Very well presented Core 1 & Core 2 TTT sessions by Ms. Lynn Warne. Had to watch "on demand" but enjoyed each session!
Thank you for all the new materials being offered in the Certmaster/TestOut platform, we have been using it for years...

I thought it worthwhile, since one of our goals as instructors is to help students get the employment they seek, to provide the following information relating to an approach for job interview preparation utilizing AI.

While "volunteer" teaching yesterday, a classroom discussion centered on how to prepare for a job interview. One suggestion was using ChatGPT as a resource. Turning the clock back to 1999 when I was hired as a full-time faculty member, I figured a method of testing this idea was with the following prompt:

"Anticipated Sierra College hiring committee questions for faculty."

I'm amazed at the accuracy of this response in comparison to what I remember:

Got it — you’re preparing for a faculty hiring committee interview at Sierra College (or a similar California community college). These interviews often mix teaching philosophy, student success, diversity/equity, disciplinary expertise, and collegiality questions.
Here’s a breakdown of anticipated questions you may face:

Common Sierra College Faculty Hiring Committee Questions​

Teaching & Instruction​

1. • Describe your teaching philosophy. How does it align with the mission of a community college?
   • What teaching strategies do you use to engage students with diverse learning styles?
   • Give an example of how you assess student learning beyond traditional exams.
   • How do you integrate technology into your teaching?
   • How do you handle a classroom where some students are unprepared or disengaged?

Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (DEI)​

1. • How have you incorporated equity and inclusion into your teaching practices?
   • Give a specific example of how you supported a student from an underrepresented or disadvantaged background.
   • What does “equity-minded teaching” mean to you, and how have you applied it?
   • Sierra College serves a diverse student body. How would you ensure your course materials reflect that diversity?

Discipline & Curriculum​

1. • How do you stay current in your field?
   • If hired, what curriculum improvements or new courses might you propose?
   • Describe how you balance theory and practical application in your teaching.
   • What professional certifications, industry connections, or applied experience do you bring that would benefit students?

Student-Centered Approach​

1. • How do you support students who are struggling academically?
   • How would you encourage students to pursue further education or careers in your discipline?
   • Share an example of how you fostered student engagement outside of class (office hours, advising, mentoring, clubs).

Collaboration & Collegiality​

1. • Community colleges emphasize teamwork. How have you worked with colleagues on curriculum or program development?
   • How would you handle a disagreement with a colleague on teaching approaches or grading standards?
   • What role should faculty play in shared governance at a community college?

Scenario-Based​

1. • A student challenges your grading as unfair. How do you respond?
   • You notice plagiarism in an assignment — how would you handle it?
   • Enrollment in your course is low — what strategies would you use to improve student interest and retention?
   • How would you adapt if asked to teach in a modality new to you (e.g., fully online, hybrid, accelerated)?

Commitment to Mission & Students​

1. • Why do you want to teach at Sierra College specifically?
   • How does your teaching contribute to Sierra College’s goals of access, equity, and student success?

These align with what California community college hiring committees typically emphasize: teaching ability, student success, DEI awareness, and collegiality.
Would you like me to also draft sample strong responses tailored to Sierra College’s mission statement and values (so you’d have model answers ready to adapt)?

Hello CIN:

So, given that we have taken on some new CIN members this week for Partner Summit as well as over the last month, this post is ONLY for posters that have less than 20 posts total. Anyone can like, but for this thread, I'm asking only new members to post. Let's see who comes up!

Suggested Reply Ideas

1) Who are you, for whom do you teach/work?

2) What is your current certification that you're working?

3) What kind of success stories do you have from where you're working?

In short, this is a "getting to know you" post. But as I said, it's only for the newbies in CIN - to get them posting.

Let's hear it!

/r

Hi everyone,

I’m currently preparing to create training content for teaching students CompTIA Network+, and I’m looking for some help with developing the content and creating labs.

If you have any resources, tips, or lab ideas, I’d greatly appreciate your support.

Thanks in advance!

How is everyone doing this now?
In years past, there was an online .pdf form that we could fill out with voucher information, and credit card payment details.
A few business days later we would receive the vouchers via email.
This seems to have changed over the last year.
Are your students using the compTIA store to purchase the vouchers? or does your school bulk buy them?

Thanks!

