Every couple of months The Information Lab (TIL) runs a training day (also known as Learn What The Data School Learns) where current Data School cohorts have to deliver a training session to members of the public and clients. For DS57, the training day was focused on topics within Tableau Desktop and a session on Tableau Prep, the latter of which I delivered.
What is the purpose of the training day?
The session is important for a number of reasons, for both TIL and those attending...
1) Its the perfect opportunity to practice public speaking in front of a larger crowd, and in front of people you are not familiar with
2) It provides valuable experience in both planning and delivering a teaching session
3) Its a chance to 'give back' to the data community by sharing knowledge with others
4) Its a great way for TIL to showcase the work we do and gain potential new clients
5) Its a great opportunity to network and gain exposure to different industries and people
Preparing for the day
We were given two full days to prepare for the session. The first day was focused on preparing the content for the day whilst the second day was dedicated to practice and feedback. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to practice teaching these sessions before the real thing. It is very easy to overestimate the amount of content required for an hour long session and in my first run through with a colleague I found I had run out of time to deliver the rest of my content. This meant I ended up removing some content for the final session and refining the remaining material that I would deliver. Its so much better to deliver less content well than to rush through lots of content.
Something else I was mindful of was the experience of the people I would be training. In short you need to be prepared to teach people who will pick up the content quickly or have prior experience with the software, and those who may take more time to grasp the content. I found that giving the audience exercises which ranged in difficulty was a good way to account for everyone. If anyone finished the easier tasks quickly, they could challenge themselves with something more difficult.
Finally, it is essential that you have all your training material, software and tech set -up before you begin teaching. About a week before the training day, all the required datasets and slides were put on a shared file ready to be distributed to clients, the morning before the session I ensured only applications which were required for the session were running on my laptop, and as members of the public arrived we made sure to ask them if they had all the required software and material downloaded and ready to go.
During the session
I thoroughly enjoyed the day, especially whilst teaching myself. Greeting people as they arrived provided a good opportunity to break the ice and generally create a more relaxed atmosphere. During my teaching session I made sure to do the following:
1) Ask the audience questions, picking on individual tables where appropriate! I found this was a great technique for keeping the audience engaged and thinking about the content.
2) Providing a range of different exercises which the audience could work on, with help from myself and colleagues. As mentioned before I ensured there were a mix of easier and harder exercises for the audience to tackle.
3) Ensured everyone was keeping up with the session, if anyone was really falling behind I made sure a colleague was with them to guide them through the process whilst I continued teaching to keep the session flowing.
4) Ask if the audience has any questions about what I had been going through.
5) Speak clearly and concisely, and provide contextual examples which the audience can relate to.
Conclusion
Overall the session was an amazing opportunity for me to further develop my public speaking and teaching skills, and pass on my knowledge to others. It was a pleasure to see so many satisfied attendees at the end of the session and to build great connections with people. The session is a big day in the DS calendar but certainly one of the most enjoyable and memorable!