Question of the Week #16 - Single Sign On

Hey everyone and Happy Monday! I wanted to throw this out there this week as we are a good ways into the NEW CompTIA SSO process, and wanted to make sure to address any questions around this topic.

So, instead of posing a question I will leave this open to anyone that may be experiencing issues, or just has questions around this topic. On Friday we will post some of our Best Practice and Resources information so you will be able to address or answer any questions from Students who may have them. See you then!

  • Question
CIN Train-the-Trainer : A+ Core 1 220-1101 Session 11&12 Content not available or is still being processed

Hi all

I've been trying to catch-up on the last A+ TTT sessions 11&12 , but on24 keeps saying the Content not available or is still being processed.

Anyone else out there getting the same issue?

Question of the Week #15 - Final Assessments - ANSWER

Hey everyone, we got some great responses and insight already, so I will continue some of those messages and provide our insight as well. Please see the attached file for more detail and screenshots of the specific product platforms and functionality.

CertMaster Learn
As we know with CertMaster Learn, this is the FIRST step into learning, where a lot of concepts are new, and the learners are really just taking in everything they can in their first step of preparing to become certified. Within each lesson, the learners will have "Practice Questions" which are timed (just like the certification exam) but will be presented in groups of 10-15 questions per lesson. Once ALL of the lessons have been completed, it is now time to take the FINAL ASSESSMENT. For CertMaster Learn, this is the final step into validating the learner's grasp of the concepts and material, and a decision can be made to move to the certification exam, or into further validating their skills with the use of CertMaster Practice.

Pro Tip: Within the "Resources" section in CertMaster Learn (left margin, at the bottom underneath Game Center) you will see a document titled "Mapping Course Content." This document will come in handy either when preparing for the exam, or if you are taking the exam again. This will highlight ALL lessons within CertMaster Learn and how they map to the CompTIA Exam objectives for that specific certification exam. Please urge your Students to pay attention to this document and keep it handy.

CertMaster Practice
With CertMaster Practice, we have moved from the learner mentality into the "Test-Prep" mindset. CertMaster Practice is chock full of exam review questions (700-1000) and are presented in groups of around 12-30 depending on the module and exam objective weight that is covered within the certification exam. Again, the Practice Test within CertMaster Practice will help solidify the learner's knowledge and fully validate their readiness for the certification exam.

Pro Tip: When using the timed Practice Test within CertMaster Practice, because we have already learned and absorbed all of the content from CertMaster Learn, we can use this test at the BEGINNING of CertMaster Practice as our first-step validation to see where the learner left off in CertMaster Learn. Once going through more practice modules, we can use this again in the MIDDLE and lastly at the END to help further validate the learner's readiness for full certification. Best practice is 2-3 times through the practice test with a score of 85-90% or higher (only 80% is needed to pass the certification exam, but this will give your Student a buffer as the questions will somewhat vary on the high-stakes exam)

Attachments

  • CertMaster Learn and CertMaster Practice Assessments.pdf
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A+ TTT Webinar Excercises list

I haven't been able to attend the last few webinars live, since I am now teaching some evening classes which conflict timewise. I have been listening to the on-demand content but I haven't heard (Or I've missed) Allen mention the list he talked about posting regarding Kahoot exercises (or others) that he had been asking attendees to post in the meeting chat. Did that get posted somewhere that I missed, or is it still something that's being worked on?

  • Question
TCP/80 vs TCP/143

I was going through practice questions with my students yesterday and we were given the question, "An HTTPS application is secured using the SSL/TLS protocol but should use a different port for unencrypted HTTP. Which port should unencrypted HTTP use"?

We all agreed the answer was TCP/80, but that was incorrect, with the correct answer being TCP/143. I wanted to reach out the community of other instructors here so I could get a better understanding of why the answer was 143 and not 80, not just for myself but for my students as well. From reading the CompTIA A+ book, TCP/143 is HTTP associated with IMAP and reading mail messages on a server mailbox, where TCP/80 is your standard HTTP for unsecure websites. Thanks in advance for any input and clarification as to why the answer to this question is TCP/143 and not TCP/80.

