|
Have you ever attended a technical training session where a ton of material is presented in one or two days? You may have done some hands-on labs but had to zip through them in order to stay up with the instructor's pace. During the session you feel like you are learning a lot of new stuff that is really neat. However, when you get back to your work place you don't seem to find the time to delve into the material learned to keep it fresh. And in a fairly short time the material you learned looses it's edge and you feel like you need to start all over. Fact is that you are not alone. After teaching technical material to adult college students for many years I have observed some common denominators as to how most people learn technical subject matter. Most people just don't learn well when they cram too much material into a short period of time. Technical material when learned properly, needs time to sink in so to speak. It needs constant reinforcement with refreshment from material learned earlier. Reinforcment in the form of practical hands-on activities also is required. However there has to be sufficient time for the hands-on activity to be done by the student so as to gain confidence in the process. That is why this online course format with PIC® Simulator and hands-on trainer board has been developed. The intention of these courses is to introduce the prospective microcontroller student to the very basics of Assembly Language, microcontroller hardware, number systems, programming hardware, and a few peripheral devices associated with the microcontroller. The PIC® Level 1 course should get you started if you have a project in mind for a microcontroller. It will not make you an expert embedded engineer or anything close to that. One of the biggest shortcommings to many microprocessor or microcontroller courses that I see is that they leave the student feeling that he or she is left not quite knowing all that is required in order to start a project or program. Often the student may exit a course without confidence in what he or she has learned. The students who gain confidence in their ablility will be aggressive in the pursuit of opportunities in the microcontroller field. It is my desire that this course instills confidence in each student so as to pursue the opportunites microcontrollers offer.
|