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Tim,
I think videos are easier and faster to absorb than simply written instructions. A video allows the viewer to listen and follow along on the screen clicks and navigation whereas a written only format forces the reader to read the material, attempt to reproduce the steps while ultimately having to review the material in order to successfully complete the process. A ten-minute video know becomes a twenty-minute exercise. I'm afraid you might lose a lot of readers.
So far these videos, in my humble opinion, are far superior to the training documentation provided by Acumatica.
I would hate to see you give up on this format. I am certain as you get the hang of it you will become more efficient at creating these high-quality videos.
@pmkohler I totally agree about the benefit of video.
Part of why it took me so long to launch the re-vamped version of the course was my struggle with video, but I'm a lot more comfortable with it now. Actually, I think it's easier than taking tons of screenshots and video provides a better flow.
Doing YouTube Live broadcasts (click here) with Ryan Brown helped me a lot to get comfortable with video. Then, simple brute force of recording 42 video training lessons helped a lot too. It's a combination of art and science that requires "doing" to get comfortable with.
I also built a piece of software that I call Course Builder 5000 which helps me organize the content so recording the video is as easy as possible.
Bottom line, I'm no longer on the fence about video. I'm all in. Each new lesson in the Tips and Tricks area of the course will be the same format: video on top with a transcript underneath.
@arline-welty Good question! My dad installed home alarm systems for a living for over 20 years. He crawled through the attics of a lot of fancy homes in San Diego, including the home of Ray Kroc and NFL players Junior Seau and John Carney. He worked for a company called Westec that later got bought by ADT. The top of the line home alarm system was the Westec 5000 (click here) and my dad made it seem like the coolest thing ever. That's where I got the 5000 from 😀
My dad passed away (click here) during the beginning of the pandemic and I have one of his work awards displayed behind my desk, next to my Acumatica MVP awards 😀
This would never happen, but if I ever created a commercial about AUGForums.com, it would look something like this:
Even though I have a long background and history with Acumatica I was reminded of a few simple things I'd forgotten.
I'm enjoying the early lessons and look forward to those with more meat on them.
I think the early lessons are excellent for new users of Acumatica and it will benefit those new users to take the course.
Thanks @mikelupro
My theory is that this course can reach ANYONE, but we'll see what kind of feedback lands here from new people.
Either way, the goal was to be as comprehensive as possible without dwelling on anything for too long.
The "gold nuggets" will be in the Tips and Tricks area.
I am a SQL guy but I don't understand why the SQL lessons were in the training lessons.
I don't see a lot of value added from the sessions on SQL and they interrupted the good flow I was getting from lesson after lesson.
And pasting SQL Query Results into Excel didn't trip my trigger either.
I don't know of how knowledge of a SQL query could benefit a user of generic inquiries.
@mikelupro Thank you so much for this feedback. I might take those lessons out the next time I re-record these lessons on a newer version of Acumatica. I was hesitant myself about including them, but I ended up doing it because I've encountered multiple people over the years who found SQL to be helpful when understanding Joins in a Generic Inquiry and also when running a Trace on a Generic Inquiry to troubleshoot errors (future Tips and Tricks lesson).
I just finished watching Adding Generic Inquiry Relations and was very confused as you went through the course. First you added a table and then a result and then you deleted the result and deleted a table and then you selected a table and added a relation and then went back and forth over different options about how to do that. It all ended up for me to be a confusing lesson and I had to re-do the lesson three times and skip all the start/stop/change/add/ stuff in the middle in order to get the query to work.
Plus I'd like you to slow the pace a bit as I'm trying to duplicate what you are saying in a generic inquiry I am creating on my screen and you just go too fast. So I have to stop the recording, back up, and replay over and over. A slightly slower pace would let me keep up and I'd feel better about not having the stop and go efforts.
@mikelupro Thanks for this Mike. Those Relations lessons were the most challenging for me. I'm not satisfied with them either and I'd like to improve them the next time I re-record them on a newer version of Acumatica. Do you have any ideas for how to explain Relations without SQL? Was the VLOOKUP example helpful?
Regarding the pace, the feedback from version 1.0 a couple years ago was that it was too slow 😀
So, that's why I sped things up. But I can understand that it can be too fast, especially when going through those messy SQL examples. I wonder, have you tried watching at .75x speed? Maybe that would help?
I wanted to keep each lesson under 10 minutes, but, if you're having to constantly pause the video, then I guess it ends up being over 10 minutes 🙁
Hi Tim: I just completed the course for all lessons except the last Tips and Tricks. The details in ALL of the lessons added greatly to my knowledge. i am grateful to you for creating such a hands-on course for Generic Inquiries because there is no other way to learn this skill in such a granule mode. The lessons were just right in length. I'd prefer for future lessons that they be a bit longer with a slower show-and-tell effort so I could follow along with the example in my own database. I am encouraging my team members to go through the lessons as well.
In future episodes it would be nice to see examples of other data sources than Bills & Adjustments.
Kind regards, and congratulations on a successful launch of your course. I look forward to others.
Mike
@mikelupro Thank you, yet again, for the feedback Mike.
Yes to other data sources! The first Tips and Tricks lesson, Inventory Aging, is an example of this.
I'm going to try and stay with core Financials and Distribution examples since those are the most popular modules, but I know that you are working with Manufacturing quite a bit so I can sprinkle in some Manufacturing examples at come point too. I just don't want to overdue it since I want to focus on techniques that as many people as possible can use in their environment.
Thoroughly enjoying this course AND I'm learning some new and helpful things along the way, i.e., setting how I want Acumatica data to be displayed in Excel, fonts, headers and so on.
Thanks for the feedback @pam-brockhaus. I also enjoyed hearing your feedback on Episode #78 of the Podcast (click here). Looking forward to talking Power BI with you in the future.
I thoroughly enjoyed the videos on pivot tables AND the quiz. Already began practicing pivot tables and am solidifying the information you provided.
Having only completed only the first part so far, I would say that your course should be mandatory for everyone new to Acumatica and a great investment for all employers who have new hires. Having spent a few weeks learning using AOU and youtube, I would say that when I watched your videos it all cemented together.
@astra-mathis Thanks for the comment Astra! And this is the first time that I've seen someone use "AOU" for "Acumatica Online University", nice!
I'm 6 weeks into learning Acumatica (my 3rd ERP system) and appreciated the additional tips on formatting PT's. I'm quite surprised that fields and GI's don't have the ability to show % or $ in column headers / field names; but thankful for your formatting tips on PT's that gives us a workaround for now. If you ever hear of a currency data type for at least a GI being implemented, can you let me know? I'm following a community topic, but no updates have been posted.
@astra-mathis Agreed. There are a lot of improvements that could be made to formatting in both Generic Inquiries and Pivot Tables.
Thank you everyone for all of your feedback on this Discussion Topic. I've closed it for comments because I figured out how to enable the comments section on the bottom of the lessons in the course. You can now leave your comments on the lesson pages in the comments section.
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