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Is this forum still alive?

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D

Dan.Morrill

Member
Feb 18, 2026
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#1
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
 
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#3
Dan.Morrill said:
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
Click to expand...
If they can't focus, they may not be cut out for this line of work.
 
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#4
Gregory Childers said:
If they can't focus, they may not be cut out for this line of work.
Click to expand...
Yah, but we don't get much of a choice on who we teach, we just have to teach them to the best of our ability. And focus is a thing, do you have any ideas on how to improve focus for students? Could they put on some lo-fi concentration music, maybe from YouTube?
 
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#7
Yep, we're still going out here. Probably not as much chatter as of late, but I still check in generally once a day, as others do.

Would love to get some more chatter going, of course. Real stuff, not noise...etc etc....

Happy Tuesday masquerading as a Monday (at least for the US and a few other places....)

/r
 
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#8
Dan.Morrill said:
Yah, but we don't get much of a choice on who we teach, we just have to teach them to the best of our ability. And focus is a thing, do you have any ideas on how to improve focus for students? Could they put on some lo-fi concentration music, maybe from YouTube?
Click to expand...
I tell them they have two choices:

Focus and work hard, or AI will take your job
 
#9
Dan.Morrill said:
Yah, but we don't get much of a choice on who we teach, we just have to teach them to the best of our ability. And focus is a thing, do you have any ideas on how to improve focus for students? Could they put on some lo-fi concentration music, maybe from YouTube?
Click to expand...
Hi Dan,

I teach college as well and yes, they have trouble focusing. Many of my students are on the spectrum and many have ADD or ADHD, so I feel your frustration. I've some on the spectrum that once they 'get into it' their focus is good; others get so frustrated they quit (mostly because of the theory courses like SAD). In my face-to-face classes when they are doing the labs, I do play concentration music from YouTube. Some I let listen to their own music (as long as they are continuing to work) with headphones or earbuds, but it has to be so that I can't hear it. I've usually learned their habits and abilities by the end of their first semester and know who can listen to their own and who can handle the YouTube music. I play the classics (Mozart, Beethoven, etc); by the third semester they might request music (no lyrics of course) and as long as it's not heavy metal or hard rock, I'll play it. I've also found 'programming' music and other tech concentration music. When there's a challenging lab, we do it as a class (or whoever needs to do it with help).
Hope this helps.
 
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#10
Hi Dan,
It's easy to see how this has become a widespread challenge for instructors. Student engagement now requires more than delivering content. It requires relevance. I usually connect lab activities to real job adverts so students can clearly see how each skill is demanded and how it applies in the workplace. By linking labs to actual job descriptions, students shift from passive learning to understanding how their work prepares them for employment. It takes extra effort to do things this way, but it significantly improves motivation, focus, and real-world readiness.
 
#11
Dan.Morrill said:
Yah, but we don't get much of a choice on who we teach, we just have to teach them to the best of our ability. And focus is a thing, do you have any ideas on how to improve focus for students? Could they put on some lo-fi concentration music, maybe from YouTube?
Click to expand...
Excellent remark. You have the play the cards you are dealt. I've taught traditional and non-traditional students in higher education and proprietary schools. From a focus standpoint, you have to meet them where they're at. For me, it asking about their majors or interest in the IT field. During lectures and labs, I've used their interests to zero in on specific areas. Their attention is drawn in and maintained because it ties into current goals, and aspirations.
 
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#12
I've also noticed that students nowadays want to magically become proficient in a skill without putting in any effort. This could be partly generational (the lost COVID generation from high school), and partly due to societal and technological (AI) changes. But I find there are only 2 types of motivation, and the one that works best today is the one on the right ;):
motivation.jpg
 
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#13
Laurie Seeder said:
Hi Dan,

I teach college as well and yes, they have trouble focusing. Many of my students are on the spectrum and many have ADD or ADHD, so I feel your frustration. I've some on the spectrum that once they 'get into it' their focus is good; others get so frustrated they quit (mostly because of the theory courses like SAD). In my face-to-face classes when they are doing the labs, I do play concentration music from YouTube. Some I let listen to their own music (as long as they are continuing to work) with headphones or earbuds, but it has to be so that I can't hear it. I've usually learned their habits and abilities by the end of their first semester and know who can listen to their own and who can handle the YouTube music. I play the classics (Mozart, Beethoven, etc); by the third semester they might request music (no lyrics of course) and as long as it's not heavy metal or hard rock, I'll play it. I've also found 'programming' music and other tech concentration music. When there's a challenging lab, we do it as a class (or whoever needs to do it with help).
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Laurie,
I do that, I do that myself when I need to focus and recommend it to students who have a hard time focusing. I usually start off with Lo-Fi Girl to introduce them to the idea. Who do you use to break the ice on the idea and show it is ok?
 
#14
jasoneckert said:
I've also noticed that students nowadays want to magically become proficient in a skill without putting in any effort. This could be partly generational (the lost COVID generation from high school), and partly due to societal and technological (AI) changes. But I find there are only 2 types of motivation, and the one that works best today is the one on the right ;):
View attachment 2631
Click to expand...
Interesting,
What I'm getting from this is failure is still a pass, you don't have to apply yourself to get the pass in an educational setting. Interesting idea, any ideas on how to bring that back to the real world where work is tied to KPIs is tied to performance and failure is a thing that gets you written up depending on company culture?
Dan
 
#15
Brandon G said:
Excellent remark. You have the play the cards you are dealt. I've taught traditional and non-traditional students in higher education and proprietary schools. From a focus standpoint, you have to meet them where they're at. For me, it asking about their majors or interest in the IT field. During lectures and labs, I've used their interests to zero in on specific areas. Their attention is drawn in and maintained because it ties into current goals, and aspirations.
Click to expand...
Right now I'm trying something different
I have a course starting June 9th that is A+ and based on Jill West, and the biggest issue is the labs, we use ACI labs for the class and those can take about an hour to do. I did a demo video of me doing the lab, my best practices, and why the labs are important for building skills in a safe way. It's a quick 5 week course just skimming the surface of the IT industry. I'll let you know how it goes, generally students skip the labs, and take the points.
Dan
 
#16
Dan.Morrill said:
Interesting,
What I'm getting from this is failure is still a pass, you don't have to apply yourself to get the pass in an educational setting. Interesting idea, any ideas on how to bring that back to the real world where work is tied to KPIs is tied to performance and failure is a thing that gets you written up depending on company culture?
Dan
Click to expand...
This is why we've shifted nearly all of our assessments to practical ones in our IT programs years ago (and are moving closer to 100% each year). There are several reasons we decided to do this:
1. It aligns to the program outcomes (job-ready skills).
2. It prevents students who don't spend the time to build the practical skills a course teaches from passing it.
3. It encourages students who wouldn't otherwise spend the effort to do the lab exercises to actually do them (building confidence and motivation in the process that eventually grows throughout the program).

Of course, there are always a small cohort that won't ever do the labs. But this is the group that terminate their program for whatever reason (failure, attendance, etc.) and I think that we'll always see a certain number of them in the college.
 
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