A little while back, DSNY12 taught around 50 members of the public the basics of Tableau and Tableau Prep in a full-day of learning at our offices in NYC.
Here is what I learned from that experience, and how my approach to teaching in general was shifted.
The Preparation
Preparing study materials for yourself is completely different from creating exercises for other people, especially if it's their first introduction to a subject. When I first started creating the workbook I would use throughout my teaching session, "Introduction to Tableau," I was mimicking the kinds of exercise workbooks we would use in training at the Data School. However, when I took a step back and thought, "If I had never opened Tableau a single time, would any of this make sense to me?" The answer was a resounding no.
This meant that I had to go back and rewrite several of my slides, provide much more context to exercises I was prompting people to complete, and plan out exactly how I would deliver this information so as not to overwhelm the audience with all of the information they would need to be able to absorb to move on with the exercise.
Running into Issues
My session was the first one of the day, which meant that the majority of the technical issues would first come to light in when I started. A large portion of the audience also did not have extensive technical experience so we ended up running into some issues with getting everyone set up.
The issues were relatively short-lived, as thankfully, several of my fellow cohort members and the coaches were quick to step in and help everyone get their computers updated, applications downloaded, and workbooks opened.
I had been warned that my session would likely be cut into slightly by technical issues, so I felt prepared beforehand, but if I had not thought about it beforehand, I could see myself freezing up and not being able to as effectively help as many people as I ended up being able to.
Effectively Teaching
I believe that every individual person has their own way of learning, that will respond best to a certain kind of teaching. While you may not be able to cater to each person individually, especially when you're talking to a large crowd, there are definitely ways to reach as many people as possible and help them follow along with what you're teaching without having to coach them separately.
I found that when I was talking to the whole audience at once, it helped to use less technical terms that would be understood by anyone in the crowd, and being as specific about my instructions as I could be without slowing down the lesson. However, when I walked around as people completed their exercises, I was able to cater my teaching methods to individual people with a range of skills, who may or may not be looking to be guided throughout every step of the exercise. Once you're able to speak to someone one-on-one, it's often much easier to be able to understand what they're looking to get out of attending our Learn What the Data School Learns sessions, which makes being a better instructor easier as well.