Just finished the AI TTT ondemand, Nick Pierce did a great job. Really believe this is going to be a cornerstone of IT going forward.
If you are an instructor the TTT videos are a must see. Lots of good information and ideas for teaching and engaging your students

Video training

Glad to be part of the team that is helping these students to succeed:
https://www.comptia.org/en/resource...tan-cc/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

How do we access instrucor resources now (ppt and book), before it was easy to purchase from comptia store ?

I wanted to share a success story based on my experience in the last 7 years teaching. Maybe it will inspire those facing challenges ahead or maybe you've already "checked out" looking at the wall of text?

In 2019, I visited my dad who taught welding at a CTE high school for several years. I never had the opportunity to leave work and see his shop. It was the last day of the school year that year. The principal pulled me aside and informed me that the IT instructor put in his letter of resignation that morning. He joked that I should apply, after hearing what I do through my dad. I asked to see the classroom and well...it was in shambles. Poor guy was teaching IT as it was 20 years ago. Most equipment was straight from the early 00s and even the 90s. Few "modern" desktops with DDR3 with poor cable management. There were piles of junk everywhere. Nothing was organized. Most of the desktops weren't in working condition.

I was content at the time. I was the Director of Technology for a private school district. I worked 15 minutes from home. Something tugged in my heart that this school needed me to turn it around. It was a dying program. Students weren't getting certified and it was in danger of being removed from the school. I was happy with the amount of funding it received. I saw that it had good "bones" to build on. My family thought I was crazy but I left my current position and decided to teach the Cisco IT Networking Academy program at the CTE school...an hour and 45 minutes away. Yes, I had to return to college. Yes, it wasn't comfortable but this was something I CHOSE to do.

Original program format
Name: Cisco IT Networking Academy
Courses: IT Essentials (S1 11th grade), NDG Linux Essentials (S2 11th grade), CCNA: Routing & Switching I (S1 12th grade), and CCNA: Routing & Switching II (S2 12th grade)
Curriculum: NONE
Max class size: 22 made up 50% merit (first choice + good grades) and 50% lottery (could be 2nd or third choice, didn't make it based on merit)
Block schedule: A day (12th grade) and B day (11th grade) schedule. 9:50AM-1:50PM every day, alternated
Certifications offered: From what I gathered, students only completed CompTIA A+ exams. It was required in their junior year.

I was told to look into Cisco NetACAD by the administration. The university we were accrediated through demanded that I take 3 courses with them in order to receive access to the Cisco curriculum. It was a face-to-face only course which required me to drive an hour and 45 minutes to work, an hour to take the course, and then 2 hours (not including traffic + tolls) home. That's asinine! She did give me temporary access to it so I could download PowerPoint but within my first hour of reading it, I found enough blatant typos and misinformation that made me want to avoid it altogether. It was NOT good.

I connected with the small amount of students I inherited (8 seniors survived + 22 incoming juniors) and established trust. The seniors failed my competency check of A+ objectives. None of them were certified or took the certification exam, despite it being required in their junior year. The juniors were still under the impression that this was an "easy A" and could sleep all day. Seniors shared that they did a lot of Packet Tracer but the app didn't work most of the time. They also made lots of CAT5e cables, repetitvely. I ended up building the plane in the air and focused on giving them real-world experience. We fixed all the desktops, rearranged the classroom, organized it in a way that it made sense, and...COVID hit. The momentum stopped. No certification tests were taken. They were all waived of taking exams that year.

Despite being an odd year, I knew exactly what I needed to do. A roadmap was developed. I formed a Program Advisory Council, shared my findings, and they supported me in fighting the state to change how my program was formatted. It took two years to get it right but we got it done! The result:

Name: IT Networking Academy (Cisco)
Courses: IT Networking I (S1 11th grade), IT Networking II (S2 11th grade), and IT Networking III (Year-long 12th grade)
Curriculum: Started with CompTIA CertMaster Learn + Labs later migrated to CompTIA TestOut Pro
Certifications offered: CompTIA A+ Core 1 for IT Networking I (optional), A+ Core 2 for IT Networking II (optional), and Security+ for IT Networking III (required to take)

In addition, these are the changes I made over the last 7 years (COVID did slow down progress a bit):