Attachments

  • port80practicequestion.jpg
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New (and free) online education for macOS/iOS support from Apple

This would make a good addition to the macOS topic within an A+ course (or if macOS is covered within your Linux course):

CompTIA A+ 1100 Series TtT Timings

Hi all,

probably a question for @Stephen Schneiter, but just got the warning email for tonight's Session (first of Core 2), and the time on it is 7pm CDT, is this right? There was talk of it being an hour earlier at 6pm CDT, has this been changed and then not changed on the warning email? Be great if it is an hour earlier as I am attending from the UK! (CDT +6 hours).

Thanks in advance for any help/info

Presidential Cybersecurity Education Award_ Nominations due by July 31st

Hello Everyone,

The Presidential Cybersecurity Education Award is presented by the U.S. Secretary of Education to teachers in the field of cybersecurity to honor their contributions to the education of our nation’s students. The award is bestowed annually to two teachers — one at the elementary level and one at the secondary level — who “demonstrate superior achievement in instilling skills, knowledge, and passion with respect to cybersecurity and cybersecurity-related subjects.” These recipients embody the dedication and expertise of educators who are critical to increasing the cybersecurity awareness of all students, inspiring the nation’s future cybersecurity workforce, and contributing to a more secure society. The award acknowledges both the exemplary achievements demonstrated by the teachers and that of the teacher’s students.

Deadline: The nomination period closes on July 31, 2022 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

How to Submit:

If you are planning on submitting, please let us know how we can support you!

Question of the Week #15 - Final Assessments

Hey everyone and happy Monday! Continuing our theme of Exam readiness, we are starting this week off with a question around the Final Assessments that are available, and what you can do (or what you are doing) to help Students prepare for the CompTIA Certification Exam.

Question: How can you best utilize (or how are you utilizing today) the Final Assessments within both the CertMaster Learn and/or CertMaster Practice products to help ensure that Students are prepared for the high-stakes CompTIA Certification Exams?

This is inspired by a recent question from an Instructor, so please share ANY and ALL ideas, thoughts and suggestions to us and your fellow Instructors. We will circle back Friday with our take and hopefully some great conversations, have a great week everyone!

Integrated CertMaster Learn+Labs

Considering integrating the CompTIA CertMaster Learn+Labs for Security+ into my community college Cyber curriculum. Confused about what I products I need to purchase for instructor-led learning. For 10 students, what licenses and/or access keys would I need to purchase?

  • Poll
Question of the Week #14 - Answer

How relevant is this question to you as an Instructor?

  • Very relevant

    Votes: 3 100.0%
  • Not sure what to do to put my students in the best position

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No relevance

    Votes: 0 0.0%

Question of the Week #14 – Answer

Question of the Week:
What are YOU doing today or what CAN you do to put your students in the best position to pass the certification exam?

Thank you again for the great discussion this week! If you missed Monday's post, I recommend that you read it. We read about the 70-20-10 rule used with our CertMaster Labs, the importance of Labs and Practice Questions, and of course, about being an encourager for those students that want to become certified!

Last week we provided a glance into our 3 platforms CertMaster Learn, CertMaster Labs, and CertMaster Practice. We will dive into more detail below sharing 1-2 ways that you can zero in on specific data!



CertMaster Learn is home to the Boost Dashboard which shares a lot of great reporting from the student’s journey through their course. We will take a closer look at the Strengths & Weaknesses and Confidence Levels.

The Strengths & Weaknesses Tab gauges a student’s skill level in each major lesson category based on their practice question results and the difficulty of questions they have already answered. These are then ranked for each student by lesson, and on a range from “Beginner” to “Expert.”

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These Strengths and Weaknesses can be seen by both Instructors and Supervisors on a Student Level reporting (specific student) or a Group Level reporting (average of all students in the group).

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The Confidence Levels also play a great part in self-evaluation for the students and instructors. These confidence levels are required to move forward through each page of a lesson in CertMaster Learn.

As a student learns a page of content, they must rank themselves on “how confident” they are on that page. These rankings are from Low, Medium, and High Confidence. Confidence is a self-reported method of categorizing what a student thinks they need work on.


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Student’s confidence levels are automatically sorted and can be viewed from the “Lessons” Tab > “Confidence Level”. Students can utilize this page to then focus just on the topics where they feel they need more study (i.e., Low Confidence topics). Clicking on a topic will take the student directly to the lesson the topic was taught.

