Training Class (Day 1)

As I mentioned in my last post, I am attending an Oracle training class this week. The class is Oracle Database 10g: Performance Tuning. Having been to the Oracle 10g New Features for Database Administrators class last year, I was hoping for a substantially more in-depth look at 10g instance tuning in this class.

The first day was just okay for me. I learned a few things but I felt the class dragged a bit: 30 minutes getting to know each other and too many unrelated tangents or related, yet gratuitous, topic embellishments. I don't mind an occasional anecdotal deviation as it relates to the topic at hand, but those that are completely off topic really slow down the course. You know when you are reading a story and everything seems to flow nicely (proper balance of dialogue and narrative), then you run into a couple pages of narrative? It really puts the brakes on the interest.

I tend to evaluate courses on:

1. The conveyed knowledge of the instructor.
2. The presentation of the subject matter.
3. The quality of the course material.
4. The value of the impromptu discourse along the way (icing on the cake stuff).

Based on the first day, I feel the instructor has a good command of the subject matter and adds value to the class based on relevant experience. I have been to several Oracle classes where the instructor did nothing more than read the slides verbatim and/or appeared to have little relevant experience. Aside from the introductions, we spent the remainder of the day on two topics: a performance tuning overview and 10g statistics/wait events. The study material that accompanies the course is rather good; I have taken the liberty to skip ahead and get into the meat of the course material. I am looking forward to the class tomorrow as I feel we will be digging our heels in a bit more (or at least I hope).

Given the sparse amount of substantive material covered on the first day, I don't have any really interesting takeaways. I'll give the first day of class a B.