management: Five Ideas I Tried to Make Classroom Lessons Less Boring.

Earlier this year, I was engaged by ProTech Training to teach university (college) graduates about mainframes as part of Rocket Software's NextGen Academy. Together with another instructor, we had ten graduates with no knowledge of mainframes or z/OS. Our mission: transform them into mainframe people in six months.

I had doubts. How could I help my students survive through six months stuck in a classroom? How could I make it interesting, not just for them, but for me? My god, how was I going to survive this?

Here are five things I tried, and how they worked.

Image courtesy of Rocket Software

1. Start Fast

I've been to classroom-based training where the first 30-60 minutes is boring administration. Sure, we need to cover safety and take attendance. But then an instructor will drone on about the course, what you'll learn, where the coffee is… and probably other stuff: my mind usually wanders by then.

In the very first period of this course, I dragged the class outside. Introducing them to mainframes, we walked about the centre of Perth for 40 minutes, relating mainframes to the world. I had some basic props to help: pictures of mainframe equipment, two cables, and a mobile phone. Administration could wait to the second period.

This energised the class and got them up and running. And this was something I did most days. They were given assignments and tasks the night before to start the moment they arrived in the classroom: an article to read, a job to run, something to investigate. Teaching started minute one, not minute 30.

2. Try Then Teach

Most classroom training will present the technical information (usually on a PowerPoint presentation) as a lecture and then let the class perform exercises to reinforce this learning. I did the opposite. I'd get the students to try something and do a bit of discovery; then cover the topic (PowerPoint presentation included).

For example, at the beginning of the IMS week, I gave them an IMS DDLT0 batch job that would read an IMS database. But I didn't tell them what it did: they ran it, saw the output, then went to the manuals to figure out what was happening. They didn't learn everything from this; they just took a first step. While doing this, they weren't alone. I worked with them, providing hints and tips as needed.

More interesting for the students, and it taught them to find answers rather than receive them.

3. Hands On

One afternoon, I was teaching the students about IMS ISC and MSC. Unfortunately, we didn't have IMS systems with MSC/ISC available that day, so we did a theoretical afternoon. It was the most boring afternoon of the course.

Rather than hearing me tell things, they were at their keyboards as much as possible on a real z/OS system. They were compiling and running COBOL programs before they learned JCL. They used CICS CECI on the first day of the CICS course. I may have regretted showing them TSO XMIT as they joyously sent thousands of messages to each other. They crashed systems (and their colleague's TSO sessions), created programs that abended, and were encouraged to fail.

I'm sure they enjoyed this more: I know I did.

4. Know When To Stop

My students were getting a constant stream of new information. At some point they were going to reach their limit, and they did. From the front of the classroom, I could tell when this happened: less questions, and the body language changed. A couple of times I pushed on: pressured to complete the topics of the day. However, when possible, I took the hint and stopped teaching them new stuff. This was the time to try something different. For example:

5. Get Out of the Classroom

I've been stuck in classrooms, and they can become a prison. You look outside at the beautiful sunshine, at the people outside walking freely, and wish you were with them. Few will keep learning for long hours in the same room, the same chair.

We took regular breaks, more frequent as the day progressed. But more importantly, I tried to get them out of the classroom. We would have quiz games outside in the park, and even in the building lobby if it was cold or wet. They had scavenger hunts, art projects using materials won in a quiz, and played games like dodgeball.

Getting them outside, even just outside the classroom woke them up. Doing fun and physical things re-energized them. Combining these with quiz sessions helped them assimilate the vast quantities of technical information they received.

They Won't Always Work

During the course, these five ideas worked great. But they won't always work. Running jobs before understanding them may not work for older students. Sometimes, activities like dodgeball won't be appropriate or possible.

A big reason for the success of these ideas was the attitude of the students: they jumped in and kept pushing through for six months. With different students, I may have needed to change tack: teachers need to be receptive to what works best for each student.

Rocket Software were also a big factor in this success: they supported these ideas and supplemented them with games afternoons and other activities to break up the training.

I had the best time training the Rocket NextGen course: it was not boring. These five ideas were a big part of that.

David Stephens

LongEx Quarterly is a quarterly eZine produced by Longpela Expertise. It provides Mainframe articles for management and technical experts. It is published every November, February, May and August.

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