ABOUT THE TRAINING

Unlike traditional workshops, instead of spending the full day in lectures, each student will work at their own pace through a set of comprehensive, focused training videos covering one or more of three broad areas of Drupal skill sets: Site Building, Module Development and Theming. Experienced mentors will be available to help students answer questions on a one-on-one basis, work through sticky spots, or demonstrate additional examples to help clarify difficult concepts. By using video training instead of a live lecture model, students will be able to work at their own speed, pausing where they need to, replaying material they didn't get the first time around, and skipping material they're already familiar with. And instead of lecturing, the trainers will be free 100% of the time to help individuals through tricky spots or point them in the right direction.

If you've ever zoned out during a lecture and found yourself a little lost, or been frustrated that the short time available for questions gets taken up with discussion you're not interested in, this is the perfect environment for you. You can take breaks when you need, tackle exactly what you need to learn (or we'll help you figure out what that is) and get a lot of personal expert advice along the way.

When you arrive, we will get you oriented to the course material and give you a custom curriculum focused at your particular skill level, tackling the subjects you need to cover. All levels of experience with Drupal will come out of this workshop having made a huge step up the Drupal learning curve, guaranteed. Students will get a full week of access to all the training videos so that they can continue to review and expand their knowledge following the training.

FOR THOSE NEW TO DRUPAL

We will provide a tested curriculum where you will build a Drupal 7 site from scratch (no code required), learning some of the most important concepts and techniques around Drupal site-building throughout the process.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PARTICIPATE

First and foremost, you will need a laptop and a set of comfortable earbuds or headphones. If you do not have a laptop, we will have laptops available to borrow. If you're easily distracted by noise, you might want a set that blocks out some sound, just in case there is a bit of discussion around you. Keep in mind that you will be watching sets of videos, and then applying what you learn throughout the day. You can also bring an iPad or tablet device to play the videos on while you follow along on your laptop. 

Having a vanilla Drupal installation without any modifications ready will help you get started as quickly as possible. You can use the Acquia stack, or Bitnami in order to quickly set up a Drupal site like a desktop application (see here for a tutorial for Windows http://is.gd/ah6VpT or for Mac: http://is.gd/bskLKZ). Or, feel free to come with another stack you prefer. If you don't know what a stack is, don't worry about it, we'll help you out.

YOUR VOLUNTEER MENTORS

• Scott Reynen - Developer at Aten Design Group.
• Matt Tucker - Developer at CU Boulder.
• Brian Hiatt - Developer at Open Media Foundation.
• Kathy Chavez - Designer and Developer at Kappaluppa Company.
• Ned McClain - CTO at Applied Trust.
• John Ferris - Designer and Themer at Pixel Whip.