All courses are designed as a 100% hands on courses. As the instructor gives examples, students actually perform them. This is the best form of learning as it integrates the lab directly into the lecture and challenges students via interaction. Students follow the instructor closely and perform all examples and demonstrations. Students are also given exercises to further reinforce their knowledge.
The following paragraphs describe the components that you may be billed for, depending on your needs. All applicable fees should be described in the training agreement. Like the outline, this is just a standard fee structure; it can vary depending on your requirements (e.g., see the lump sum option described below). Also note that this section only applies to on-site classes.
The standard base fees for training is:
Clients are also expected to pay for the instructor's travel costs. This includes airline tickets, lodging, rental car, and meal expenses incurred while training at your site. These expenses vary by location and advance notice, but have generally run between $1200 and $1500. Clients in the Central Texas area are handled separately.
The base course fee allows for 10 students. We generally recommend keeping class size to 10 or fewer students per session: based on our experience, the quality of the course diminishes with too many students. If you need to have more than 10 students in a session, you will be charged an additional fee per student-day beyond 10.
For on-site courses, there are two ways we can arrange to provide copies of the course workbook materials to students. (1) We can send you an electronic copy of the course materials, for you to duplicate at your site. (2) If you prefer, We can instead copy the materials here and ship them to your site ahead of time. In this case, you will be charged all costs for duplication and shipping. We prefer option (1) and so do our clients.
If splitting up costs like this is inconvenient for your company's accounting system, We are able to price the class as a lump sum amount--a single price that includes everything (class, travel, shipping, etc.). Under a lump sum price, we assume all travel costs on our own. For example, a lump-sum amount of $11,000 to $12,000 usually covers all costs associated with a 3-day course System Admin, depending on location. This method is generally easier for everyone.
In addition to the base fees, the client picks up the cost for the instructor's travel to the training site, as described above. In this case, the client will have to pay a travel retainer in addition to any other retainer fees. The amount of this retainer depends on the location.
We offer our students 6 months of email support for their courses. We have a general training mailing list that students can use to communicate to the instructors and other students.
We also have specialized course topics that can be customized for your needs. Customized course prices are negotiated separately. We also do installation, configuration, and system administration. Please inquire for details.
Payment of a 50% retainer of the total costs, paid in 10 business days in advance is required. The remaining 50% must be paid on or before the first day of training. We will not do Net billing for training services. We have a standard contract for training that must be signed before any training activities can happen. In addition, the following details should be worked out ahead of time:
We are able to accept payment by checks, money orders, direct deposits, and wire transfers.
The following is a comprehensive checklist of everything you should do to prepare for a successful class at your site, along with a few optional things that have helped in prior sessions.
For lectures, We require only a whiteboard or chalkboard. We also strongly suggest a laptop/computer projector. (see below).
Assuming you do the copying at your site, each student should have a paper copy of the course workbook material I ship in advance.
Each student should have a PC with a 900MHZ cpu or better, with appropriate operating systems for the course and compatible ethernet cards. Systems should have a floppy drive, CDROM, 20GB HD (minimum), and 3 button mouses. All systems should have 17" Monitors and should be capable of doing 1024x768 resolution at 70Hz. Networking cables and hubs should be sufficient to service all computers. An internet connection is STRONGLY recommended.
As stated above, the systems should be pre-installed with the appropriate OS agreed to prior to the course. In addition, X-Windows and PDF viewer must be installed on each machine. This allows students to work in multiple sessions, and to view pdf documentation. Also, Perl, Awk, Sed, the GCC and G++ compilers should be installed. Usually, all of these come pre-installed on most modern operating systems we teach. A CDROM with the installation media should be available for each student.
Each student computer should have 1 ethernet card, These computers must be networked together (via hub or switch) on a local 192.168.1.X network.
The Boot Camp and System Administration courses require use of special network servers for DNS, NFS, and other services. Some student machines should be equipped to handle this requirement. in particular, several machines should have 2 ethernet cards in them for firewall configuration. You have the option of providing a separate server or using a student machine for this. There should be a separate Windows-NT,95, or 98 computer for Samba.
We strongly recommend that the instructor's computer have a projector configured at 800x600 resolution or higher. Students have a much better experience when they can see a the instructor work his magic.
Students need access to the web to view online documents at various places.
See the course text book information earlier in this section for suggested (but not required) books.
We have source code for all examples at our website.