Suggestions for Taking a SAP Virtual Class – the Experience

[TammyPowlas]

What to do during the holidays?  Why take a SAP virtual class – that is what I and about 12-14 other people did this week.

Source: training.sap.com web site

Using tips gained from this ASUG Webcast on BI4 Education, I started out with 2 monitors but went back to one.

I got the materials 1 week ahead of time.  I tried to read them but it didn’t make sense so I am not sure I gained anything from getting them ahead of time.

I have more tips to offer:

1)  Don’t use Chrome with Adobe Connect

I didn’t have a problem the first few days but when I got stuck and needed the instructor’s help, I wasn’t able to share my screen.  dj.adams mentioned this to me a few months ago but I totally forgot.

http://helpx.adobe.com/adobe-connect/kb/google-chrome-browser-incompatibility-version.html

2) As an attendee, I stopped using the headset and went to using a speaker phone

I found this more comfortable and my headache went away

3) Take notes and share your knowledge

I took notes on my understanding of the exercises and started sharing them on SCN

4) If you have to, use lunch to complete the exercises

5) Connect with others in the classroom

6) Logging in is not easy

Take detailed notes yourself on how to logon to Citrix, Remote Desktop, and the training system itself; while we were provided a cheat sheet to logon there were numerous typos so it’s better for you to take notes on how to logon

7) Don’t take the course in your office cube; reserve a conference room

The first day I did the course at my cube. This was fine but the headset issue got to me so I went to a conference room where I could focus better.

😎 Don't blindly follow the solutions in the exercises

There may typos in the solutions so you need to think about what you are doing

Overall it seems we were lacking time for exercises; not sure why.  There wasn’t any room for error on the exercises.  I think in the future it would help to have the materials up on the Citrix server so some of the exercises don’t have to become typing exercises, and that would make the exercises go faster.  I’ve seen this happen at TechEd and it helps get through the materials quickly.

That said it helps to focus and take an SAP course when you can and obtain some focused learning.  It is nice not to have to pay for travel either which is a nice benefit of virtual training. You do not need to be in North America to attend - we had an attendee from South America in this class.

Overall the instructor this week really held things together when the training system didn't come up on the first day.  He had a great background too with both BW and Data Services and was flexible about answering questions.