Train  37 

An incomplete education 

   Once I taught a two-day Web class at a government agency. I showed the students 

  how to place existing graphics in pages, but there wasn t enough time to teach them 

  how to format graphics for the web. A few weeks after the class, I visited the sites 

  they d built, and saw that they d included BMP files in their Web pages, instead of 

  GIFS and JPGs. The BMPs didn t show up in Netscape, and they took forever to 

  load.  

David Pierpont, Web instructor, Telematique 

 Find a good instructor 

The most important factor in training is the instructor, so when choosing a company to 

provide Web training, the Site Coordinator should talk with the company s Web 

instructor. A good Web instructor has substantial site-building knowledge and good 

teaching skills, both of which are acquired through experience. 

The complexities of Web work aren t easy to master, so knowledgeable Web people have 

usually worked in the field for a couple of years or more, and built many sites. To see if a 

Web instructor is knowledgeable, ask to see some of the sites built by that instructor. The 

sites should be attractive, easy to navigate, and load quickly.  

The ability to teach is developed in the classroom, so make sure that your instructor has 

taught for at least a few months previously. Even  natural  teachers need to have taught at 

least a dozen or so classes to hit their stride. Also, ask to see an instructor s student 

evaluations. Students know a good teacher when they see one, and positive evaluations 

indicate that an instructor knows how to teach. 

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