Staff Basics Revit Training

[kmarquis]

I'm training some staff member in Revit in a few weeks and I wanted to see how others who have trained staff have done it or anyone who's taken a great training session. I've taught intro training before but I thought I would take a different approach this time. I was thinking it would be more fun to take 3 or 4 days to actually put together a small building using all of the tools and elements you would use on a day to day basis in Revit. It seems like the other training sessions I've attended the instructor does small snippets displaying each tool and then sort of erasing what you've done and then moving on. It's been so long I can't really remember. Anyone have any fun and interactive approaches to basics training? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Karen

[jsteinhauer]

Hi Karen,

I have gone a different route with training, and begun creating video tutorials for a specific subset of my firm. I have a list of 12 different subject videos, for our planners to self train. In addition to those videos, I have created a project template with step-by-step instructions for staff to load in our old CAD layouts of space types we commonly see in our projects & model over the top of it. This serves two purposes: Train staff on proper Revit practices & create a library of space type layouts just like in CAD. I have also stopped answering people's email's & phone calls. Instead, we have launched an internal Forum, just like AUGI, for people to post questions & get responses. We're using the forum for more then just Revit Q&A's, so it has some additional cost benefits management could buy into.

Best of luck,
Jeff S.

[damon.sidel]

Jeff, that sounds like a pretty interesting method. How long have you been doing it and have you noticed any improvements? How large is your firm?

Karen, I think you're on the right track with creating a whole building instead of just reviewing each tool. When I started using Revit in 2003, I followed the provided tutorials and that was it. When I started teaching it to teams in my firm, I did it tool-by-tool. In retrospect, not so effective. Eventually, we hired a consultant to do intensive group training sessions. They mixed a tool-by-tool approach with a build-a-project approach, which was pretty good. Since then, I've witnessed or led a few training sessions and the absolute most effective way? On a real project. That may not always be practical, but it is by far the best IMHO. Either rebuild the project the person is working on so when they start using Revit on that particular project they are up to speed, or better yet, get a whole team: 1-2 days for Revit basics, then 2-3 days building the actual project. They'll learn what they are doing, you get to help them set up good project practices and model organization, and then they have a solid start on the model. And you can work out with your office how much of the last few days can be considered billable, since they are creating the Revit model. That's my 2 cents based on my experience.

[MikeJarosz]

I was taught by James Vandezande. The procedure was called "just-in-time" training. The decision had just been made to do the World Trade Center in Revit, and we had to get a team up and running immediately. Training focused on what would be needed by the project at the moment: massing in SD, dimensions in DD, etc. Things that weren't needed at the time, such as materials and rendering, were put off for later. So our knowledge of Revit grew with the building. Of course, if we wanted to pursue advanced topics, we were free to devote our spare time to them. One of our team members, a railroading fan, spent a weekend modeling the PATH trains that terminate at the WTC. Using railroad carriage information from hobby sources, plus the info we received from the PANYNJ, we had a mini railroad running in Revit.

I have repeated the "just-in-time" technique in my current firm. It also helps to be working alongside your students, so that you are familiar with their challenges and can jump in when they need assistance.

[Alfredo Medina]

... It seems like the other training sessions I've attended the instructor does small snippets displaying each tool and then sort of erasing what you've done and then moving on. It's been so long I can't really remember. Anyone have any fun and interactive approaches to basics training? Any advice would be appreciated.
...

In my personal opinion, the "tool by tool" approach for the basic level is not acceptable, and absolutely not recommended. However, at a more advanced level, that approach is fine, and probably the most recommended for teaching specific subjects such as Phases and Design Options. Sometimes you need to isolate the topic from a project, and use an isolated example that conveys the idea in a better way. But the basic level must be taught doing a project, from scratch, until having a decent set of sheets showing all the views, at the end of the last class.

Another issue is the frequency, the intensity of the classes. I am not a fan of the courses that are delivered in 3 days in a row, 8 hours a day, so common here in the US. Give the student the same 24 hours in 12 sessions of 2 hours each, every day, online, and the learning experience will be better; of course, with a good instructor. In between, the student has the time to do assignments, apprehend the topics, or simply work on his own, until the next class.

When you take one of those 3-days-in-a-row courses of 8 hours a day, at the end of the course, you need a vacation, and you know very little, and when you go back to the office, you don't even know how to start. Why? the mind is simply overwhelmed and tired. On the other hand, at the end of the other type of course, just 2 hours a day, you have a project that you have done by yourself, a sense of achievement, and the willingness to do more; and the most important value: you have gained confidence about the program; you feel that you can do it; that's the objective. Both learning styles use the same 24 hours of training, just in two very different ways.

[jsteinhauer]

Jeff, that sounds like a pretty interesting method. How long have you been doing it and have you noticed any improvements? How large is your firm?

I have published my project template & 2/12 of my videos. Since I am technically a chargeable staff member, I shouldn't be spending a great deal of time as overhead. So, I do my video tutorial editing/publishing when I have non-project time available. I can tell you that the forum has become invaluable to me. We have about 200 staff here in Madison, and another 50-100 throughout the country. I would say that the videos are helpful in conjunction with the project tutorial template, but I haven't seen many people bother to try.

There are JIT training sessions here too, but I don't think they're all that successful. I learned by being on a team that was spearheading the Revit effort in the office. We had one Revit knowledgeable person, who we were able to learn from. Those people then got put onto other teams to help those who were new to Revit. The problem with a current project is that the strong Revit users are being asked to keep up with CAD backgrounds that constantly change. The people without Revit experience are unwilling to make the move, so we're in a catch-22, and it's only going to get worse.

Jeff S.

[MikeJarosz]

When you take one of those 3-days-in-a-row courses of 8 hours a day, at the end of the course, you need a vacation, and you know very little, and when you go back to the office, you don't even know how to start.

Courses like this inevitably teach topics you won't need until some future date. By that time, you will have forgotten it. "If you don't use it, you lose it" The just-in-time approach I mentioned above, took five senior architects, some of whom had never even heard of Revit, and had them producing meaningful work in a matter of weeks.

[jcoe]

I have been doing Revit training and implementation for almost 8 years and have found that the just-in-time training approach has shown the most retention. I also think that customizing your training to be more in keeping with your office workflow also adds to the level of retention. I would also recommend using a sample project that reflects a typical building type your office works on. Giving the end user something familiar to work on during training may ease some anxiety.

The reseller training is fine if you want to learn one tool at at time, but when taken out of context of a building or Revit workflow, I think the value of the information is lost.