U-Blog 3 Training Observation

Today, I observed a training class at the place I work. I the class was based on searching legislative bills that are sponsored by House of Representative members and Senators of the State of South Carolina. The objective of the class was learning to perform compound searches, create customized reports and retrieve statistical data utilizing the LPITS (Legislative Printing Information Technology Systems) Web Page (a database is built within the web page). The course is the sequel to Legislative Research Level 1 and is particularly beneficial to Research Analysts and Attorneys. The class was scheduled on today from 9:00am-12:00pm.

The instructor teaching this class has been involved with training for over ten years. I could tell she was use to teaching because of the way she presented herself along with the material. Before the start of class, she issued manuals to all the students

During class, she went through different tutorials that involved searching for bills. The instructor referenced parts of the manual as she went through the tutorials so the students will know where to reference back to if they were to forget some search criteria. The relationship between the instructor and students were great. The students were eager to learn the material so their jobs will be easier. If a student did not understand a specific topic, then they would ask the instructor and she would provide feedback. What impressed me the most about the instructor was she did not use technical jargon when explaining the concept of searching on the database. The only negative part of the class was the power went out in the entire building. With the power being out, the instructor could not use the computer for a reference and the students could not complete the tutorials for the course. Therefore, class was cancelled and it will be rescheduled for another day.

Observing the class has helped me in determining the role of the instructor and their duty to the students. It was an interesting experience and I look forward to finish observing the rest of the class. I also noted not to have class Friday the 13th unless you want something to go wrong like a power outage. Overall it was a good day but kinda of funny.