• Turned one closet to a server room with a floor-to-ceiling network rack. Installed cabinets and shelving to make it student accessible. This is where students "shop" for all of their tools, parts, consumables, peripherals, etc.
• Turned another closet into a colocation for senior equipment. There are multiple network racks. Students install their rack-mounted routers, switches, APs, and servers and access them over SSH from their desks in the classroom. Messed up? Fix it the old fashioned way by grabbing laptop and a console cable!
• Established an entire air-gapped LAN. Created a domain network for obvious reasons. Established multiple server hosts running many virtual machines for educational purposes.
• Established a simulated "WAN" using a public subnet. All senior racks connect to the WAN so they can access my classroom LAN over VPN. They can also host and port forward their own network services from their own LANs. I give students dedicated time to work on "passion projects" to learn about installing and hardening public services. They have an absolute blast with this! I also set up a "public DNS" server so they learn how proper DNS works and create domains. Every senior gets their own "WAN-hosted" Linux VM, in addition to whatever they host locally in their private subnet.
• Built new PCs over time to offer 1:1 desktops for students so they can be their own local admins on the air-gapped LAN. Now all support Windows 11.
• Installed a laptop cart that dual boot between Windows 11 and Backbox Linux. I chose Backbox because the district IPS has a cow when it detects a Kali machine on their network but doesn't care about Backbox.
• Created a number of classroom websites and systems:
  • Custom developed a help desk game where students have to respond to client emails within a certain amount of time to earn points. It has a points shop where students can exchange points for "sabotages" to send to other students (such as ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, etc.) to slow them down. Students can choose the content domain when they join the game.
  • Custom developed several other gamification sites that help students with more difficult content, such as: subnet math, keyboard shortcuts, commands, etc. each game has some type of leadboard to encourage friendly competitions.
  • Custom developed several other "serious" learning systems, such as: a mobile device management system (simulates connected devices) with a built-in assessment system, subnet management, etc.
  • Self-hosted CTFd system primarily used by seniors.
  • Self-hosted help desk (based on Frappe) where I assign real tickets for students. They receive a marking period grade for their participation in their "help desk apprenticeship" for the school. I use this as a real-world training tool and coach them on professionalism and communication.
  • A number of custom-created vulnerable web apps, services, and services.
• Worked with local businesses and received quality donations such as a large format printer (which I used to create custom classroom posters), 65" large format display (updated every day with content with a Raspberry Pi), Sharp copier, etc.
  • Employers also partnered up so we can become a feeder program for employment.
• Periodically create red vs blue (cyber range) activities for seniors where I set up a room divider and they compete against each other (a class favorite).
• Started participating in SkillsUSA. Last year my kids earned gold in Cyber Security and Internet of Things (Smart Home) and competed at nationals!! We placed 4th overall in the nation for Cyber Security!
• Subscribed to Pear Deck to help make class lectures more engaging and Gimkit for gamified practice assessments
• Slowly developed several custom practice exams for A+ and Security+ in addition to what's offered in TestOut Pro and Practice (an option for students to purchase)
• My own "professor messer"-style study notes for all courses to compliment the textbook and to meet accommodation needs.

The result? Well...

This year we broke another program record with 13 of 18 senior students earning their Security+ and 14 of 20 students (only 16 took the exams) earning their A+! I couldn't be more proud of my kids. It's so cool to see them get EXCITED to learn new things in class, get jobs, or get accepted to great colleges/universities. That's what gives me the fuel to keep going!! It's been an absolute blur but I guess time flies when you're having fun!! I wouldn't be able to do any of this if it wasn't for a supportive administration that truly believes in their faculty! If you have the support, the passion, and ambition, YOU can do it!

When you have passed an exam, I recall us receiving an email from CompTIA to confirm a few details before they mail a complimentary certification kit. I just saw this on their website:



Is the certification kit no longer free? I remember there was a discussion about the wallet cards being discontinued but not about being charged a fee to receive the physical certificate (unless you received one and then would like to order a replacement certificate).

Another super impressive challenge, this is not Information Technology (IT), this is Operational Technology (OT)… the force behind giant machines, power plants, factories, and trains, where code doesn’t just process data, it moves the real world.

As part of the CompTIA Instructor Network (CIN), I am excited to see CompTIA stepping into this space with the SecOT+ (SO1-001). This is not just another certification, it’s focused on securing systems where cyber incidents have physical consequences.

Register for the beta exam here: CompTIA SecOT+ Beta Exam

#CyberSecurity #OTSecurity #CompTIA #SecOT #ICS #SCADA

Hi Folks
Might have an opportunity for an A+ instructor in Syracuse NY. It would be a series of Fridays in person. Thanks

In fine tradition, I waited until the TTT voucher was about to expire before writing this exam.
But I must say, I really enjoyed this one - far better than PT0-002 when it comes to industry alignment!
Plus the performance questions definitely required you had in-depth experience with the tools used for reconnaissance, exploit, and post-exploit (including dumping and pivoting), which I really appreciated

We’re looking for an experienced, qualified CompTIA trainer to deliver the Project + course. 2 sessions live via Teams July and August. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

Hello Everyone,
So I do teach at a couple of colleges, one full-time and one part-time, and both are heavily CompTIA A+, N+, and Sec+. Like all colleges I've seen lately, it's all Cengage and Jill West all the time.
If this forum is still alive and anyone is interested, do you want to compare notes?

The biggest challenges I'm seeing right now are having students do the labs, which can take 20 minutes to an hour (ACI Labs), depending, and in a world of TikTok-induced ability to focus, that might be an issue.

If not, just saying Hi!
Dan

Hi everyone, my two competency assessments (Competency in AI Essentials and Competency in AI Prompting) are both showing Status: Unavailable even though I haven't used any attempts yet (0/2). I have completed the AI Essentials courseware. Can anyone guide me on what steps I need to take to unlock these assessments? Do I need to complete something specific first or is there an admin action required? Any help appreciated.

I need lecture materials for the Data+ V2 course. Can you share them?

