Learning is faster in one long session ... right?
Learning all the necessary things in just one long computer training session can seem like a good idea.
It's all done in one go, with no need to return for more, and the new skills can immediately be put to good use.
Then the reality bites ...
Can concentration and learning of new things be maintained for many hours at a time?
Can you be sure that everything will be understood first time?
Will learning really happen well that way?
If people try to learn in one session, they have no opportunity to go away, apply the things they have been taught, then return and reinforce.
What about the cost of taking that much time out for training, in one go? What's the effect of that much work being missed?
What about the risk of the session being missed? Can you arrange a replacement any time soon?
What happens if one person misses a group session? The others go on anyway, meaning that the one who missed it is left behind.
Would a series of shorter sessions be better?
Well, a series of shorter training sessions means a much better chance of concentrating and learning well for the whole time.
It permits opportunity for new skills to be tried out after each session, and for anything that's not fully certain to be noted for brief review at the start of the next session, before continuing with more new material.
The amount of material to be covered in each session is smaller. So that's less to work through after each session, before the next one.
And any absence from a session is much more easily made up.
The ComTutors policy
By now you can guess our policy on long sessions.
Except in rare cases of urgency, we strongly recommend not having long training sessions. They are a good way to ensure brain fade and almost guarantee frustration and ineffective learning.
The best way for people to learn is almost always in a series of shorter sessions.
Even if it's only two sessions, a few days apart, rather than one long session, it's still a far better way to go.
The most important reason for having shorter sessions is the simple fact that most learning does not happen in training sessions, but between sessions as people's subconscious minds work on the new information.
You can throw large amounts of information at people, but how much they absorb is another matter. Usually nowhere near all of it, and the amount that they can immediately implement is usually even less.
Imagine being in the audience in a lecture theatre, with someone lecturing on the music of JS Bach for three hours, including showing excerpts of print music on screen, playing excerpts from recordings and playing some of it on a piano.
Near the end of the presentation, the lecturer asks you to come to the front of the room, puts a copy of one of Bach's fugues on the piano and says "Play this.".
You would have no chance.
You would not be impressed if the lecturer then said to you "I've just shown you how to do it!".
For similar reasons, we will not teach too many people in a group. Losing the ability to give personal attention to each learner means lecturing, not tutoring.
Put simply, we will not do anything that we can not guarantee. Trying to teach a large amount of material to a large group of people in one long session is in that category.
What about at a conference?
If you have arranged a special time for several busy people to get together, such as a weekend conference, why spoil it with a long half day of headache inducing computer training?
Those events are best used for group activities that can be done only when most or all of the relevant people are present, or at least are most effective when those people are all there - discussing, reviewing, planning, brainstorming etc.
Don't use any of that group time for anything which is best done in shorter sessions and in small groups, not long sessions in large groups. That's doing things the wrong way around.
Learning all the necessary things in just one long computer training session can seem like a good idea.
It's all done in one go, with no need to return for more, and the new skills can immediately be put to good use.
Then the reality bites ...
Can concentration and learning of new things be maintained for many hours at a time?
Can you be sure that everything will be understood first time?
Will learning really happen well that way?
If people try to learn in one session, they have no opportunity to go away, apply the things they have been taught, then return and reinforce.
What about the cost of taking that much time out for training, in one go? What's the effect of that much work being missed?
What about the risk of the session being missed? Can you arrange a replacement any time soon?
What happens if one person misses a group session? The others go on anyway, meaning that the one who missed it is left behind.
Would a series of shorter sessions be better?
Well, a series of shorter training sessions means a much better chance of concentrating and learning well for the whole time.
It permits opportunity for new skills to be tried out after each session, and for anything that's not fully certain to be noted for brief review at the start of the next session, before continuing with more new material.
The amount of material to be covered in each session is smaller. So that's less to work through after each session, before the next one.
And any absence from a session is much more easily made up.
The ComTutors policy
By now you can guess our policy on long sessions.
Except in rare cases of urgency, we strongly recommend not having long training sessions. They are a good way to ensure brain fade and almost guarantee frustration and ineffective learning.
The best way for people to learn is almost always in a series of shorter sessions.
Even if it's only two sessions, a few days apart, rather than one long session, it's still a far better way to go.
The most important reason for having shorter sessions is the simple fact that most learning does not happen in training sessions, but between sessions as people's subconscious minds work on the new information.
You can throw large amounts of information at people, but how much they absorb is another matter. Usually nowhere near all of it, and the amount that they can immediately implement is usually even less.
Imagine being in the audience in a lecture theatre, with someone lecturing on the music of JS Bach for three hours, including showing excerpts of print music on screen, playing excerpts from recordings and playing some of it on a piano.
Near the end of the presentation, the lecturer asks you to come to the front of the room, puts a copy of one of Bach's fugues on the piano and says "Play this.".
You would have no chance.
You would not be impressed if the lecturer then said to you "I've just shown you how to do it!".
For similar reasons, we will not teach too many people in a group. Losing the ability to give personal attention to each learner means lecturing, not tutoring.
Put simply, we will not do anything that we can not guarantee. Trying to teach a large amount of material to a large group of people in one long session is in that category.
What about at a conference?
If you have arranged a special time for several busy people to get together, such as a weekend conference, why spoil it with a long half day of headache inducing computer training?
Those events are best used for group activities that can be done only when most or all of the relevant people are present, or at least are most effective when those people are all there - discussing, reviewing, planning, brainstorming etc.
Don't use any of that group time for anything which is best done in shorter sessions and in small groups, not long sessions in large groups. That's doing things the wrong way around.