Training

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After reading this page:

• you've learned about training on the use of the Tygron Web Application
• you've learned about the different types of training available
• you've learned which type of training is recommended for which situation
• you've learned about the Tygron Engine certification
• you've learned about the Tygron Train the Trainer facilitation course
• you've learned how to enlist for or organize a Tygron training on site

Tygron Engine Training

Training is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market recognize as of 2008 the need to continue training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. People within many professions and occupations may refer to this sort of training as professional development.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training

To be able to use the Tygron Engine for spatial planning projects, it is highly recommended the user becomes trained in the use of this powerful tool. By taking this wiki as starting point, much information and knowledge can already be self tutored. This approach is mostly meant for students and people just starting with the use of the Tygron technology. To get feedback or answers on specific questions, the Tygron Forum (www.forum.tygron.com)is the dedicated place for such communications. Here the Tygron staff and community are more then willing to help any user with their questions or comments.

Different types of training for different goals

Self tutoring

The starting point of training in the Tygron Engine is self tutoring. By using a combination of this wiki and the forum, a user can already learn a lot about implementing the Tygron technology for their own project. The wiki contains a lot of background information and practical 'How-to' advise for using the Tygron Engine. If a user still has some questions left open after reading the wiki, the Tygron Community forum will be the next step. Here the user can post questions about issues he has run into. Tygron staff and the community are more then willing to provide you with their advise and assistance. The forum is also an excellent place to share the progression of your project (screen shot) with the rest of the community, or to share thoughts on any other (serious game related) project.

Tygron Engine Certification

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Sometimes self tutoring is not the preferred route to follow. When a license for commercial use is purchased, the self tutoring program can be insufficient as the user must be fully qualified for using the technology in order to have a successful implementation of the Tygron Technology. To accomodate this demand, Tygron offers a three tier training course. At the end of a course users will receive a Certification of Completion.

Course A

This course is a four to five day course, that can be given at the Tygron office or on location. The course is made up of hands on exercises with the goal to enable participants to visualize their game concept on a basic level in the Tygron Engine.

• Day one: participants play a short session of Climategame, to become familiar with the Tygron Engine technology. At the end of the day a first attempt on rendering the specific game area is performed.
• Day two: participants will render the actual game area, and will spend most of the remainder of the day on iconizing and polishing their 3D world, to make it more recognizable.
• Day three: participants will work on concepts such as stakeholders, indicators, indicator weight, actions and progression scoring. At the end of the day a first play test/ test run is performed, to generate a first impression of the game concept.
• Day four: participants will continue their work on stakeholders, indicators, indicator weight, actions and progression scoring. A first start will be made on creating fly over sequences.
• Day five: participants will fine tune their game concepts, perform a final play test and the games will be presented. The final presentation can occur in a broader setting, such as a symposium. At the end of the day the participants will receive a certificate of completion.

• See also: Example training syllabus (PDF) (Select "download" on next page)

Course B

This is the advanced course following up on Course A. The course consists of at least three days of teaching, mostly through hands on exercises. Trainees are supposed to have completed the first course in advance. Trainees are expected to also work two days on their own. This can be at home, at the office, or at the training location (if needed), however, trainers are not supposed to be present all the time (unless different arrangements were made).

The goal of this advanced course is to go deeper into the material that was touched upon in course A; timeline/ planning games, adding game levels, more complex fly over sequences, working with custom shapefiles, implementing more complex gamification.

Course C

This is the top level training course for use of the Tygron Engine. Goal of this training is to have participants be able to make even more complex games. Participants are also expected, upon completion, to be able to train other users themselves. Attention is being given to the higher levels of access on the front end; project, group and user management.

Train the Trainer facilitation course

When a game is ready to be rolled out, during game sessions for instance, having a trained facilitator lead such sessions is a must. To have a user be able to facilitate such sessions, Tygron organizes so called "Train the Trainer" sessions. During such a training, participants are trained to host a game session as facilitator. Focus on this training will be on the preparation of a game session, managing the game session itself, and on after session tasks, such as managing the participation list, debriefing the participants, etc.

The Train the Trainer facilitation course can be given at the Tygron office or on site at your location.

When do I need training?

All users should start by self tutoring, with the use of the wiki and community forum. This approach is also ideal for students using the educational licenses. To get more in depth training, with personal trainers present, Tygron offers a three tier course. Course A is meant for everybody that wants to be able to quickly scetch a game concept in the Tygron Engine. Completing course B will make the user proficient in creating their own multilevel serious game, with more focus on gamification as course A does. Course C is meant for users that purchase a large license, where a larger team will work on multiple game concepts. The course C attendee will be able to manage users in his user group, manage games of their group on the server, and teach others the use of the Tygron Engine.

How can I receive a training?

The self tutoring facility is open for all users. The wiki is freely accessible and the user only has to subscribe to the forum in a few simple steps - Register here. To organize any of the other training courses, please contact Tygron at info@tygron.com.