Well - at least a real test that will requires hands-on vs. theoretical knowledge of a product.

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Or as one person aptly phrased it - "How not to teach a class".  I read something about a similar situation in a newsgroup not so long ago, but dismissed it, not actually believing that a trainer would actually stoop so low as to do such a thing - but I did indeed see this occur.

How can a trainer teach a class from or lecture from a certification test software preparation package?  I saw this incident recently and was amazed to say the very least.

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I have spent quite a bit of time talking about the IT Pro field.  I have discussed their certifications, various tests and other areas, but to the detriment of other Microsoft certifications.  I shall now remedy this, ahem, slight oversight on my part.

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So there I was, talking with a group of students about what they used to help pass the 70-236, Configuring Exchange Server 2007.  Given that this was a largish group of students and that there was a lot of senior management "interest" in the performance of this group of students, I fully expected to see several braindumps - and yet, there weren't any in evidence. 

I was surprised at this on several accounts.  As I had said earlier, there was much interest from senior management in how well these students did on their tests (most of them passed on their first attempt, with the remaining passing on their second attempt).  In response to this, I expected there to be "study guides" about - and there weren't. The students were very conscientious in preparing for this test.   They worked in excess of twelve hours a day going through various legitimate test preparation software packages and reviewing course material.  They also had several review sessions with different instructors to help prepare them for the test. They also quizzed each other as well from several different sources.

I mention all these different preparation measures to show that there is not one way that has to be used (or that can be used) to prepare for a test as evidenced with this group.  Each student found what worked for them - for some it was pure self-study, for others it was reading and reviewing material while for a select few it was a combination of all the methods.  In the end it did not matter what was use - only the outcome.  For most of the group, it was a "good" day, others had a "good day" a week later, but most of them ended up passing with none of them using any "alternate study guides."

Recent posts...

The Unheralded Trainers.

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Yes, Microsoft is indeed going to greater extents to reign in potential cheaters and/or "braindumpers".  I had mentioned in an earlier blog that Microsoft was in the process of implementing new measures to detect cheating on certification tests.  These measures, as described, would be able to tell whether a person had "braindumped" (if one can go garagesaling or scrapbooking, then certainly a test can be braindumped J) a test or not.  I guess by how long it takes them to answer a question, click-time for a selection and overall time to take a test.  If you have ever taken a certification test, you know what all of these mean - so I am not revealing any secrets here (not that I had any to reveal mind you).

At any rate, I had a student in class recently who was taking a number of tests (not for the class I was teaching but for other classes).  He was taking them at a prodigious rate and doing really, I mean REALLY, well on all of them.  He was one of those people who had a phenomenal memory.  He also had an amazing grasp of the principles presented in class.  He also asked many interesting questions (as in make the instructor think type questions) throughout the class.  What made his situation so unique is that he was actually contacted by Microsoft.  He wasn't able to disclose the details of his conversation, but apparently he was asked a number detailed, technical questions to, in his own words, "see if I really knew the subject".  Again, he wasn't able to elaborate very much, but it seems that there really is checking done on test-takers who do too well (sad we have to think that way - if we get a 100 on a test at school, you are congratulated, if you get a 1000 on a Microsoft test, you are viewed with suspicion.

I applaud Microsoft for actually checking a tester, but am saddened that they must assume the tester has cheated for doing well.

Recent Posts:

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In the past I have talked a lot about IT Pros, their certifications, training etc, but now is the time to discuss another IT trainer, an unsung hero of IT world and IT training- the Applications Trainers.  Teaching application classes is not an easy thing to instruct for a variety of reasons, time constraints, different class each day, class setups, remembering what new and possibly removed features are in each variant of a product, time constraints - did I mention that I already?

Application Instructors just do not have much, if any, flexibility in their class schedule. They usually have but one day to get through their book and little time for veering off-topic or spending too much time with a difficult student.  They must also be more diligent about breaks and lunches - when class starts at 1pm - it starts at 1pm, there just isn't the time available to wait for tardy students.  As a result, I believe there is much that can be learned from observing their teaching style.  I have taught 1-day classes before - it is not easy when you are used to having the flexibility to catch-up the next day - you just don't have the luxury of time with one day classes. For those of who train regularly and teach multi-classes we are used to have some flexibility in our timing and can accommodate diversions in class discussion.  We also have the flexibility in going into greater detail on some topics and spending time with individual students and their questions.

