In-Class Exercises

[Daniel Sanford]

Are there any good resources where I can get some good in-class exercises to do with my students for A+, Network+, and Security+? I know there are somethings included in CertMaster, but I am hoping to find material outside of CompTIA that could be useful.

 

[Rick Butler]

Lab Manuals that are tied to the traditional publishers like Cengage, Pearson, and others. Using those lab manuals as a guide and building them up, to me have created some great examples. Even if the lab manuals are deprecated in terms of test version, they're still very valid. Get a stack of 'em and just use them in the classroom, would be a good hacky way of getting going there.

 

[Bruce Weaver]

I completely agree with Rick that even older lab manuals still have a good value for learners. You could also let AI do some of the heavy lifting. For example, I had AI develop 5 scenarios with a broken windows installation, (BOOTMGR, BCD type issues for example) and had it create instructions for "breaking" the PC so that students could attempt repairs, then had it write a solution guide starting with hints for learners that get stuck. This got my creative juices flowing and gave me inspiration to write a few more scenarios involving malware and network issues.

 

[Ednei P. de Melo]

I believe that external teaching materials (those not part of the official course) should only be used for supplementary purposes. Students should be aware that the topics covered may not be aligned with the certification requirements, not to mention the possibility that such approaches may be conducted in a "different" way than that established by the certification. And this is especially true for older labs and practical exercises! &;-D

 

[Gregory Childers]

I believe that external teaching materials (those not part of the official course) should only be used for supplementary purposes. Students should be aware that the topics covered may not be aligned with the certification requirements, not to mention the possibility that such approaches may be conducted in a "different" way than that established by the certification. And this is especially true for older labs and practical exercises! &;-D

The labs are a good way to reinforce the knowledge, but CompTIA doesn't test people on how to use the tools. They test on the concepts.

Any labs are good as long as they help reinforce the knowledge. Quite frankly, some vendors are better at writing study guides and creating labs than CompTIA.

 

[MBA]

My recommendation is to design and create your own labs/projects from scratch. For example, for Security+, I have designed 5-6 projects spread across a semester to build up students' hands-on skills, in addition to CertMaster labs. Project 0 involves students building their hacking lab in virtualbox/vmware, then subsequent projects use that environment to build their skills. I aligned the projects with various phases of the cyber kill chain. I also require students to participate in a CTF competition. You can draw inspiration from various books and online platforms, as well as leverage AI, if you need help with coming up with ideas for the exercises/labs.

-Moez