Today, I'll try to cover the social aspects of the virtual training class, including externalities like no travel, no hotel, and then get into stuff about the course material and organization. I was a little disappointed to spend so much time on Java workload analysis, but maybe it's just my perspective that it seemed to run on.
Introductory Material
Marilyn Pratt asked whether other students might have introduced themselves via SCN wiki profile pages, as I did. Given that I'm respecting the others' privacy (we know who each other is, but I don't have their permission to pass on their identities), I am not sure how this could work. I searched for each of them, as well as the instructor, on SCN, and found only one (so far). More are likely to be regular or occasional users, though without revealing their names to the search engine technology.
In physical classroom settings, I appreciate when instructors go around the room and ask for our backgrounds and expectations. Yes, it seemed to take a bit longer in the virtual setting as we dealt with the mute buttons, taking turns speaking, while this would have been done by verbal cues and body language in person. On the other hand, typing in links and other material data in the chat stream truly allows for more than one person to "talk" at the same time. We're getting used to understanding this stream of consciousness. I think.
Buddy System (strangers on the train-ing)
Marilyn also asked about combining forces for learning reinforcement. Certainly one of the side effects of training sessions is the networking that occurs as students compare current challenges, obstacles overcome, not to mention the mutual feeling of facing a common enemy (the technology I mean, not the support desk). One down side of the networking is the subsequent approaches for business opportunities; you know the ones I mean.
Alas, the web client chat system in this course is restricted: students can text everyone, or the instructor, but not to each other in private. With "twitter etiquette" it's easy enough to direct comments to specific people, though if I wanted to pass a lot of content to another student I'd be blocked.
There was a time in the class today I wanted to share steps with the instructor, and ended up going off mute to say "right click, etc.". I think it was the appropriate escalation of my comment (the chat to instructor was not seen), as I got a South Florida "Muy caliente!"
Exercises
In physical classroom, you tend to notice who's working on exercises, and completing them, based on body language or other cues. Remotely, the instructor asked for "green checks" when we were done and thus had a hard time telling who was making progress. Lack of "screen sharing" ability meant I had to describe what I was seeing, rather than just pointing and saying "see?" I think this might be fixable with "make me a presenter" though with many students that could be a huge distraction to the rest.
I don't think there is enough hands-on work so far, though in place of checklisted canned quizzes we were invited to work along with the instructor. Whether everyone had a positive experience with with style we might need to wait until the reviews are in. I think it helped, though until I can put this knowledge to work, the jury is out.
Prerequisites / Pre-work
Marilyn also asked about pre-work. I think if I considered this kind of education similar to real "school" I'd be concerned about verifying prerequisites had been completed and that only those qualified could attend. It almost doesn't make sense to look at anything other than our specific current needs in this setting. There was a quiz question asking if we took the prerequisites, and we all said "yeah, sure" without knowing for sure what they were. The more valid questions are: "do you need this for your job" and "does your training budget allow you to go."
(Timo - you need to let me know what this means: "I'm curious about how your overall résumé will be." I think you are asking how I will evaluate the course, but it sounds like you're asking how my CV will look. 🙂
A little fun
We've learned a bit about each other, and about the instructor, through tangential comments and things like background music (south Florida class rock playing while on hold). A few of these I can share:
- SC said: My friend edited Tom Petty's his DVD: http://jeffreydoe.com/
- "Jeff won the 2008 Grammy award winner for best music documentary."
- Garbage collection lecture 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxwKn_BQh0g
- Lecture 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8PvFvSO_c
- My "Spinning Wheel of Death" (big hit): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WMgneIlR_0
A few SAP notes (not mentioned in class)
- 1274287 - End-to-End Diagnostics 7.0 EHP1 SP18 to SP24
- 1165799 - SMD NW04s Support Package Stack 15
- 1096323 - SMD Agent DataCollector Application - Common errors
- 1010428 - End-to-End Diagnostics
I'm finding the virtual class to be a positive experience, given I don't need to travel, can go home each night, and the food is what I'm used to (cafeteria at work). I'm sure the expense account also appreciates the low impact. Is the world a safer place for this sacrifice? Perhaps.
On to the Screen Shots
Image 1: My Status: Laughter
"01 sec" left 😮
Image 2 - one of the Wily 'Scope views
Image 3: BW query view of workload performance data
Yes, I want to get this working. I know a few moving parts are not moving, though.
Image 4: Workload analysis of RFC data, sorting by something
Image 5: One of my systems - only RFC ABAP stats; no SMDA data
Image 6: another system
Scatter plot
This could be useful, as long as the pattern of the outliers makes sense, and one can navigate to the exceptions without breaking a sweat.
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