Oxsen Learning

Civil Engienering firms with learning and development departments mostly cover compliance, HR, and leadership. Technical training is rare, and it usually comes down to who builds it.

This week's learning need is built from experience. Training created by people who have done the work is what takes you from walking away informed to walking away ready to apply it on a project.

Follow along for the second learning need next week.

I train civil engineers.

That line gets an interesting reaction at events. Curiosity, mostly, then some version of the same question: doesn't school already teach you what you need to know?

Fair question. The truth is civil engineering is too broad for school to cover it all, and the industry isn't set up to fill that gap once you're on the job either.

I've spent years watching this play out, and I've put what I've learned into what I call the seven learning needs, built specifically for civil engineers. Over the next few weeks, I'm breaking each one down.

Follow along if you want the rest of them.

One of my favorite tools for building course content is something I don't see used often in online learning: the interactive image.

Take a picture, a screen, a diagram, a layout, whatever needs explaining, and layer in text, photos, or video right where it matters. Instead of a paragraph explaining what someone is looking at, they can just click and see it.

Context is what makes it stick. It's a small detail, but it's built into every course I make.

It's one of the tools I build into my AutoCAD Civil 3D courses: https://www.oxsenlearning.com/category/professional

Ever get a joint type in Civil 3D that's not the one you actually wanted? Here's the workaround, no digging into XML or SQLite files required. Full workflow at oxsenlearning.com.

Most AI conversations are about the future.

I want to talk about right now instead. Specifically, how we can use the simple, most basic features of AI, the ones already available today, and put them toward the needs that aren't being met.

Standard operating procedures are one of those gaps. They've been around forever, but they're rarely kept up to date, and sometimes never even written down. They live in the heads of the people running the systems, often the ones nearing retirement, or already gone.

This July, I brought this to Waterworks School, through the Northwest Oregon subsection of AWWA. In the last ten minutes of the session, I walked the room through a live example. One conversation, turned into a working SOP for a basic emergency response plan.

Full breakdown, plus the actual example, is on the blog. Link below.
https://www.oxsenlearning.com/post/using-ai-for-water-utility-sops

A brand new course is live at Oxsen Learning!

Pipe and Pressure Pipe Networks in AutoCAD Civil 3D is a focused, practical course built for engineers, municipal staff, and students who want to do utility design right in Civil 3D. Four plus hours covering pipe networks, pressure pipe networks, object styles, annotation, and drawing setup. Everything you need to go from building a network to a production-ready plan sheet.

Whether you have been doing this work in 2D and are ready to make the jump, or you already know Civil 3D but utilities have always been a weak spot, this course was built for you.
Enroll today at oxsenlearning.com.