain from our classes.

Carlos: Maybe one day we can teach Ignition in a university setting where we'll have a whole semester to teach somebody how to use Ignition rather than 37 hours.

Jayson: Fantastic.

Carlos: Fantastic piece of feedback.

Jayson: That was a fun one to have as the last one.

Carlos: Thank you everyone. We really enjoyed reading you guys' feedback. We really look forward to having you guys in one of our classes. If you haven't taken one of our classes already, please go ahead and sign up. They're all on our website at inductiveautomation.com/training. See you soon.

Jayson: Don't forget to like and subscribe!