What does Training Look Like?

When we started Parallax in 2015, we immediately set out on creating our Revit environment, both- for our use- and for our potential clients:

1. A Project Template with many built in efficiencies
2. Content Libraries that were tailored to high fidelity modeling and documentation
3. Workflows that were tried and tested
4. Full scale Implementation strategies, down to IT systems, Hardware, Software Rollouts, and software use

But, for clients to use them… clients have to be trained in them.

At our onset, this was all done through in-person training classes. And (to be sure) we enjoy those in-person training classes. The segways, the questions that derail (in a positive way) help build buy-in and trust from the staff, as they get real answers to their frustrations and questions. But in person training has downsides, to be sure:

1. Its only valuable if you are there to attend
2. Its difficult to “refer back to it” if it is only live
3. Recording in-person training is a lesser-than deliverable, since those same breakouts and tangents make for a chaotic recording

We had several clients signed up for in-person training (as they had just had new BIM Implementations set up by us, at their organizations) when in-person visits were halted while waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic. This gave us an accelerated opportunity to re-visit our Training Setup, in to something more repeatable: We always intended for the live training to have “leave behind videos” that were pre-created, but we hadnt gotten there, to date.

It was also important to note that our original Training “Table of Contents” had massive shortcomings. The order of presentation of topics had (originally) been based on shuffling people in and out of training for various “segments,” and so the presentation order wasnt very well thought out. Melissa (Thiessens) had spent a significant amount of time working through the logic of the presentation orders, and it made sense to leverage that, for our new video Series. But what still remained, was parsing out each topic in to:

1. Basics of the Software Tools
2. Strategies for using the Tools, on Projects (what do we “adjust” for Project and Documentation Requirements)
3. What is “specific” to the PRLX Revit Template Variants?

Videos in Red, for instance, are “Software basics.” Anyone working on learning Revit, could take those.

Those in Green arent “required learning” for the Software itself, but are practices we recommend leveraging, for success in Projects.

Those shown in Orange are important if an organization has acquired a Retrofitted PRLX Template for their use, as they need to understand whats provided (and why). But if you arent working in a Retrofit of the PRLX Template, these videos arent relevant (and would be confusing) so they have to be parsed out separately.

We also wanted to break each topic (Chapter) in to shorter Videos of sub-topics, for ease of reference. Although they are all Close Captioned (and searchable!) having Stacked Walls separate from “how to use the wall draw tool” makes sense, so staff members aren’t forever-fast-forwarding, while referring to videos.

The end result, as you may expect, is… MANY videos! Currently 205, although that count also doesn’t reflect several Content Library’s that haven’t had their videos added to the set, yet.

Currently (while we are still working on finishing the recording) we are also looking at the “different groupings” the Videos may be Available, in.

1. Full Immersion (all 2xx) Videos- Naturally, this will only make sense for clients working in the full retrofitted PRLX environment, as a large number of the videos pertain to the PRLX Revit Template and Content Libraries
2. Specific Libraries Only- This has already been a thing, as the content libraries themselves have come with their specific training videos for the last few years.
3. PRLX Template Acclimation Videos (53, currently)- These will be included with the Retrofits of the Parallax Templates, of course. They will also be part of “Full Immersion” training, as well.
4. Standard Revit Training (all) (116 currently)- After removing the Template acclimation and Content Library Specific videos, there remains more than a hundred videos, on how to use tools within Revit. Some of these still get in to “theory in practice” (the Green Video in the Walls Chapter) but i think thats necessary, for Revit Training.
5. Revit Training (Modeling) (92 currently)- Videos on using the various Modeling Tools, in Revit
6. Revit Training (Views and Sheet Management) (27 currently)- Videos on creating the various view types, and sheets, and managing all of your views (through view types, view templates, VG Filters, and so on)
7. Revit Training (Annotating and Detailing) (12 currently)- Videos on Annotating and Detailing your views, once they are created
8. Revit Training (Content Creation) (15 currently)– Videos on creating components (excluding the CME, which is in Modeling).

Similar to our Content Libraries, the hope is to continue to add or update these occasionally, and to distribute updates to clients, as we do.

Im sure we could also break some of the larger “series” (like Revit Modeling) in to smaller subsets, if that was interesting to folks.

For now… I have to get back to recording and editing. There are currently 19 hours of video recorded. In the time its taken to make those 19 hours, ive learned one thing: I am QUITE tired of listening to myself talk. (Get the jokes in while the time is right!)

-AM