eLearning that works

A colleague and I recently completed the 'Developing Applications with Oracle Applications Express' training offered by DBCON. I am a newbie to software development eLearning; my colleague, however, is a highly-experienced developer who has experienced various teaching methods over the years. We were both duly impressed with DBCON efforts.

I think the part I enjoyed the most was the homework. I have been on a few training courses over the last 20 years, and usually you leave the class or session with nothing to do until the next class. Not so with the DBCON training - they very wisely have developed their training course to cover the concepts with examples during the class, then follow up with the same concepts and examples within the tutorial package, which then expands the concepts you have learned with more examples.

On the whole I believe I learned more through this course than pretty well any other training course I have been on. I was so impressed I bought the second part of the training, 'Advanced Oracle Application Express Training' myself. Turns out my company is going to pay anyways, but I would have taken the course even if they were not paying.

If you are looking for some training that won't eat up your whole day, and let's you take the class where ever you have high-speed Internet, then DBCON is the provider you want to investigate.

the best book (for Apex)

Go out right now and get 'Pro Oracle Application Express', by John Edward Scott and Scott Spendolini. It is published by Apress. I picked it up for $39.99 (CAN) from chapters.ca a while ago and it is worth every cent. More than that actually, so I feel I got a great deal.

Or, you can sign up for DBCON's excellent training courses; they will send you the book in PDF format. Personally, I like reading books made of paper still, but having it in PDF format means I can share with coworkers and keep my 'real' copy in pristine shape.