Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -
Number of replies: 12

Just to let you know that I have just recorded the first session "How the Himawari-8 training was conducted, including classroom and remote sessions". I still need to edit out "umms, ahhs, .... etc." but it should be online soon.

Yesterday I checked your responses to the Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback. There were 7 replies and I studied these over a nice cup of hot coffee in my fav cafe last night. (this morning I noticed that there were 10 replies .... nice).

Based on my study of the 7 responses and for your reference I have matched your queries to the sessions that I will be presenting. Please let me know if I have done this correctly. Your feedback is appreciated.

Session 1: How the Himawari-8 training was conducted, including classroom and remote sessions

Questions:

How much time did it take you to compile training materials? (this is an interesting question and I promise to answer this in my next post - I have a very original answer for this, I promise)

What kind of data did you use?

Please give some detail about new satellite training challenges.

What training is available that is operationally focussed and available for reuse?

What was your training approach, in terms of pedagogical methods and tools?

Session 2: Collaboration with Satellite Champions and other Stakeholders

Questions:

How did you communicate the new capabilities with users, what was the communication channel?

Application of the new capabilities of Himawari-8 in day-to-day forecasting.

Session 3: Evaluation of the impact of the training on the effective use of Himawari-8 data by WMO Region V and II Stakeholders.

Questions:

What do you find more effective in satellite training: self paced online study or classroom sessions?

I am interested in how the training can be effective for the participants to improve their skills and gain the most benefit from Himwari-8

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -

I am just about ready to post the recordings of the first session "How the Himawari-8 training was conducted, including classroom and remote sessions.There are 4 recordings in all for you to listen to, ranging from 5 to 13 minutes in length. I have prepared .wmv and .mp4 files.

In the meanwhile, I would like to answer the following questions: "How much time did it take you to compile training materials?"

Actually, this is a very difficult question to answer. Setting up the training resources was a real "labour of love" for me. I put in a lot of extra hours and I had one advantage in this. As I am a single guy I can afford to be somewhat eccentric in my work routine. Typically I would come home in the evenings perfectly happy but rather exhausted. Furthermore, my teddy bear didn't seem to mind when I come home at 9pm at night or later :-)

From discussion with staff members in our People Management Branch, for new material it can take between 3 and 7 hours of preparation for every hour of classroom / remote presentation. This depends upon how familiar the teacher is with the basics of the subject content.

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Tamara Gnjidic Vuksa -

Hello Bodo,

Thank you for answering my question. This is one of the most difficult topics for me. I usually struggle with available time versus quality I want to achieve while preparing a course. Your post gave me an idea how to manage in the future.

Cheers,

Tamara

In reply to Tamara Gnjidic Vuksa

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Ivan Smiljanic -

Hi Tamara, Bodo, All,


From my experience I would say, in case I am creating a new resource/presentation from scratch, with possible fresh examples or imagery, even 3-7 hours/hour sounds very optimistic for me. May be that I am slower and less experienced. Usually I take more time for some activities.
 

Also, if you take more time and produce a higher quality materials, may be that in future you (or others) will reuse these materials and you end up with saving time instead of wasting. The decision on making higher quality material depends as well on what you are presenting, which topic and which audience.

 

In any case, it is hard to quantify in general.

 

Cheers,
Ivan

In reply to Ivan Smiljanic

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -

Thanks for your response, Tamara and Ivan.

It it difficult for me to quantify the amount of time I put into the resources because of the way I assemble these. Let me explain. 

I usually assemble my satellite meteorology training sessions using the PowerPoint slides as a "blank canvas". I just love the freedom that blank PowerPoint slides permit me - no fiddly code to deal with - just drag and drop, insert and write, resize and compose the resources. After constructing a number of resource slides during the day I usually get a print-out of my work using the CutePDF writer in a 4-slide to the page, double side print format before leaving work. I study these over a nice hot coffee in my favourite Melbourne Cafe in the evening. I jot down ideas with red pen on the slides and the buzz of background conversation is really stimulating. Also, as many of the attendees at my favorite Cafe are University students I soak up the high IQ by osmosis. That's my theory anyway, as the ideas just tumble out during these evening session....Next day I return to work and type up my "annotations". This stimulates me to add further resources.

