Dataton Digital Academy goes online

The Dataton Academy was launched in 2012 and has gone from strength to strength. Training sessions have taken place in every corner of the world, certified trainers have provided training in multiple languages and the Academy received AVIXA certification. Over 500 people have taken the two-day course and gained diplomas to reflect their skills and active participation during the course.

The new Dataton Digital Academy rolls out in 2021 when travel and physical meetings were limited for many users. We asked Dataton's lead trainer, Mikael Ena, to tell us a little more about the aims and content of the paid Dataton Digital Academy course.

Why offer a Digital Academy?

Mikael Ena: There are a lot of people doing webinars, YouTube tutorials and videos and they're doing a great job, but what we would like to do is offer something a little bit more in-depth and more personal.

One of the key assets of our regular Academy has been the relationship created between trainer and participant with plenty of opportunity to discuss and ask questions. The Digital Academy is a combination of ways to interact and learn, even though we can't be in the same room.

What's the format for the Digital Academy?

Mikael Ena: The Digital Academy consists of webinars for very small groups, assignments after each webinar that are then reviewed at the next session, and e-learning segments that the participants do in their own time. Today there are four groups of seminars that are online.

There is a limited number of people – we're aiming at eight people right now for each seminar as maximum, and that's because we want this seminar to be personal. We want to be able to help each student with questions, and after each seminar we're going to give each student a home assignment. The home assignment will involve programming inside WATCHOUT, learning how to use WATCHOUT. We will look at it and discuss with the student what was good and what could be improved.

Parallel to that, the student also needs to go into the e-learning portal and take a five-module course. They need to pass tests along the way in order to continue to the next level.

Is the Digital Academy in English?

Mikael Ena: We are rolling out this program now starting in March and we will do it in English first. But the goal is that we are going to localize it for each part of the world with their own language and the local teachers. We have a network of certified trainers around the world who are keen to kick off the Digital Academy and reach more users!

When will the Digital Academy be available?

Mikael Ena: As I said the rollout is in March 2021 and then we're going to keep going in April. If the demand is very high, we will keep going very regularly, starting up sessions, and then also we will push it out to our trainers as fast as possible. Hopefully by the end of April we will have trainers around the world picking up this concept and doing it in their own local areas and hopefully also in the local language.

Where can I sign up?

Mikael Ena: As always when you want to find information, head to the Dataton web page. We have a separate tab there for training sessions and we will announce this online training session exactly the same way we do with our in real-life training sessions.

Why should I choose the Digital Academy?

Mikael Ena: There are a lot of good training videos and there are a lot of good seminars online that you can watch for free, and I really recommend that people do that. But if you want to have more in-depth, structured training with the opportunity to tap into the knowledge of experienced, certified trainers, I would suggest the Dataton Digital Academy is a good way to go!