CompTIA and TestOut Joining Forces

[Rick Butler]

So, this came across the wire this morning. If you haven't read it, I think this might, just a little, affect all of us here...lol

CompTIA and TestOut join forces, accelerating the shared goal of empowering millions of students with technical training and digital literacy education

www.comptia.org

The first question on my mind with respect to this: What does that mean for CertMaster? As these were competitor products in the marketplace, does that mean that we'll see CertMaster adopting things like LabSim as part of their overall training packages? Talking-head videos to go along with the CompTIA books? And what kind of impact will this have on other courseware providers and authors for the traditional book companies?

Looks exciting, but it raises a few questions across the board as how all this pans out. I'm sure CompTIA and TestOut haven't completely hammered all this out, but it changes the landscape quite a bit.

/R

 

[Rick Butler]

For example, TestOut's products covered, not just CompTIA, but Microsoft, Cisco, and EC-Council CEH. Does that mean that TestOut won't be offering those products or will it act on its own under the CompTIA umbrella?

I know that TestOut has their "pro" designations. What does that look like in the light of credit for CompTIA certs?

Just thinking out of the box here...but...

 

[Roberta Osmers]

All good questions! I'm curious too.

 

[Eugene]

Just saw that. Got the email this morning while sipping on the coffee...lol. I wondered how they will use in conjunction with the Certmaster items and since it has liek the GNS3 labs already and the way you interact with those. Plus TestOut does have those other courses they did create. That will be legal issues between if get contracts to use that stuff I figured or they take it out. I am curious to see how it will all go down.

 

[Stan Pieklo]

Very interesting announcement.

 

[Stuart]

Will be very interesting to see how this pans out and if they merge certmaster and the test out products together

 

[Stephen Schneiter]

These are great questions @Rick Butler! CompTIA is excited to be partnering and working with TestOut. You are correct that there are still a lot of details to be worked out throughout the coming months. TestOut plays a critical role in the CompTIA and tech education ecosystem, delivering high-quality, engaging curriculum built on a platform encouraging and nurturing innovative experiential learning.

We will continue to sell existing TestOut products, including Microsoft, Cisco, etc. We'll continue to sell and support all existing content in the market for both TestOut and/or CompTIA B2B customers. The sales teams will have to work closely with customers help them determine which tools, platforms and curriculum are the best option. As titles come up for refresh, we'll be building unified content meant to live across all our platforms at the same time. This process will take a few years to fully materialize.

 

[Rick Butler]

As titles come up for refresh, we'll be building unified content meant to live across all our platforms at the same time. This process will take a few years to fully materialize.

Makes sense. It probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to redevelop all the CertMaster stuff in this cycle, since a significant amount of time and resources were spent to do that before. I can also see this turning into a some briefings for the CIN...when the time comes.

 

[Mr. Dana Fellows]

Being the lead designer for TestOut IT products, I'm excited about this. Being a smaller company, those of us that worked at TestOut wanted to always do more and go faster and this will help with that. All the TestOut employees were brought over and work for CompTIA now.

 

[Stuart]

Being the lead designer for TestOut IT products, I'm excited about this. Being a smaller company, those of us that worked at TestOut wanted to always do more and go faster and this will help with that. All the TestOut employees were brought over and work for CompTIA now.

This is really good to hear that CompTIA took all of the TestOut staff

 

[Stephen Schneiter]

Welcome to CompTIA @danafellows !!! I just updated your CIN profile.

 

[Jarrel]

oh wow.
exciting times ahead!

 

[Steve Linthicum]

Does this move also include TestOut's Certification Magazine? If so, I'll have to raise the fee for my articles (currently $0.00/article).

 

[Stephen Schneiter]

Hi @Steve Linthicum, yes the acquisition does include Certification Magazine.

 

[Rick Butler]

Hi @Steve Linthicum, yes the acquisition does include Certification Magazine.

Hey - if that's the case, maybe I might have to get back into writing. I used to write for Microsoft Certified Professional (later Redmond). Got to be too much for just product reviews. But maybe I have a few things I can talk about now....

