holding lectures, any ideas?

I hope this is the right forum to post this in :) cause I couldn't find any other category where it would fit...


I just finished a employee-employer conversation where we go through the whole "how do you feel you have developed in this company, or "How do you see yourself contributing to this company" etc etc and I said, "I like to be challenged, I get bored when I have to do menial tasks, but I love it when I am sent on a job where the solution is diffuse and you really have to try everything else and then some to find the solution, or give your observations to the higher ups so they can find it"

However, my answer to one of the questions were "I feel that it would be easier for me to share my knowledge if I felt that the receiving part actually listened, instead of going "yeah yeah, I got it"" kind of stuck with my head honcho, and after the conversation he said "I'm going to challenge you to use your knowledge... I want you to set up 3 lectures, each with a duration of two hours"

At first I was like "easy peasy", But as I sat down to set up the first one I am at a loss :D

I need the help of oh mighty RE to help me set up my first class, any suggestions what it should be about?

I'm going to use many points from the discussion I was part of about LRI injection, but that will be in my third lecture :)

For the second class I was thinking to let them do problem solving over the phone, and to use my mentor as the "clueless" customer where each one of the students gets a call from a customer with a problem, and my mentor would work of a cue card where he would present a certain problem to the student, and the student would use his communication skills to see if he is worthy of the hat as described in the gospel of WebRam, when he in his wise words said "These hats cover a multitude of sins, firstly the communication hat that is used when bull****ing, I mean explaining to the customer what the problem is or when having a good moan about the job, as if we do that." and this test will show if he is worthy of the hat of common sense, because as WebRam says, some are worthy, some are not... :D

Enough fun :D

Please help me :)


The Gospel of WebRam can be found here: http://www.refrigeration-engineer.co...ation-engineer
(

Hi Tycho
Where to start, there are so many things you could cover it probably depends on the level of experience of the people you are lecturing to.
Part of my current role is training and I was a bit like you at the start not really knowing what I should be teaching. I had a bit of an idea of what areas the mechanics and apprentices were lacking in so these were where I put my efforts.
I found out that some of the guys with more then 5 years experience did not fully understand the basics when it came to Ammonia refrigeration and in some cases industrial as a whole.
I have a lot of small training sessions that last about an hour as I found trying to keep their attention for longer is hard, not to mention service calls requiring attention.
A lot of times I will go to site and do one on one training on real faults or breakdowns and I find this is pretty effective.
I can send you some of the training sessions if you like, too big to post here.
Regards
Paul

Tyco.
you are a natural trainer, just tell it how it is. You write a novel with every post.

Less is more.

Especially if it is engineers you are training... Much less theory and more hands on always win.
The key isn't so much what the students learn but that they are enjoying the experience. It doesn't matter how many shiny slides you got if the students doesn't sit up and actively listen, I gave up long ago on force-feeding my students raw data. Instead I try to describe the concepts and tell them to RTFM.

In the end, if they are enjoying themselves and absorb 80% of my lecture that consist of 50% of what I want them to learn they still are absorbing more than if they are bored and absorb 30% of the full on theoretical presentation I want them to have.

:cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PaulZ

Hi Tycho
Where to start, there are so many things you could cover it probably depends on the level of experience of the people you are lecturing to.
Part of my current role is training and I was a bit like you at the start not really knowing what I should be teaching. I had a bit of an idea of what areas the mechanics and apprentices were lacking in so these were where I put my efforts.
I found out that some of the guys with more then 5 years experience did not fully understand the basics when it came to Ammonia refrigeration and in some cases industrial as a whole.
I have a lot of small training sessions that last about an hour as I found trying to keep their attention for longer is hard, not to mention service calls requiring attention.
A lot of times I will go to site and do one on one training on real faults or breakdowns and I find this is pretty effective.
I can send you some of the training sessions if you like, too big to post here.
Regards
Paul

---

Thanks Paul :)

Would really like to see some of your lectures.

One of the hurdles for me, I think, is that there is such a large gap between the guys.

so to have a lecture that wouldn't be over the head of one guy or boring for the next guy seems to be the main challenge.

:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Magoo

Tyco.
you are a natural trainer, just tell it how it is. You write a novel with every post.

---

Thanks :D

but with me writing the novel instead of writing "any Ideas?" I just saved 20 people from replying with "more info please"

;D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Viking

Less is more.

Especially if it is engineers you are training... Much less theory and more hands on always win.
The key isn't so much what the students learn but that they are enjoying the experience. It doesn't matter how many shiny slides you got if the students doesn't sit up and actively listen, I gave up long ago on force-feeding my students raw data. Instead I try to describe the concepts and tell them to RTFM.