I have the upmost respect for applications instructors - theirs is not an easy world of training at all having taught a few 1-day classes. I used to work with an outstanding applications instructor - that is all she taught and I was amazed at her ability to switch between different subjects on a daily basis and her ability to develop a rapport with her students in such a short period of time.  It is also a totally different teaching style from those of us teach multi-day classes.

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I ran across a reference to this the other day that some companies may require incoming IT personnel to take a "skills" test.  This wouldn't be so bad if ALL personnel, regardless of their field of endeavor, were subjected to the a "skills" test.  Just imagine - an incoming attorney being required to take a "skills" test -insulting for them and insulting for IT Pros as well.

I can understand the genesis of this - the paper MCSE's.  Many companies were deceived as to the technical competency of the new hire.  But if the person they are bringing in has years of experience, solid references AND certifications - then there is no real need to subject them to a "skills" test.  If a new person walks in, says they have all of these certifications, but no work record to support the certification claims, then I would be suspicious.  But the crux of the matter is that if you ONLY test IT personnel, then aren't you discriminating against them?  Can't someone "earn" a degree through various on-line degree-mills - send the "school" XX dollars and poof - now you have a degree in computer science?  Once when I was searching for a new job, I was asked to take a skills test and told them I wasn't interested in their job if this was required only for the IT staff - just as well, company has gone downhill since.

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I want to go back and revisit what can (if there is anything) be done about the "Troubled Trainer" - you know, the one who doesn't know ANYTHING about the product and shouldn't be there in the first place, much less in front of a roomful of students.

I heard several interesting stories about these troubled trainers - as an example of why there must be some method of encouraging them to seek their careers elsewhere.  As a contract trainer, this shouldn't take that long - enough clients complain about the instructor and they simply won't get work.  This would hold true in most cases except for the fact that there are bottom feeders out there - trainers who charge such a ridiculously low daily rate (which hurts the industry as a whole) that a CPLS or other entity simply wants someone with a pulse in front of the class and "hope" that things might work out (remembering of course that you get what you pay for in these cases). I relayed the story about the UFO guy and 3 years later this instructor is still teaching - a testament to what I am saying here.  So the system should balance out with contract trainers - supposedly - think UFO guy.  The poor trainers simply should not get contracts.

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‘Twas a time not so long ago that an IT Prop preparing for a test needed several computers (or more, plus specialized hardware) to learn a new product and to adequately prepare for a test. In addition to the servers, this also necessitated the IT Pro owning (and hopefully being able to configure) routers and switches to network all the computers. This meant that the majority of us were banished to the basement as our significant others found all the cables, computers and noise untenable in the “living” area. This doesn’t have to be the case now that virtualization is prevalent in our networks.

A few years ago, when Microsoft’s Virtual PC was first introduced into the classroom environment, I would have to spend sometime explaining what this product does, its’ benefits and how to use it in the classroom. Now, it is the rare student who isn’t familiar with VPC, Virtual Server and now Hyper-V (yes, there is that other manufacturer of virtualization products, but this isn’t about them). Students come in knowing what these products are and what they can do (and invariably, one of them will ask if they can have the Virtual machines – if one of you is reading this now – the answer is still no – sorry).

So does all this virtualization help? Well instead of having 2, 3 or even more servers at home, you might get away with just one maybe two servers (I use two laptops – makes life interesting with the fine TSA folks – it is the small switch and several external hard drives that makes their day). Now that there are new laptops available that support 8GB of RAM, this might cut down on the number of overall computers some use. So there you are in possession of a beefy server – now all you have to do is configure the requisite VMs to prepare for a test – sounds simple enough – but you might want to consider using two monitors - makes it a lot easier to transition between VMs and documentation.

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Should there be a cross-company certification and how would that work? This thought came to me when I was teaching an Office Communications Server class recently. There were a lot of comparison questions between Microsoft and the “other company with green colored equipment”. Since there were so many questions, this led me to think that maybe there is some validity to a cross platform certification. Yes, CompTIA is out there and provides a “vendor-neutral” certification. But this isn’t so much vendor neutral as it is a cross-vendor application or certification.

So is there a need for such a certification? I think that if there ever was a subject that could warrant such, this would be the one. Trying to make sense of Voice over IP is difficult when working with just one platform, trying to integrate two platforms makes life interesting indeed! In every class, there are always questions regarding how this piece from this company integrates with another piece from another company. There are not that many Voice experts out there and there are even fewer who know two distinct Voice platforms well. If you want a good field to specialize in – Voice will be the one (and besides, soon there will be a Microsoft Certified Master certification available) as there will only be an increased demand for Voice experts.