I took the DataSys+ beta earlier this week. I like the updates to this exam. It seems better scoped than the current version. It took a little bit of Net+, a bit of Cloud+, a good chunk of Sec+--all in the context of databases--and then mixed in lots of database content. I had 4-5 PBQs (can't remember exactly), and a total of about 115 questions, with a better mix of difficulty than the current exam and more technical knowledge required. Finished a good hour early.

Anyone else taken this one yet? What did you think?

I’m proud to share that I’ve just passed SecAI. This achievement would not have been possible without the incredible support of Stephen. Thank you so much, Stephen, for guiding me through this journey. It was a tough exam, I was close to being taken down but I pushed through and made it.

Short notice! I need a Cloud+ instructor starting this Tuesday, May 26th in O'Fallon IL. Class is 4 days - May 26 - 29 In-person. Travel + Compensation paid. Interested? Contact me. [email protected] 573-424-7541

Thanks to the instructors and to CompTIA for providing the voucher.
The practice test was more direct than the exam, but an altogether great experience.

Not sure how many of you saw this come in through Credly, but it appears that CompTIA is moving these two certifications to the CE model, along with all the others.

I know Server+ was on the fence for a while - whether it was going to remain or go away. Seems like it's here to stay for a while.

Project+, I can kind of see, since the PM world changes a fair bit - perhaps CompTIA thinks this would be a good move to put it in better position for industry recognition - although sadly, PMI will probably always remain the front runner for Project Management certifications within the general industry.

What does the CIN community think about this?

(yeah, I know I've been light on posts lately, but I'll try to do better at that - that is, if y'all missed the Black Fedora)

Rick

Are you ready for the first TTT series of 2026? Join the CompTIA Instructor Network and special guest @Dwayne Natwick as he leads the SecAI+ TTT series. Dwayne will cover the exam objectives and provide hands-on examples as you strengthen your cybersecurity skills. We will discuss how to cover the content with students and suggest various labs to let students gain hands-on experience as they prepare for certification.

CompTIA SecAI+ is the first certification in CompTIA's new expansion series, designed to help you secure, govern, and responsibly integrate artificial intelligence into cybersecurity operations. Gain the skills to defend AI systems, meet global compliance standards, and use AI to enhance threat detection, automation, and innovation while strengthening organizational resilience.

What: CIN TTT Series: SecAI+ V1
When: February 18 - March 9, 2026 (Six sessions), 1:30 - 3:30 PM CDT
Who: Dwayne Natwick
Where: ON24
Register Now

Hi everyone,

New instructor here, posting on behalf of a student who just passed her Security+ SY0-701 — very proud of her!

CompTIA's website states that the Security+ CertMaster CE CEU program is only good for the Security+ V6 (SY0-601):

Does anyone know how a student might renew the SY0-701? It looks like they just buy the $50 CE token in a quantity of 3 — or purchase it 3 times? I'm not clear on how that verifies that they actually completed any continuing education. Does a student pay these fees and then still have to turn around and pay for an approved program separately? In other words, after paying the fees, do they then also have to submit proof of continuing education?

Additionally, if they pay for a continuing education program outside of CompTIA, do they still owe CompTIA $150 in renewal fees on top of that?

Any clarity would be greatly appreciated — I want to make sure I'm pointing her in the right direction.

(Note: First post in the community here. I apologize if this has been answered previously. I tried to find an answer but I unfortunately was unable to turn up anything.)

From CBS News.

Some interesting reporting from CBS News on research by Resume Genius.

My own completely unscientific research would agree: "8 in 10 hiring managers consider AI skills a priority".

I was surprised to read this: "while many workers today are well aware of the need to hone their AI chops, few employers offer the necessary training, said Lisa Gevelber, who heads Google's "Grow with Google" initiative."

I don't agree with the statement that people can learn about AI in ways that might boost their job search or advance their careers. "According to AI and career development experts, a good way to start is simply by using publicly available AI tools daily.". That's just undirected learning, which is really hard to express on a resume or in an interview.

I completely agree and tell my students: "Just saying, 'I use ChatGPT,' is not how workers should be reflecting their skills," Caucci of 1Huddle said. "Make sure your resume has an AI throughline." That idea of a thoughtline is important because it shows a progression of problems solved or goals achieved, which I've found is important to cite during interviews.

My closing point is that, having used the new AI training available from CompTIA, we instructors can help students develop cross-AI model/platform skills, which, if clearly expressed in a thought line during an interview, should make our students stand out.

The CompTIA DataSys+ (DS1-002) beta exam is designed for professionals working with data systems, storage, and databases in real-world environments.

If you or your network are involved in data management, analytics enablement, or database administration, this is a great opportunity to help shape a new certification while it’s in beta.

Good morning,

I haven’t received the Data+ V2 voucher yet and was just checking to see if they’ve been sent out.

Thank you!
Tracey

Hello Everyone! We have been in the process of building out a webinar schedule for the rest of the 2026. Below is the outcome of the planning we have so far. We would like feedback from CIN as to what you think is missing? What topics would you like to see offered? Are there any proposed launches from the CompTIA Product Roadmap that you think should be covered? We will add to our webinar list based on feedback and interests.