Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, our team is comprised of several former VMware engineers. That means that we know a thing or two about lab specs – and we take them very seriously.
And in the context of lab hosting for VMware Education Delivery Partner (VEDP) courses, it's easy to see why.
If labs are glitchy, slow or disrupted, then learners and instructors alike are bound to be frustrated. This is bad for retention of two kinds: knowledge retention and student retention.
So, yes. Lab specs and the intricacies of infrastructure are important. But at the end of the day, learners don't care about them. They just want to learn.
While we take the technical side very seriously, we see our role as more like the pipes in the wall or overhead wires. We make things happen – but most of the time, people aren't even aware we're hard at work.
We know the critical role training plays in the development of the next generation of cloud engineers and the adoption of new, innovative technologies. And at a time when things move fast, training must be responsive, agile and, above all, seamless. In short, we do our thing so course providers and learners can do theirs.
So, why is the learner experience so important? Let's take a detailed look.
Why does learner experience matter?
Most of the time, learners aren't interested in what's going on behind the scenes. They don't experience lab specs – they experience learning.
A teacher may arrive in class with the greatest lesson plan in the world. But if they’re constantly interrupted or the projector fails, no learner is going to give them props for being well-prepared.
Learner experience directly impacts completion. If learners can't follow the course, they'll be, at best, demotivated and, at worst, looking for the door. Friction, as they say, is the enemy of motivation.
Related to this is the fact that learner experience impacts how learners perceive the course. Am I making progress? Can I get help when I need it? These are the million-dollar questions – not technical queries about the infrastructure.
In turn, how they perceive the course impacts the course provider's reputation. A frictionless learning experience can lead to word-of-mouth recommendations or the learner booking onto another course.
Ultimately, lab specs matter
when they improve learner outcomes. Here at Ascend, our labs' high reliability and security are a direct result of behind-the-scenes technical know-how. But these are only important inasmuch as they help the learner get where they want to be.
When are lab specs as important as learner experience?
Sometimes, problems with the backends are visible at the front. In general, this will be because the user experience suffers. The user can't get the thing they want as smoothly as they're used to.
In the case of VEDP labs, this could be down to misconfigurations, unwanted restarts, lost progress, security issues or accessibility issues.
In these cases, investment behind the scenes is an investment in learner experience. But for the learner, the most important thing remains what's on their screens – and what's going into their heads.
What makes a good learner experience in VMware lab courses?