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Or to put it bluntly – is there any kind of quality control for instructors? Students come to a class expecting that the instructor knows the subject matter, has been through the labs and knows something a bit more than what is presented in the courseware. This should be the accepted norm for instructors – but from what I hear from students – there are some instructors who leave much to be desired.

 We use good ‘ol Metrics That Matter (MTM) whereby the training facility, course content AND the instructor are evaluated. If an instructor does an excellent job, the evaluations will reflect this, likewise, if the instructor does a poor job – the evaluations should reflect this as well. So, if an instructor consistently does a poor job (and the evaluations should reflect this) are there mechanisms in place to identify these instructors and do these mechanisms work?

There are mechanisms in place to identify these instructors, but not to limit or curtail their bad work. Unfortunately, this allows these less than average people to go about their less than average job, which helps to foster the bad reputation about instructors (the one where those who can - do, and those that can’t - teach). I and other instructors should not have to suffer at the expense of poor trainers. They should move on to a different profession (would you like fries with that?). So what can we do to identify and help these “challenged” instructors? Perhaps someone can setup an anonymous tip site - a website you can post a message that would then be forwarded to the instructor in question? This might help, but somehow I think the message would be lost or not understood by the person in question. So what next – visit MTM of course, but that is not the final solution either.

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Are you the procrastinator type – let me think about tomorrow? Have you not upgraded your SQL certification from 2000 to 2005 as o yet? Are you holding off on some exams because of the cost associated with them? Well, does Microsoft have a deal for you! Yes, Microsoft is deeply concerned about certification well being. In fact, they are so concerned, they are going to give you forty very good reasons to rejoice – a 40% discount on tests to be precise (not applicable for all tests – more on that later)!

As stated from one of their blog sites, this off is good for the Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), or Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA). It is also applicable if you wish to upgrade your certifications to Visual Studio 2005 or SQL Server 2005 with a 40 percent automatic price reduction on retiring and upgrade exams. A complete list of tests, along with some other information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examstoretire.mspx There is a very good FAQ at the bottom of the page that is worth reviewing.

On what exams can use this great deal and for how long? First of all, you do not a special code to get this discount. It should automatically apply when you register for one of the applicable tests. So there is no requirement on your part. It still wouldn’t hurt to verify the 40% reduction when you register for the test. This “double-coupon special” is valid for tests that will expire in March of 2009 (a mere 180 testing days or so away) as well as for some of the upgrades in Visual Studio and SQL. There isn’t enough space here to list all of the exams, so take a look at the link listed above.

In short – if you have delayed taking a test – now is your opportunity – Carpe Diem (or is that Carpe Experior?) At any rate – take advantage of this offer and good luck!

I ask this question because I have known of trainers who last touched a production system 15+ years ago (and it wasn’t even a MS network at that) and yet still proclaim that they have valid, hands-on experience with current operating systems? This would seem to me to be stretching your experience beyond even that of Mr. Fantastic.

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In other words, should trainers have to audit a class they intend to teach, audit a class every so often and recertify on products? This will be the theme of the next few blogs as I believe it is germane to quality training!

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In other words, should trainers have to audit a class they intend to teach, audit a class every so often and recertify on products or other measures to their certifications and professional relevancy? This will be the theme of the next few blogs as I believe it is germane to quality training!

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What an interesting question and one that is sure to have many and passionate responses. Speaking of which, at the end of this blog is a poll on what your thoughts are on this subject – whether an IT pro needs a college degree – please respond – it is not a phishing site.

So, does an IT pro really need a college degree? I think in some fields, yes, a degree is required or at the very least should be strongly encouraged. A programmer, for instance, should have a prescribed course of instruction. Does a network IT Pro require the same level of formal instruction as a programmer, does a DBA? The DBA probably should have some formal education, the network IT Pro, probably does not require a college degree for their day-to-day operations – more later on this.

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Last week I was involved in a conversation with several other instructors (representing several different vendors besides Microsoft) when the subject of new or more importantly unskilled trainers. Perish the thought, but yes Dorothy, they do exist. Most trainers have come across one of the “Dreaded Page Turners - DPTs” before and have had to deal with their ramifications later.