During the Exam CloudNetX today, i saw some Questions that have Typos or are with really stupid answers: i wonder why CompTIA has no Question Feedback button?
How to report these Errors?

What are you thinking about this missing feedback?

I recently visited a Canadian National Park. While in the visitor's centre, I stopped to take some of the pamphlets at the at the round information kiosk:

Lady behind kiosk: If you like, you can sign our visitor's guestbook over here.
Me: Sure, I'd like that.
Lady behind kiosk: So, where are you coming from today?
Me: Cambridge, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario.
Lady behind kiosk: That's great - I have family who live in Waterloo and Guelph.
Me: So you know the area well, then!
Lady behind kiosk: I do. What does your shirt mean?
Me: Oh, that's a tech pun - I work in the tech industry and the shirts they give out at tech conferences usually have punny slogans.
Lady behind kiosk: You work in tech? Would you know why this iPad we have can no longer connect to the printer here?

Yes, I ended up fixing the DirectPrint settings in the app for their Brother printer.
If you work in IT, remember: No matter how far you go, the printers will find you...

Hii @Stephen Schneiter

Just checking in on when the A+ core 1 & 2 vouchers are anticipated to go out.

In retirement, I still remain active in California's community college system, serving as a course reviewer in its C-ID Program. An active effort for faculty involves the creation and utilization of "free textbooks" in what is called the OER program. Two potential resources out there that relate to CompTIA certifications are available for consideration. There may be more, and if you locate them, I'd appreciate it if you'd provide the link.

Network+
Security+

Steve Linthicum, JD, CISSP
Professor Emeritus

I hope you’re all doing well. Are there any new requirements or programs from CompTIA for becoming a trainer, especially since CompTIA Trainer+ is no longer available?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Tagging @Rick Butler and @Stephen Schneiter for insights. Thanks in advance for any information.

Below is the content of an email I sent yesterday to a fellow CompTIA instructor. Thoughts?

--------------------------------------------
Another good reason to be retired:

ChatGPT Request:

Identify five standard multiple choice questions that are likely to appear in the CompTIA SY0-701 exam?

ChatGPT said:​

Sure! I can create five sample multiple-choice questions similar to what you might see on the CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 exam. These questions are designed to reflect the core domains: Attacks, Threats, Vulnerabilities; Architecture and Design; Implementation; Operations and Incident Response; Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

---

Question 1: Threats and Vulnerabilities​

A network administrator notices unusually high outbound traffic from a workstation. After investigation, they find malware that is sending sensitive data to an external server. Which type of malware is most likely responsible?
A. Ransomware
B. Trojan horse
C. Worm
D. Spyware
Answer: D. Spyware
Explanation: Spyware is designed to gather information from a system without the user’s knowledge, often sending it to external servers.

---

Question 2: Architecture and Design​

Which of the following security controls is an example of defense-in-depth?
A. Deploying a firewall
B. Implementing antivirus software
C. Using multi-factor authentication, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems together
D. Requiring strong passwords
Answer: C. Using multi-factor authentication, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems together
Explanation: Defense-in-depth involves using multiple layers of security controls to protect systems.

---

Question 3: Implementation​

An organization wants to secure wireless network communications to prevent eavesdropping. Which of the following protocols provides the strongest encryption for Wi-Fi?
A. WEP
B. WPA2 with AES
C. WPA with TKIP
D. Open Wi-Fi with VPN
Answer: B. WPA2 with AES
Explanation: WPA2 with AES is currently considered the most secure standard for Wi-Fi encryption.

---

Question 4: Operations and Incident Response​

During an incident, a security analyst wants to ensure they capture volatile data before shutting down a compromised server. Which of the following should they collect first?
A. Hard drive logs
B. RAM contents
C. Backup tapes
D. System event logs
Answer: B. RAM contents
Explanation: Volatile data like information in RAM is lost when the system is powered down, so it should be captured first during incident response.

---

Question 5: Governance, Risk, and Compliance​

Which framework is commonly used to manage information security risk and provides guidelines for creating a comprehensive cybersecurity program?
A. GDPR
B. NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)
C. PCI DSS
D. HIPAA
Answer: B. NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)
Explanation: The NIST CSF provides a risk-based approach for organizations to manage and improve cybersecurity.