/r

 

[Steve Linthicum]

Dating myself, I use to write for Windows NT Magazine back in the days it paid well. BTW, if justification is needed for why we CTE teachers do what we do, it evidences itself in an email exchange today I had with a student of mine who I last taught about 15 years ago. My message to him, coupled with his response, are shown below:

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 7:31 AM Steve Linthicum <[email protected]> wrote:

I'm closing the door on teaching in May (heading to Europe for a river cruise). Read my bio at the end of this article:
https://www.certmag.com/articles/im...with-intelligent-guessing-and-time-management

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 7:51 AM ___________________________ wrote:

Steve,
Good for you. I'm glad to hear that you're going to start and enjoy a new chapter in life! In my opinion, you've had a very diversified and, hopefully, fulfilling career in so many avenues.

Many people, myself included, owe you a great debt of thanks for the contributions you've made to our own careers over the years.

You should be very proud of your accomplishments!

Craig

 

[Mark Anthony Germanos]

Two competing products in the same org? I'm thinking the best of CertMaster will be absorbed into TestOut while the remainder will fade.

 

[Rick Butler]

Two competing products in the same org? I'm thinking the best of CertMaster will be absorbed into TestOut while the remainder will fade.

You're probably right about that. TestOut does have some good things in the LabSim product that I can see would incorporate into CertMaster. I will be interested to see if CompTIA drops support for the Microsoft and EC Council TestOut products over time. Microsoft I can see because of CompTIA's stance on vendor neutrality. EC Council as well, because CompTIA would be more apt to push the Cybersecurity track certifications rather than the (arguably) competing CEH.

 

[Angel Waymer]

So, this came across the wire this morning. If you haven't read it, I think this might, just a little, affect all of us here...lol

CompTIA and TestOut join forces, accelerating the shared goal of empowering millions of students with technical training and digital literacy education

www.comptia.org

The first question on my mind with respect to this: What does that mean for CertMaster? As these were competitor products in the marketplace, does that mean that we'll see CertMaster adopting things like LabSim as part of their overall training packages? Talking-head videos to go along with the CompTIA books? And what kind of impact will this have on other courseware providers and authors for the traditional book companies?

Looks exciting, but it raises a few questions across the board as how all this pans out. I'm sure CompTIA and TestOut haven't completely hammered all this out, but it changes the landscape quite a bit.

/R

I think this is really great! As a student a few years ago, I wasn't a fan of TestOut. I was concerned that our company was partnering with them from some of the material based on my personal experience. But I have come to really admire the content, and the way it is presented. I use their review questions, and videos to help reinforce material I can't display in a virtual environment. They are short and to the point. I saw this pop up on my TestOut page and was happy to see they are joining forces.

 

[Rick Butler]

A long time ago (2012-13), we were running TestOut LabSim within our program as a component of our laboratory work. The students didn't look on it favorably because they felt it was rote, monotonous, dry, and did not give them the actual hands on they wanted to have, so we stopped using it and moved back to print lab manuals. The issue there was the labs were either not well prepared or play-tested before being introduced to the classroom, leading the students to frustration and a lot of in-class troubleshooting. Granted that troubleshooting was, in-fact, hands on, but the students didn't like that much either. Felt like we traded one problem for another.

As an academic evaluator for ABHES, I am called on to review IT programs from time to time for academic institutions. One such review revealed that the class was built around LabSim, leading me to question whether the instructor was actually teaching anything, or just acting as a facilitator for LabSim driven instruction - something that does not excite me, because in academics, I believe, it should always be instructor-led. I know there is a divergence in that opinion with respect to training these days, but it begs two questions, germane to college education:

1) What does the instructor actually do in that situation, anyway, besides sit off to the side and 'be a resource'.
2) Why does the student really need to attend college and incur exorbitant debt, if they can learn what they need from self-paced software solutions, like TestOut and/or CertMaster?

/r