What HP People Are Saying

"My expectations were exceeded. The hands-on format was terrific. The instructor knew his stuff and presented it in an easily understandable format."
-- M. Parker

"I just wanted to send you a note concerning my experience with the Perl Jumpstart course that I attended. I have found the information that you passed on to be extremely useful in my current position at HP. The materials that were used in the class have been my constant companion over the course of the past couple of weeks and have repeatedly helped me solve potentially sticky problems."
-- Tony R. Holzhey, Systems Integration Engineer

"Perfect 7's (for instruction) in the latest Perl Jumpstart class. That does not happen very often, particularly for courses aimed at software developers. So I usually write a short message to the vendor when that happens... This is the type of instructor that I like teaching at HP Corporate: experienced and knowledgeable but very patient with students.
-- Dennis Hong, Manager, Professional Development

"The instructor was patient, always cheerful, answered questions well, initiated discussions, and was clear in explanations."
-- Aparna Seetheraman

"The instructor was helpful, able to draw on students' interest in the subject matter. Flexible. Friendly."
-- Rebecca Tsag

"The instructor is very good at getting you involved in the class."
-- Anonymous

"I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank you for putting on the NT for Unix Technical Users classes for our selected Cupertino customers.

"We had very positive feedback from each of the class sessions. And, I strongly believe this training really helped the technology transition for these customers!

"You were very professional and easy to work with, and I do plan on recommending your course to others in HP making similar transitions!

"Thanks again for your great help!"

-- James Hagan, HP Cupertino

"Teachers are heroes. I know of great ones, good ones, and lousy ones, but I don't know of any educational organizational structure that I would give anything but a grudging grade of C. The problem, of course, is that hero-based processes are very difficult to sustain.

"Dan Keller is a great one, a consultant who teaches a variety of technical topics at HP and other companies. People who have been his students, including me, have consistently left his classes with lots more skills than we had going in.

"Dan says that he learned his basic instructional framework at Bell Labs many years ago. As with many things like this, it comes under the heading of "simple but not easy." Dan calls his framework, "Balanced Instructional Technique" (BIT). BIT is a repetitive cycle that consists of three activities: explain, exercise, and evaluate. He suggests that we go through this cycle at five minute increments or for each teaching point, whichever comes sooner.

"This sounds straightforward, but it is not easy to do. First, we have to break up our materials into less-than-five-minute chunks. Then, we have to get the students to DO something with the material during each chunk. And, lastly, we need to ask the students to reflect on the item, again within each chunk. The reflection doesn't have to be a full-scale philosophical essay; it can be a quick question and answer. Or the exercise and evaluation might be combined such that the results of the exercise show how well the student understands the material. This process wreaks havoc on my usual 'slides-shown-per-hour' metric."

-- an unsolicited review by Joe Podolsky, an IT manager at HP Corporate.

"The instructor did his job well. He presented useful tid-bits that kept the advanced students interested. He emphasized the traps to avoid. He gave a good overall-picture of how components fit together. He was sensitive to pacing, which was difficult due to the spread of expertise in attendees. He was respectful of individuals in the class, yet kept everyone on task (kept conversations from wandering -- re: Microsoft, for example)."
-- Reed White, HP Corvallis

"Thank-you for the class, NT for UNIX Users. I really learned a lot, and appreciate you teaching the class! I now feel more confident in getting around the NT system, and doing what I need to do for my work."
-- Susan Brown, HP Palo Alto

"Wow -- More info than I ever dreamed. Will use a LOT of it. Terrific -- and the book is worth its weight in gold. Tremendously valuable to my work. Will be huge time saver."
-- Mary Dryden, HP Palo Alto

"Instructor's strengths: clear delivery, knowledge of material, answers to questions, programmer mentality."
-- anonymous, HP Labs, Palo Alto

"Instructor delivers what he promised. He did a great job in comparison of NT with Unix. That's exactly what's needed by Unix people."
-- Jack Zhu, HP Palo Alto

"I've been looking for an easy way to get web/database connectivity for about a year. The instructor was calm, patient, never hurries, lots of instructor/student interaction. Just keep doing what you're doing."
-- Mike Yee, HP Corporate

"Class participation was great. The instructor made everyone feel comfortable about participating. It was very refreshing to have an instructor who has really worked in the field."
-- Kara Patston, HP Santa Rosa

"Dan's classes are consistently the best I've had at HP."
-- Gary Purdum, HP Colorado Springs

"Your relationship with Java - being involved with the development - brought much to the course during the discussions of why and how things are done."
-- Robert Cross, HP Corporate

"Good use of on-line manuals and visual aids. Great knowledge of subject matter. Solicited active participation."
-- Peter Nanjo, HP Labs, Palo Alto

"This is a terrific course. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Web. It is informative, quick-paced, and fun to do. The information was presented in an easy to understand format. The information will be used immediately."
-- anonymous, HP Corvallis

"Advanced HTML Authoring was an EXCELLENT class covering the topics (forms, CGI scripts) which will be of most use to me."
-- Carla Wykoff, HP Corvallis

"Dan is always very enthusiastic, helpful, and fun. Will take another class offering from him when available."
-- John Gilman, HP Corvallis

"Everyone loved Dan and the class was certainly beneficial to all."
-- Doris Hattori, HP PeopleSoft Group

"Thank you for another successful learning experience! The participants enjoyed the class and the instructor. I am looking forward to the January class, and a repeat performance."
-- Shirley Steen, Training Coordinator, HP Sonoma County Sites

"This is one of the best classes I've ever taken! Dan is absolutely brilliant; yet, can teach complicated material in a very tangible manner. He has a great sense of humor, and made class very fun. I would definitely take another class from him."
-- anonymous, HP Corvallis

"The instructor had a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the class more valuable and interesting. He was able to answer all of our questions and gave me a great deal more information than I expected."
-- anonymous, HP Corvallis

"Thank you for your help with Perl! It has saved me literally two months of self learning."
-- Chetan Patel, HP Cupertino

"The pace was good, the stories were interesting, and he focused on the areas the class wanted. This course most definitely will help me in my day-to-day support responsibilities."
-- Sharon Donnel, HP Colorado Springs

"Dan made this easy to understand, no matter how much or how little the students knew. He has excellent examples to prove or support his point. Others at my site (Chelmsford) can learn lots from this class."
-- Brian Conville, HP Colorado Springs

"This was one of the most useful classes I've ever taken. I'll put this information to use right away!"
-- Janie Rebaleati, HP Colorado Springs