Session Title: Chef Training
Convener: Joshua Timberman
Participants: Approximately 12, attendee sheet was not filled out or collected
Summary of discussions:
This session was a grab bag of topics related to Opscode's Chef Fundamentals Training, and a few topics related to the Advanced Training.
Most of the participants were past the point where they needed fundamentals training themselves, but many wanted to have access to the materials to train others in their own organization.
The current Chef Fundamentals training materials are freely available under Opscode's Open Training program, but the downloads are PDFs, which aren't great for collaborating, or even viewing as a presenter. The source material these are generated from is Keynote, and not everyone who wants to use them has a Mac, let alone Keynote. Opscode's plans to release the training materials in a source format that makes it easier to collaborate and contribute to were well received. This is currently underway, and the plan is to make the materials source format Markdown so it can be easily exported to other formats, such as PDF, or Showoff. An open source repository on GitHub will be created along with tooling.
A fair amount of discussion happened around online training delivery strategies. While Opscode isn't currently offering any online classes, the screencast format is good. 15-30 minute modules with hands on supporting material could be produced fairly easily based on the existing training material.
One of the biggest areas for improvement is a Ruby tutorial, and this will go into the Fundamentals material.
The participants in the discussion didn't seem highly in favor of Chef user / student certification, though an assessment exam / quiz at the end of the fundamentals class might be beneficial for the "Hey look what I learned" aspect. Opscode is still working on plans for a Chef Trainer program which will be somewhat like business partnership for folks who wish to perform Chef Fundamentals Training.
What will we do now? What needs to happen next?
- Chef Fundamentals Training material update (new contents, better strutcure)
- Chef Trainer program
- Release source format on GitHub (requires rewriting in Markdown, plus revision from above)
- Update and make available Advanced Training course.
- Long Term Evaluation and selection of online course software/delivery
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