Choosing a good course
Internet books
Learning online
Videos and CD-ROMs

Choosing a good course

A good course, however, can be a great introduction. There are dozens of courses available: from TAFE colleges, universities and community colleges. There are also plenty of private courses offered by the traditional computer training companies and also some offered by computer retailers in their local area.

When choosing a seminar or class, keep the following in mind:

• Don't judge a class by its cost. Many $40 local courses provide better value than the two-day $1350 courses aimed at corporate personnel. See if you can get recommendations from people who've already done a course.
• Look for a course that provides information in many formats, such as lectures, demonstrations, hands-on practice and class notes.
• After a certain amount of time most people stop taking in new information. This is especially true when you're learning a whole lot of new concepts, as well as new skills. With this in mind, a course spread over a number of weeks broken up into short classes is likely to give you greater long-term benefit than a one-day crash course.
• Your training will be infinitely more valuable if it relates directly to the hardware and software you'll be using. If you want to browse the Web using Internet Explorer under Windows 95 on an IBM-compatible computer, think twice about doing an Internet course where the practical sessions use Netscape on a Macintosh.
• If you don't yet have a computer, put the training off until you've made your purchase. You'll retain what you learn far more effectively if you can go home and practise straight after a class.
  

Internet books

If a course is not your cup of tea, how about a book?

There are hundreds of Internet books available. Some provide a general overview of the Net; others focus on the practicalities of getting connected; others zero in on a particular part of the Net, such as the World Wide Web, browsers, HTML, Java, chatting or newsgroups.

How do you choose among them? Probably the easiest way to narrow down your selection is to focus on Australian books. While the Internet is global, there are many aspects of connecting to the Net that are country-specific, and Australian books also tend to highlight local content, which can sometimes be hard to find once you're online.

For getting a good grounding in the 'how to' of the Net, seek out Geoff Ebbs' and Jeremy Horey's The Australian Internet Book.. It's been a hot seller for a long time, with good reason. It provides useful information on connecting to the Internet, and also gives excellent coverage on the Net itself.

Learning online

If you know enough about the Internet to get yourself connected, you'll find plenty of resources online to extend your knowledge.

Of course, we like to think the November PC User Offline CD-ROM and the regularly updated PC User Online Web site (http://www.pcuser.com.au) would provide most of what you need to get started and continue exploring the Net, but of course there are plenty of other great tutorials and jump-off points online. See Internet sites for beginners.

Videos and CD-ROMs

I've yet to find an effective Internet training video. Possibly it's the medium itself: you need your video, TV (or monitor) and computer side-by-side to get the most benefit, and switching back and forth between the two isn't as easy as having a book at your elbow as you navigate the Net.

A good CD-ROM tutorial is an excellent way to learn the Net, with the additional benefit of saving you online time. In particular, look for one that uses the Web's HTML format, so that you can get the hang of navigating the real Web before you go online and also launch onto real Web pages from with the CD-ROM's pages.

Of course, there's probably some good CD-ROM tutorials out there, but with all due modesty the November PC User Offline CD-ROM is at least as good as any that we've seen.

By Rose Vines

Where to now

• Your first steps on the Net. Try our other tutorials for Net newcomers.
• Connecting to the Net. Not yet on the Net? Our step by step guides will show you how.