Arista Labs – The best way to approach

Join the conversation and find out what our Instructors think!

Elan Beer, CTO of SDN Pros, recently enjoyed a candid conversation with three of our invaluable instructors to better understand their perspective and gain further insight on different aspects of Arista courses, Arista Training, and how they set their students up for success.

Arista is unique in many ways, but specifically with regard to accessing labs. We asked our instructors what advantages Arista labs offer students, what works best for them in how they teach the labs, and if they have any tips for best practices?

Instructor Insights

Our instructors are incredibly experienced and all have their own style and approach towards how they incorporate labs, in particular, into the course curriculum.

Extended Access

3 weeks, 24 hour access provides flexibility to both instructors and students: allowing time for breaks, fitting it in around individual schedules, and creating the best learning environment for students by mixing up lab and lecture times.

Don’t Rush

There is no rush – time constraints often lead to misunderstandings, errors and frustrations, so take all the time you need.

Individual Environment

To quote Neill, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” Essentially, what is done in an individual lab environment stays in that lab environment! Students can really take it in any direction.

Having their own captive lab environment affords each student the opportunity to make mistakes and repeat or re-do labs without interfering with or causing problems within anyone else’s environment.

Approach labs in stages:

As Amir explains, “Don’t be too analytical on the first go…see the material, the operation. Second time around, be more analytical with additional commands. And then try to formulate what the lab achieves and how it is done. “

Can you teach it?

The best way to master technology is to imagine you have to teach it afterwards. Being able to configure a feature or change a setting is half the story, to teach it you have to fully understand how that feature works, what affect it has on other aspects of the system, and be able to break all that down into small, understandable pieces. So, combining all the elements will go far towards achieving mastery of that technology.

Lab Support

[email protected] is an email alias on hand for any questions, thoughts or concerns in the middle of the class or after the class. It’s a great utility for labs, but also a utility for current and previous students to engage and get some additional help when and where needed.

If you enjoyed hearing from our Instructors, take an Instructor-Led Course or catch them in some Arista Academy videos.

Meet our instructors and listen to the conversation.