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A+ Classroom Length

J Siergiej

Member
  • Jul 27, 2022
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    From your experience what is a good timeframe/schedule to teach the A+ Core 1 & 2 Objectives. Do you separate 1 & 2 into different classes? How long do you give for each? 4 weeks? How many hours per day?

    We will soon be teaching these courses at a Junior college and want to also build them into credit courses where they would get an Associates degree and leave with an A+ cert if desired. I visualize Core 1 being a 3 credit course and 2 being another. I think the traditional 16 weeks of most college courses is too long and students are likely to forget something from almost 4 months prior. What types of schedules do you use?

    Does anyone currently do something like this? Any insight is most appreciated.

    Thanks,

    j
     
    With 116 community colleges here in California, we have strived to find some sort of consistency and as faculty settled upon a standard approach where the class is generally taught as a 4-credit hour course, either in an 8-week or 16-week format. The course descriptor can be viewed by clicking on the link below:


    More often than not it is being taught in a 16-week format, with 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab per week.
     
    From your experience what is a good timeframe/schedule to teach the A+ Core 1 & 2 Objectives. Do you separate 1 & 2 into different classes? How long do you give for each? 4 weeks? How many hours per day?

    We will soon be teaching these courses at a Junior college and want to also build them into credit courses where they would get an Associates degree and leave with an A+ cert if desired. I visualize Core 1 being a 3 credit course and 2 being another. I think the traditional 16 weeks of most college courses is too long and students are likely to forget something from almost 4 months prior. What types of schedules do you use?

    Does anyone currently do something like this? Any insight is most appreciated.

    Thanks,

    j
    hi J,

    I usually go for 3 days per week, where each session is of 3 hours. I manage to finish off the content in 6-8 weeks. During this period students also get an opportunity to do the required practicals as well.
     
    From your experience what is a good timeframe/schedule to teach the A+ Core 1 & 2 Objectives. Do you separate 1 & 2 into different classes? How long do you give for each? 4 weeks? How many hours per day?

    We will soon be teaching these courses at a Junior college and want to also build them into credit courses where they would get an Associates degree and leave with an A+ cert if desired. I visualize Core 1 being a 3 credit course and 2 being another. I think the traditional 16 weeks of most college courses is too long and students are likely to forget something from almost 4 months prior. What types of schedules do you use?

    Does anyone currently do something like this? Any insight is most appreciated.

    Thanks,

    j
    In my classes, 2 Hours a day and 4 Days a week, lab time of 2 Hours a week. The course duration of 3 to 3.5 months. In some classes, it takes 4 months for that classroom of peak discussion and Q & A. I teach core 1 and core 2 together.

    Thanks,
    ZN
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
    From your experience what is a good timeframe/schedule to teach the A+ Core 1 & 2 Objectives. Do you separate 1 & 2 into different classes? How long do you give for each? 4 weeks? How many hours per day?
    At my school, we teach Core 1 and Core 2 separately, taking six weeks for each course. Each course is 120 hours total, or 20 hours per week. On average, we end up seeing a student reach 50% preparation for a cert exam - better if they do their homework and work with diligence.

    Our classes, with ITF+, A+, Net+, Sec+, Server+, Linux+, and Cloud+ with some Applied General Education lead our students to an Associates of Occupational Studies in Computer Technology. It's a pretty simple track, really.

    /r
     
    • Like
    Reactions: J Siergiej
    The duration given for corporate class is 5 days for Core 1 and 2. It seems they have working experience.

    I told them you can be the CISO, you never study properly the course you will fail the exam.

    5 days for Core 1 and 5 days for Core 2.
    For experience hand on technical corporate students can be done.

    Not both 5 days.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Fanuel
    The duration given for corporate class is 5 days for Core 1 and 2. It seems they have working experience.

    I told them you can be the CISO, you never study properly the course you will fail the exam.

    5 days for Core 1 and 5 days for Core 2.
    For experience hand on technical corporate students can be done.

    Not both 5 days.
    Thanks. That sounds like a full 5 days then? 8hrs each day? Makes it easier if the students are already technically. Our students mostly will not be.
     
    I teach A+ for 11th grade an A/B day schedule, so I see them every other day. It's 90 days total stretched across a 180 day school year. Each class is 4 hours (including 30 minute lunch). It's generally broken down to 1-1.5hr lecture and 2hr-2.5hr of activities total. I separate A+ into two courses: 1st semester is Core 1 and 2nd Semester is Core 2. It's better to split them up to help students better recall content instead of slamming them with two exams at once. It's a public school so I work with a lot of hurdles and classes aren't exactly based on merit. I average a 10% certification rate for each A+ class. It's a little higher if you count those that pass one but not the other but end up not retaking to get fully certified.