Printed courseware is gone, but what about the PDFs?

[Gregory Childers]

We know that CompTIA is no longer producing printed courseware, but what about the PDF Instructor Guides? I know they exist for some certs, but not for others. E-books are available when PDFs are not.

I can speak for myself and my students. E-books suck. They require network access. There is no way to access them offline. This is a HUGE mistake. People love having offline access. PDFs are easily searchable. E-books are not.

The content has also changed. I was teaching Cloud+ last week, and the PDF was missing the cover page, the legalese/publication information pages, and references to all the labs. There were no activities or labs listed in the PDF courseware at all. There is also no mapping document for which labs align with which lessons. Basically, the instructor is stuck telling students "Hey, there are labs. They don't really align with our lessons, but you should probably do them at some point." I have to assume that this is a cost-cutting decision, because it makes no valid sense to eliminate PDF courseware as an educational offering.

CompTIA Learn had Instructor guides, quizzes, assessments, PBQs, and videos. It looks like they're trying to do the bare minimum with the E-books and (loosely) associated labs. There are already a lot of other content providers in the marketplace. If CompTIA doesn't reverse the trend of lowering the bar and start raising the bar, competitors will start taking over the training space. CompTIA will still have the certifications, but students will go elsewhere for the training offerings.

 

[jsgoodrich_wmu]

There is also a problem with e-books and the use of screen readers and other alternative text for students with disabilities.

 

[Rick Butler]

So, I spoke to a few folks in CompTIA during Summit about this. In fact, @Becky Mann even asked me directly as to what was the principal reason for keeping printed materials. I mentioned a lot of these things to her.

1) Offline access - As you stated *and* as someone pointed out on the TTT last night, without some kind of offline access to training materials, training within closed network environments like military facilities would be limited or not possible. Additionally, folks who are in low connectivity areas also would not have viable access to CM Perform.

But, as Gregory points out, it does open up opportunities (I would think) for book authors to continue to produce material. I'm quite certain that traditional publishers like Cengage, Pearson, Sybex, and others will be providing printed materials. It will be interesting to see if academic institutions go that route.

2) Profitability - As CompTIA has shifted to a for-profit model now, I suspect this will also drive those changes. The incorporation of LabSim really was the change catalyst for CertMaster. Personally, a way into my pocketbook would be adapting training material to mobile and making it more audibly accessible, as @jsgoodrich_wmu pointed out. I used to be able to use screen readers and PDFs, but that's gone now.

Maybe at the end of the day, the only folks who are complaining about the more traditional training material types are us older ones who've been in the field and started their careers out with that hard printed book from Barnes and Noble. I know that CompTIA has put a lot of time and money to try and build CertMaster, but I also wonder if they are painting themselves into a corner.

 

[jasoneckert]

As a Cengage author for Linux+, I know that most colleges purchase the printed copies of my titles instead of just using the eBooks (which are part of the Cengage MindTap platform). The printed version is costlier than the MindTap version, but better because readers benefit from the composition/layout features (i.e., it's easier to learn from). That being said, I think it's important to always have both options available.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

If CompTIA doesn't reverse the trend of lowering the bar and start raising the bar, competitors will start taking over the training space. CompTIA will still have the certifications, but students will go elsewhere for the training offerings.

To be honest, even when I started with CompTIA five years back I already thought their training materials were over-priced and offered too low ROI, when compared to other offerings. If the new org starts dropping quality even further, you're right: ain't nobody picking the "official" options anymore.

Heck, many students already refer to the Sybex books as "the official study guide".

Mind you: I was very surprised to hear that McGraw-Hill has actually pulled out of creating content for IT exams, or in the very least CompTIA materials. What a loss! I wonder what played into that!

 

[Gregory Childers]

To be honest, even when I started with CompTIA five years back I already thought their training materials were over-priced and offered too low ROI, when compared to other offerings. If the new org starts dropping quality even further, you're right: ain't nobody picking the "official" options anymore.

Heck, many students already refer to the Sybex books as "the official study guide".

Mind you: I was very surprised to hear that McGraw-Hill has actually pulled out of creating content for IT exams, or in the very least CompTIA materials. What a loss! I wonder what played into that!

I have long agreed that CompTIA courseware is priced well beyond the rest of the market. Their books and PDFs were over $100 USD, while the average comparable exam prep book can be found online for $40-$60 USD. The labs are useful for providing hands-on experiences to illustrate the technical concepts, but they were unnecessary for passing the exams. The practice quizzes and assessments were no better than other low-cost or free options. The ROI is just not there.

