Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LibreOffice training in local community colleges

On 11/20/2011 08:02 AM, Harri Pitkänen wrote:
> On Saturday 19 November 2011, webmaster for Kracked Press Productions wrote:
> > Here is my thought.
> > A certification "course" should/could be using some type of step by step
> > training guide.  Each section of that "guide" must be completed
> > successfully before you can go on to the next section.  Once you
> > completed all the sections, you are given an exam.  Completing the
> > course and getting the required score on the exam should/could be the
> > requirement for the certification.
> This seems reasonable for the certification part. But these community colleges
> do not usually provide any certificates to the students. Their purpose is to
> help people who want improve their skills in various areas (computing,
> languages, hobbies), not to provide any formal recognition. There are some
> exceptions but mostly people attend these courses just for fun and not for
> professional skills.
>
> My question was more about whether those who organise these courses need to be
> certified before we can list their courses in local LibreOffice event
> calendars etc. I'm definitely for requiring such certification from
> professional IT training companies. But community colleges seem to fall into
> complete different category and I have no idea on what to do with them.
>
> Harri
Well, the community college nearest my location is different.

They offer several course structures that will prepare you for a 
certification.  Both computer hardware and computer software types.  
Last time I looked, they had A+, CISCO, plus other groups of courses 
that would prepare you for different certification tests.  They did not 
give the tests, but train your so you would be ready to take them.

As for making sure the instructors were "certified" to teach the 
students, well, if you have a manual that gives the student the needed 
information to pass the test, then any professional who can teach should 
be able to help the students learn the needed information.  Such a 
manual must have all the information, sample test questions, and 
practice exercises that will give the students the required hands-on skills.

As for making the teachers be certified, well that is the chicken and 
the egg for you.  How do the teachers learn the needed info to be 
certified when you must have a certification course be taught by a 
certified teacher?  If the teacher is a professional, and has the skills 
to teach, then all we can do for the first few years is hope they teach 
the material correctly from the certification manual.  After there have 
been a few certification classes, then we can require the teachers to 
have their certification.  Maybe require the teacher to become certified 
with their class at the first testing opportunity after their class[s] 
finished the full course[s] of the preparation.

I still think we need a class on each module of LibreOffice.  Writer, 
Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, and Macros in there somewhere.  We 
could use the current documentation as the starting point for the 
preparation manuals.  Then add sample questions [with answer keys], and 
practice exercises to work on those need hands-on skills.

As a former Substitute teacher [3 years], and someone who has gone to 
college 4 times with 3 degrees, I do have some knowledge about what is 
needed to teach a class certification style of courses and creating the 
needed practice environment.  I had to create the first network 
technology practice lab for my last college degree, for the professor 
before the first class ever started.  He had the book skills and was a 
professional in the large-scale networking field, but he was not skilled 
in taking the "scrap" computers he was given and turn them into a 
working set of computers on a working network.  So, I do know what it is 
like to have a instructor that does not have all of the skills to set up 
the course "materials", but who could teach the course.  As long as we 
give the instructors all the needed materials [PDF documents] to teach 
the material and practice what is taught, then we have done the hardest 
part of the work for them.

Maybe someone should buy the certification books for MS's packages.  See 
how they set up their certification courses.  Also look into the other 
one that deal with software packages or technology certifications.  They 
should know how to produce the needed instructional manuals.  We can 
take their manuals as a guide to creating our manuals.

This is a hard job.  But if we get this right, then it will be easy for 
those who want/need certification to learn the needed material to pass 
the testing.

Of course we could do something stupid like a job recruiter that 
required an individual have at least 10 years experience in computer 
languages from his list, when 2 on his list of 5 were not even beyond 
the developers' stage for more than 5 years.  I actual saw an ad for 
such a requirements about 20 years ago.



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