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The Microsoft Certified Learning Consultant (MCLS) is an interesting certification. It is not one that directly involves taking a test and earning an MCT: MCLC or MCITP – in fact it doesn’t exist. This is a certification you earn by providing learning consultative expertise to a client(s). Where your role is more that of a technology training consultant - where you diagnose current and desired business performance and design learning solutions to bridge the learning gap.*

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If you do a little scouring on the Internet, you can come across snippets of information about new Microsoft tests that are in development or in the beta process. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, taking a beta exam can be a boon, yet frustrating, as the exam developers are still working out all the kinks with the test. So what you see for a beta test is still a work in progress and could be aggravating to the test taker – but still well worth the experience.

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There were some interesting responses in regards to my recent post about an apparent shortage of IT workers in the US and the desire by some firms to bring in workers to offset this shortage.

First of all, statistics rarely tell the whole story. In some cases the same statistic can be presented in such a fashion that it can be used to prove and disprove the same position. So merely basing a decision that there is a shortage of 200, 000 developers in the US on such a broad category can be misleading. Developers in what discipline – Cobol? So that needs to be clarified. Also, how long has this “shortage” lasted and are there developers in training (at Universities etc.) now that could fill this shortage in a year or so?

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I had this question from a student last week. This student was taking a Windows Server 2003 class (as part of a series of classes) and asked if they should just skip the 2003 MCSE track altogether and take the Windows Server 2008 MCTS/MCITP exams. What my answer was I’ll save for later.

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Once again the “shortage” of IT personnel in America has resurfaced and the debate continues. Is the shortage genuine – are there really not enough Americans who can code? According to the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), there is such a shortage. They are urging congressional leaders to support H.R. 5882 which “would help reduce the U.S. workforce shortage by making available to highly skilled foreign-born workers those employment-based green cards from previous years that have gone unused because of government processing delays”.

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I was teaching a class a few weeks ago and the subject of the certification test for the class came up. The gist of the conversation was that a few of the students wanted the focus of the class to shifting from one of a learning environment to one of test-preparation - specifically a “focused” test-preparation environment. This was not the intent of the class and I could not and would not condone this action.

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Who is the face of the IT Pro world to the corporate environment (or the ever growing consumer support side – think of the various large electronics stores with their own IT staff to perform installations repairs etc)? Is it the network administrator or the Exchange Administrator? Or is it one of the developers or DBA types? Or is it one of the helpdesk people – those poor folks who has to go out and fix a computer or assist a user with a problem for the 12th time – whatever the situation, it is one of the helpdesk people who generally assists with a problem first.

In my last blog I talked about the MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician now I will discuss the new Vista certifications. As before, there is still a need for

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Is it the network administrator or the Exchange Administrator? Or is it one of the developers or DBA types? Or is it one of the helpdesk people – those poor folks who has to go out and fix a computer or assist a user with a problem for the 12th time – whatever the situation, it is one of the helpdesk people who generally assists with a problem first. Now you might be asking just how this is applicable to the Microsoft Certification world? Well, until 2004, there wasn’t a Microsoft certification that covered the desktop world. Sure, there was the 70-270 XP exam, but that wasn’t really a desktop certification. One was introduced – the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST).

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In my last few blogs I have talked about the different punishment standards recently introduced by Microsoft for individuals and test-centers. A test-center (CPLS) only faces a suspension, where as the individual faced a life-time ban. I think we need to further address the punishment for cheating by CPLSs – uh “test-centers”

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In my last blog I talked about the different punishment standards recently introduced by Microsoft. A test-center (CPLS) only faces a suspension, where as an individual faces a life-time ban. I think we need to further address the punishment for cheating – by both individuals and by CPLSs – uh “test-centers”.

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Microsoft recently announced a new measure to crack down on certification exam cheating (http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2008/070708ed1.html) and I applaud their efforts. I have stated before (and countless others have said the same thing) that to increase the value of a certification, you must curtail the ability for people to cheat. I believe a lot more could be done, but that would involve a large commitment of time and money – but hey, it is only their certifications and certification program that is affected right?

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Got you interested with that header didn’t I? Well, what about trainers – what separates the excellent trainers from their “page-turning” colleagues? You guessed it – a deep understanding of the product, real-world experience and the ability to convey their knowledge in a way that their students can follow.

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This topic came up in class a few weeks ago about the value of real world experience vs. knowing only what comes from a textbook. This is applicable whether you are a trainer or by someone applying for an IT job. You have to have real world experience – you can, in many cases, get by without a certification – but you can’t do your job without having hands-on experience.

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