After a time I usually have close to 100+ LOVELY slides that I would really ENJOY in showing the audience. However, this is just too much material so I go through the heartbreaking routine of culling out those slides that are not absolutely necessary. I console myself with the fact that these "rejected" :-( slides will be a useful future resource.

For a 1 hour presentation I aim for no more than 30 slides maximum. Indeed, if I want to introduce some audience participation activities it usually makes sense to have no more than 20-25 slides per one hour training session. I find that it really is a case that "less is more" in these very interactive sessions.

The time involved in all this includes the preparation of the training resources, but also the preparation of additional resource material ie. the 70+ culled slides. Hence you can see the difficulty in calculating time spent to prepare an hour of training material.

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -

In response to the above post, Roro sent me the link to an interesting web page titled "Why your creative mind works the best in the Cafe". I thought I would forward you some key points from this article:

  • It is well known that silence sharpens focus of thought. In the midst of complicated problem solving one annoying noise is enough to break the concentration of most people (however, this is not an issue for me, because I grew up with 7 brothers and 4 sisters!)
  • However, when it comes to creative thinking, ambient noise improves creativity. Typical coffee shop ambient noise of 70 db appears to be an optimum.
  • The article mentions that moderate ambient noise is just enough to distract us, allowing us to think outside of the box. This helps to broaden thinking and lends itself to the discovery of new ideas.

Thanks for the interesting article, Roro :-)

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Ivan Smiljanic -

Bodo,

 

Definitely I agree that less is more, when it comes to creating a slides for presentation. Specially in satellite meteorology where one can spend easily 30min on ONE particular slide.

Of course, hardest thing is to control yourself and cut down extra material. I have to say that, although beeing conscious about it, I myself fail in this sometimes. But to my defense, I do it solely because of my enthusiasm towards topic J

Thanks for a interesting insight into your approach Bodo,

Cheers,

Ivan

In reply to Ivan Smiljanic

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -

Hi Ivan

There are a number of approaches that I have used to reduce the number of slides. You and other CALMET-2016 attendees may find these strategies useful.

1 - Divide the slide up into multiple spaces. A sort of "PowerPoint Bento Box". Interestingly I came upon this idea prior to my recent overseas mission to Japan!. That way you have four or even five subtopics that you can cover in the one slide. A result of this layout is that you spend more time on a particular slide without flicking through slides in "rapid animation". The audience also gets the chance to become familiar with the material in a step-by step fashion. Separating each of the compartments of your PowerPoint Bento Box with thin black lines and numbering each compartments permits a nice separation of content. I like to go around the partitions in a clockwise fashion in order to help the audience to follow the discussion. I have given an example in the Recorded Sessions that I have submitted. I would love to get your feedback about the layout of the four recordings in Topic1 on link https://classroom.eumetsat.int/course/view.php?id=259

2: Once you have compartmentalised the slide you can construct a second slide that is almost identical, except that you replace the first compartment with new material and continue the numbering. You can see this in the third recording "Training" commencing at minute 3:11 and onto minute 7:25. The audience feels like a single slide has been discussed in thorough detail but in fact you have covered 6 topics that may otherwise be on 6 slides. I think it is a nice "compression" of information. If this is done correctly and thoroughly then your presentation may become a beautiful bonzai garden of exquisite satellite meteorology. Cute, nourishing and irresistible (that is my objective anyway....)

3: I would be interested in other ideas from CALMET-2016 attendees. What are some of the techniques that you use to shorten your presentations whilst increasing the information content in an "easy to understand" manner?

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Ivan Smiljanic -

Hi Bodo,

 

I have notice that you used somewhat non-conventional way of presenting slides, but now after you broke down the idea behind I like it even more. It is a very sleek way to play with learners perception of the volume of the materials. And I am very happy that you shared your idea on this forum.

The only big question is if one should move with slides clockwise or row-by-row J.

I hope people will read you posts afterwards, since you session is in the middle of the holidays (at least for most of the Europeans) and appears to me that not many are in their offices.