In the end, if they are enjoying themselves and absorb 80% of my lecture that consist of 50% of what I want them to learn they still are absorbing more than if they are bored and absorb 30% of the full on theoretical presentation I want them to have.

:cool:

---

I was a weapons and closed order instructor for 3 months while doing my year in the navy, and the mantra was:

-you learn nothing from what you hear
-a little from something you see
-but everything from something you do

All good points you have :)

Thanks :)

.

If it was me I would talk about subcooling and superheat.

As good as the guys are they will always be challenged and
then with the smallest of simple systems you can prove your
theories in practice.

You would be really surprised at the level of confusion when
challenged with simple theories such as temperature difference
and saturation temperature.

I use a simple line drawing (in power point) that shows a liquid
warming up (sensible heat) and then reaching the saturation temp
and changing state (latent heat).

20 mins of theory then take them to the system, fit gauges and
demonstrate.

Regards

Rob

.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tycho

I was a weapons and closed order instructor for 3 months while doing my year in the navy, and the mantra was:

-you learn nothing from what you hear
-a little from something you see
-but everything from something you do

All good points you have :)

Thanks :)

---

I have a bit of medical training and medics use a similar mantra.

See it done
Do it
Teach it

Rob

.

.

Oh and to add realism do it wearing your respirator :D

Rob

.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rob White

.

Oh and to add realism do it wearing your respirator :D

Rob

.

---

I should just fill the conference room with ammonia and then have them strip naked and get sprayed by the fire department before they are hustled into an ambulance... with a male driver and two nurses

Then tell them "If you are responsible for an ammonia leak that requires the FD to respond, this is what happens" :D and finish up with "think twice, do once" :)

(happened to two of our technicians, they got stripped naked and hosed down by the FD before they were allowed to enter the ambulance, because the ambulance crew didn't want to decontaminate the car after :)
the exposure was so small they could have driven themselves for the checkup, but since the responders were there they had to go through the whole routine:))

Tyco,
You could pick a few good post from this forum to discuss & see how people analyze things.

Try something that everyone is exposed to, like a common product, system, screw package.

Economizer on a screw is always a good & how it increases performance.

As previously said pressure / temp relationship & how to identify if right or wrong.

Air in system, how to identify & remove, different methods.

Electrical

Water in systems & effects etc

Ask them on subject they feel they want to know more about in a non threatening way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RANGER1

Tyco,
You could pick a few good post from this forum to discuss & see how people analyze things.

Try something that everyone is exposed to, like a common product, system, screw package.

Economizer on a screw is always a good & how it increases performance.

As previously said pressure / temp relationship & how to identify if right or wrong.

Air in system, how to identify & remove, different methods.

Electrical

Water in systems & effects etc

Ask them on subject they feel they want to know more about in a non threatening way.

---

I was going to pull some stuff from the LRI thread where I was very active :)
because most of them still say "It sprays liquid into the compressor to cool it down, and it works like a superfeed, win win" :D

Tycho.
If you are comfortable in front of a bunch of people, start with the basics work through to application details and service details. You are a natural trainer. Like I said earlier, you explain everything in detail, with feed back and inter reaction from the floor lectures will be a breeze.
The first step is the hardest, dive into it and let us all how you go.

Hi, Tycho :)

maybe not a bad idea to start at beginning (you know: even the longest journey starts with the first step).

Not sure where to start:

with commissioning phase ...
- checking drawings
- checking installed equipment - on scheme and in field - rectify if need something
- then proceed with leak test
- alignment
- vacuuming
- oil charging
- refrigerant charging
- first start with decoupled compressor - to check motor rotation direction
- heat load available
- start and fine tuning

or with service phase ...

- investigate when and what happened - get as much as possible information regarding problem
- check all relevant things by yourself
- if need consult some other colleagues (within company, RE Forums, elsewhere) for opinion, advice etc...
- make plan for repair ... in phases ... isolation of equipment and refrigerant recovery or v.v, oil recovery, vacuuming ...
- repairing
- leak test
- vacuuming
-recharging oil, refrigerant ..
- test run
- paper works done
- and the most important ... billing to satisfied and happy client

Of course each of above steps can be discussed ... within class ... or maybe to merge few of them in separate logical lessons ...

This is one of possible scenarios, I believe some other members will come with some other good suggestion too ...

I cannot see it, but for sure I miss something and if someone thinks this one need rearrangement or need to add some steps .. please, be my guest.

I'm here to learn something too, but also I'll try to help if I can.

Hope this is of some help ...

Best regards, Josip :)