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Instructors/Supervisors do have visibility of a Students Confidence Breakdowns in the Boost Dashboard categorized by lesson.

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CertMaster Labs is another great tool for students, especially when separating the learning into two different Lab styles. Going through our Virtual labs, like our newest CertMaster A+ labs, it starts students off with walking through the Assisted Labs and then let’s students do it all on their own with Applied Labs.

Assisted Labs are great for students to help them understand the different scenarios and guides them through actions learned through their course. For some students they have never completed the Lab actions prior to taking your course. For these students, they can be guided through the lab step-by-step until they feel comfortable in the environment and comfortable doing similar scenarios by themselves.
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Applied Labs is where students will “apply” what they have learned from their course lessons and previous assisted labs. Working through a scenario, students will have less guidance and must complete the correct actions and answer the Final Lab Questions.

The more comfortable Students are within the Applied Labs the better position to passing the certification exam!
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The CertMaster Learn + Labs Integrated Product allows the Students to Launch these labs directly from the CertMaster Learn platform giving students access directly from their Learning Dashboard, and Instructors the reporting for the Labs in the Boost Dashboard!
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CertMaster Practice breaks down course objectives into modules for the Learners. Learners can retake these modules as much as they would like by utilizing the “Smart Refresh” and “Full Refresh.” Smart Refresh allows students to take the module but ONLY show the questions they previously got incorrect.

Full Refresh allows students to take the entire module over again.


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Practice Tests are another great CertMaster Practice tool students can use to put themselves in a better position. Practice tests can be taken as many times by the students, and Instructors have the reporting to show each attempted grade. The reporting in CertMaster Practice is very in depth for its Tests and modules.

Looking at the reporting of a CertMaster Practice test below the Learner can review all questions asked accompanied by the solutions for each. The Learner can also see which topics they need to focus their studies on and launch the module directly from the results page.

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Because of the larger bank of questions, Learners will be getting different questions each time they take the test. This is why it is recommended that Learners receive a 90% on 3 practice tests in a row to be in a better position.


These are all great CertMaster solution tools to get your students into the best position, but they aren’t ALL of. If you have any tips or ways YOU are doing things today, feel free to share below.

Have a great weekend!
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Reactions: Jarrel

  • Poll
CIN Polling Question - Ideally how much time do you need, prior to the exam launch, to review the new exam objectives and prepare for your course?

Ideally how much time do you need, prior to the exam launch, to review the new exam objectives and p

  • more than 6 months

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 5-6 months

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 3-4 months

    Votes: 4 25.0%
  • 1-2 months

    Votes: 8 50.0%
  • I don't need time prior to the lauch to review the exam objectives

    Votes: 0 0.0%

Ideally how much time do you need, prior to the exam launch, to review the new exam objectives and prepare for your course?

Passed CompTIA Data+ earlier this week but I have feedback

Hi All

I wrote the CompTIA Data+ earlier this week and I passed! All the TTT content helped immensely and glad to have seen stuff that I have encountered in other training & consulting gigs.

I was surprised that I was not able to leave feedback after the exam. Normally PearsonVUE allows to submit feedback per question and feedback overall but that screen didn't show up. I have some feedback I'd like to provide during my experience of the Data+ exam. Where would be the most appropriate place to do this?

Also, because the Data+ voucher has not arrived yet, I paid for one out of the CompTIA Store. If I attended the TTT, and the voucher arrives, can I somehow be compensated by returning the voucher or can I just give it to someone else (since I have passed the exam already)? I needed to write it because I had opportunities to train it should I pass and didn't want to miss out on them.

Sample exercises for Linux+ students

G'day all!

During @Lee McWhorter 's excellent introduction to XK0-005, I promised to start publishing all the exercises I've made for my students.

It's a very rough MVP, with just a small set of all the labs, but here's a start.

-> https://github.com/unixerius/XK0-004/tree/first-set

In all, my class spans 16 weeks/lessons, so you'll understand there's plenty more to add in that Github repo. I wanted to start with the big chunk of shell-scripting exercises.

That link leads to a specific branch in the repo. At some point that'll get merged into the main repo and it may disappear.

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