---

If you want, I can generate 20–30 more practice questions that cover all SY0-701 domains with the same style and difficulty level as the real exam. This would be very useful for focused study.
Do you want me to do that?

Does anyone have a feedback on first few hardware labs from Network+ class, as most of the participants didn't like first few hardware labs in network+ class on Comptia Platform, rest others are fine and some modules have lot of labs as compared to others as its not being balanced properly

I recently delivered pentest+ course and its nice to see that labs being properly balanced

Regarding Security+ labs, as there are lot of labs so planning approx 7 labs a day, 4 brfore lunch and 3 after lunch, is that fine or any recommendations

Join us for this Special event, livestreamed from the AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference.

The cybersecurity viability trifecta: Visibility, observability, and properly-trained AI

It’s no secret that cybersecurity professionals struggle to reduce cost, increase scale, and improve their ability to actively profile every element and characteristic of their organization’s attack surface.

For the CompTIA Learning event at TechNet Augusta, join us as we welcome Vectra AI, Keysight, and Cribl. Together, we’ll investigate how organizations manage vulnerabilities and respond to incidents by taking a more data-driven approach. We’ll discuss how organizations are using techniques and technologies such as proactive systems analysis, AI-driven analysis, packet decryption, and packet brokers to enable visibility and observability. Our panelists will regale you with stories about how organizations overcame implementation challenges. They’ll outline how organizations increased their ability to anticipate issues and threats, even as their attack surface morphed more quickly than they ever thought possible. Discussion points will include:

• Discovering and analyzing today’s tech footprint: Traditional and AI-based approaches
• Data collection and the attack lifecycle in today’s hybrid environments: The place of AI
• The practical use of various visibility and observability techniques, architectures, and tools
• Meeting today’s challenges, including changing attack surfaces and increased regulatory compliance pressures.

This session is valid for two (2) hours of CE credits for:

• CompTIA A+
• CompTIA DataSys+
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA Security+
• CompTIA Linux+
• CompTIA Cloud+

What: Live Streamed Event
When: Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 1:00-4:00 PM, (2-hour webinar)
Who: James Stanger, CompTIA
Where: ON24
Register Here

did not see one..
Past the Exam today... ;-)

Just to show the Train the Trainer does a super job. Today I sat core 2 exam and passed 1 week after sitting core 1 exam. A big thank you to Stephen and TTT for all the training and support

The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article, based on research from the Burning Glass Institute, questioning the value of certs. The WSJ title was "Skill Certificates Rarely Pay Off."
Seems they did not clearly distinguish certificates from certifications.

This tool shows some interesting findings:

Hi @Stephen Schneiter

May I ask if CloudNetX CNX-001 voucher was already distributed? Thanks!

Hello, I am interested in finding out when the next Project+ training will be?

I am attempting to purchase exam vouchers for my students, and it appears that with the new website store, academic pricing is not available. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Does anyone know how to purchase vouchers for students at the academic price now that PearsonVue no longer sells CompTIA vouchers and the new CompTIA store is not supporting academic pricing?

There are multiple threads on Reddit (I know I really shouldn't keep visiting that site) that claim CompTIA has sent out notices that Project+ and Server+ are changing from "good for life" certifications to CE certifications on October 1, 2025. I personally did not receive any notification, nor can I find any reference to it outside of Reddit.

Can anyone definitively confirm or deny this claim?

Just got notified that the A+ class that I was supposed to start teaching next week was cancelled because the the cost of core 1 & 2 student material now exceeds the budget of $180 per student. Does anyone have a copy of the Academic Partner price list? Maybe I can cobble together something on the cheap, or at least verify that they are looking at Academic Partner pricing. I've been teaching this class for this institution for 2 years, 1st time with this problem.

Hello CINners,
I want to share with you another successful story that I have passed CompTIA SecurityX.
Huge thanks to @Stephen Schneiter for the voucher! Couldn’t have done it without this amazing community.

I have a couple of students who are telling me that on a practice exam they were asked to identify a particular NIST publication. While I have told them they need to know the talking points of all of the ones referenced in the course, would they be asked on the exam to call out that 800-53 is privacy controls while 800-61 is cyber risk management? I do not remember a question like that... although I think another exam I sat had them.

Thanks in advance!