Introducing Blended Learning From Cloudera University

Over the past decade, Cloudera University has taught more than 50,000 developers, administrators, analysts, and data scientists how to apply big data technologies. Developers are learning the APIs, so they can create new applications that were never before possible. Administrators learn to plan, install, monitor, and troubleshoot clusters. And analysts discover the power of SQL over large, diverse datasets.

Training sessions are delivered in a variety of formats: instructor-led live sessions, OnDemand subscription, virtual classroom, and private onsite. We’re excited to add another option for students beginning in late July: Blended learning.

Cloudera University Blended Learning combines the flexibility of self-paced learning, with the benefits of live instructor-led sessions. Each blended learning course will include lessons and hands-on lab exercises that the student can complete at their own convenience. In addition, each course has weekly instructor-led sessions where students engage with a Cloudera instructor to review the content, walk through the exercises, and participate in open Q&A.

Why Blended Learning?
Everyone has a learning method that works best for their own unique circumstances. Some individuals appreciate the self-paced nature of our OnDemand environment. Others prefer the ability to interact with a live instructor, particularly when new and challenging concepts are introduced. And others have such demanding work schedules that while they would love to participate in collaborative training sessions, they simply can’t spare the time to travel to and attend our public training sessions.

Blended learning allows those situations to be addressed in a manner that allows for the anywhere, anytime pace of OnDemand, coupled with the live instructor-led interaction.

How Will Blended Learning Work?
Starting July 30, 2018, Cloudera University will post a monthly session of blended learning. Enrollment will open approximately 6 weeks prior to the first live session and close 2 days prior.  Each course will have a capacity of 20 students, to ensure that everyone will have the ability to collaborate and interact during the live, instructor-led portion. So make sure to register early. Initial blended learning courses will focus on developers, administrators, and data analysts.

The course starts with an instructor-led session that sets expectations and takes the students through the technical environment to ensure all registrants have access. The first set of learning modules will be assigned as well. These modules are accessed through the OnDemand portal. You will have the rest of the week to view the training and complete the assigned exercises.

The following Monday, you will join your classmates for the live portion of the course. Your Cloudera instructor will combine lecture, demonstrations, and open discussion to ensure that you get maximum benefit, strengthening your competence in the concepts covered that week. At the conclusion, the instructor will provide time for Q&A and assign the next set of modules. The remainder of the course follows the same format.

The Details
Each Blended Learning course will start on a Monday and continue for a total of 5 sessions. While the scheduled time for the instructor-led portion is 10am-1pm Eastern, anyone in the world is eligible to register and attend.

One week prior to the start date, you will have access to the full course material, as well as 20 hours of the cloud-based lab environment to complete the exercises, available for the duration of the course. Access to the course videos and lab will be limited to a maximum of 6 weeks.

Want to Get Started with Blended Learning?
Registration is now open for the first blended learning course, Developer for Spark and Hadoop Training, scheduled to begin July 30, 2018. Students will learn the key concepts and gain the expertise needed to ingest and process data on a Cloudera cluster and develop high-performance parallel applications with Apache Spark 2, using the most up-to-date tools and techniques. Blended learning sessions for Cloudera Administrator Training and Data Analyst Training begin later this summer and early fall.

For more information, please visit: https://www.cloudera.com/more/training/blended-learning.html#courses

Nicole Kelly is Senior Manager Services Product Marketing at Cloudera.