Nice day,

Ivan

In reply to Ivan Smiljanic

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Jose Prieto -

Hi,

Nice to join you (two?) for a while, before going on holidays.. even nicer.

I like Bodo's approach to presentations, fighting the idea of a flow of concepts and diagrams to be transmitted to who-cares-whom. Yours is a more reflective than transmitive style, to use radiation behaviours for the comparison.

Usually I have the silly goal in mind of presenting everything I know about a matter, just in case it helps, rather than pondering and trying to convey an idea (and avoid the temptation of presenting a second idea in the same session). Why, I do not know, but realising it is a first step to change a habit. I remember from my user help experience that a message with one question was usually responded, but a message with two questions very rarely contained two answers. With three questions, no answer was the rule. It did not matter how orderly and tidy you put the questions in your message.

I was going to mention another thing, but that would contradict myself;)

cheers,

jose

In reply to Bodo Zeschke

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bruce Muller -

Hello Bodo and company! Thanks so much for sharing an overview of your experience in conducting your training sessions and your approach to authoring presentations. It's really good to see that you are having success with two-way interactions in live, online sessions. Thumbs up for leveraging the webinar tools to engage your learners!

I'm going to be a bit contrary in regards to your approach to slide presentations. Putting the same amount of content on fewer slides is not necessarily a means to improving the user experience or learning. Cognitive load theory has shown that we learn best when presented with one idea at a time. By revealing upwards of six separate items on a slide all at once, it is very easy for a learner to get distracted by scanning ahead and missing your narrative and the related content. In the end, in a sense you still end up with the same number of concepts, you're just condensing them into a smaller space at the risk of losing your learner's attention to the concept of focus. Having said that, your approach to flowing from one concept to the next is excellent. Have you ever considered using a tool such as Prezi (https://prezi.com)? You can layout all of your concepts/slides and reveal them in a very 'flowy' and effective manner, providing singular focus while also providing a nice overview of how the concepts relate.

I hope you have a chance to give an overview of your extensive collection of material on your National Himawari-8 Training Campaign site (http://www.virtuallab.bom.gov.au/training/hw-8-training/). For folks that are facing the need to set up their own training program, it would be helpful to learn how you determined what learning outcomes/objectives to address and how you map your instruction to those objective. 

Cheers fro Boulder,
Bruce

 

In reply to Bruce Muller

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Ivan Smiljanic -

Nice to hear from you Bruce,


In this case I could agree and disagree with you.

Disagree in a sense that sometimes (I will speak from my experience), in order to better follow the current slide, I am keen to know in which context this particular matter is presented (of course sometimes I miss a sentence or two, or presenter itself is not clear about this at particular moment). In that sense having many slides in one place (that can reveal you a story ahead or before) should not be necessary a bad thing.

And definitely agree that extra (unnecessary) material can just distract attention.


I know I am opposing myself in these two cases but I believe it depends at the end on the trade-off ones wants to take or not. Not everything is black or white I guess. And at the end this is why I personally am amused by learning processes in general.

 

Interesting discussion, thanks,

Ivan

In reply to Ivan Smiljanic

Re: Himawari Training Pre-Session Survey Feedback

by Bodo Zeschke -

Thanks Ivan, Jose and Bruce for your thought-provoking comments.

As I can see from your comments, it is important to put information into context when presenting to an audience. It is also important not to overwhelm the audience with too much detail.

The reference to cognitive learning theory is interesting Bruce. There could be a cultural element to this also. I have visited Japan lots of times in the past and I have been amazed how information is presented. For example, consider Japanese web design - see  https://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/ This cultural factor could be important when we are teaching to a foreign audience.

I have checked out the Prezi web site, eg the "Heimathafen" example at https://prezi.com/explore/staff-picks/ I like the dynamic movement over the "slide terrain" and the "zooming in and out" - a bit like using the "Forecast Funnel" in weather forecasting.

So for the purpose of this email I have come up with a "Focussed Bento Box PowerPoint" presentation option. A sort of "poor man/woman's Prezi option".An example is attached to the post.

Please let me know how you like this option. Also, it would be great to get your feedback about my recorded presentations. What worked well and what could be improved. That would really be valuable to me...