It's not just CompTIA. ISACA publishes expensive "official" courseware while there are many cost-effective solutions available online.

Self-paced e-learning seems to be the overall trend. E-courseware, online labs, practice exams, and generative AI. Content providers are moving away from classroom instruction. There are fewer opportunites for live or virtual trainers. I'm disheartened by this trend because students are given fewer options for human-based training. They can't ask questions from experienced professionals. Our roles are being reduced to a ChatGPT prompt. I find myself doing more instructional design and content development than actual training these days. I'm already exploring possible future career paths outside of training and education.

I hope that the new CompTIA makes positive changes. All we can do now is wait and see.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

Heck, here in the Netherlands @jasoneckert 's book is incredibly expensive (probably because Cengage doesn't target the EU)... but I was willing to pay for that book! Browsing through that book, compared to the CompTIA Linux+ book, made me go "this is quality!".

https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Jason-Eckert/dp/1337569798

 

[jasoneckert]

Heck, here in the Netherlands @jasoneckert 's book is incredibly expensive (probably because Cengage doesn't target the EU)... but I was willing to pay for that book! Browsing through that book, compared to the CompTIA Linux+ book, made me go "this is quality!".

https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Jason-Eckert/dp/1337569798

Obviously, I had to like this post!

I wholeheartedly agree with everything mentioned in this thread - we choose courseware/textbooks at our college based on content and value.

As a result, most of the courses that have an associated CompTIA certification attached to them use materials from Wiley/Sybex because they are very good (topics are introduced in a logical prerequisite order), inexpensive, and students find them easy to read and understand because the authors wrote them specifically for that audience.

We do use one McGraw Hill book (for CASP+, now SecurityX) because it's excellent, but I find that other titles from them are also great (e.g., the Mike Myers A+ book).

Cengage is the Apple of the publishing world (very expensive but worth it) - we use them for cornerstone courses that teach foundational practical skills such as Linux Administration (Linux+) and Windows Server 2022 (ironically I'm the author of both of these), but I can tell you that the other titles are equally excellent (e.g., Jill's books on Network+ and Cloud+).

My two cents...

 

[BrianFord]

I have long agreed that CompTIA courseware is priced well beyond the rest of the market. Their books and PDFs were over $100 USD, while the average comparable exam prep book can be found online for $40-$60 USD. The labs are useful for providing hands-on experiences to illustrate the technical concepts, but they were unnecessary for passing the exams. The practice quizzes and assessments were no better than other low-cost or free options. The ROI is just not there.

It's not just CompTIA. ISACA publishes expensive "official" courseware while there are many cost-effective solutions available online.

Self-paced e-learning seems to be the overall trend. E-courseware, online labs, practice exams, and generative AI. Content providers are moving away from classroom instruction. There are fewer opportunites for live or virtual trainers. I'm disheartened by this trend because students are given fewer options for human-based training. They can't ask questions from experienced professionals. Our roles are being reduced to a ChatGPT prompt. I find myself doing more instructional design and content development than actual training these days. I'm already exploring possible future career paths outside of training and education.

I hope that the new CompTIA makes positive changes. All we can do now is wait and see.

As someone who taught/may still teach in Community colleges and universities, I'll just mention that textbooks here in the US are now regularly going for $200-300. Those are required readings and are updated maybe every five years. The community college that I'm associated with uses widely available study guides for their Network Academy CCNA program and those guides in the bookstore are 40-100% more expensive than what the student would pay on Amazon. Another adjunct asked the bookstore manager why the cost was so high. Two reasons were cited: (1) they have to pay more because they have to source books from certain suppliers (its a state school, and there are state contracts), and (2) because they can get that price. The bookstore manager holds those study guides in stock all year but especially at the end of semesters; when desperate students will make impulse buying decisions to cram for an exam.

 

[Jill West]

But, as Gregory points out, it does open up opportunities (I would think) for book authors to continue to produce material. I'm quite certain that traditional publishers like Cengage, Pearson, Sybex, and others will be providing printed materials. It will be interesting to see if academic institutions go that route.

Many (most?) academic institutions never left that route to begin with. Many of the materials CompTIA bought as the seed for their training materials were originally designed for boot camps, not academia. Although they've made some improvements, the roots are still evident in the design of the materials. They played on their "official source" reputation, but the developers of their training materials don't have any access to information that we don't also have, as creators of learning content from other publishers.

I had an instructor ask me at a conference one time, when he found out I wrote textbooks for CompTIA exams, why don't my books cover all the exam objectives? As we talked, we figured out he was using CompTIA materials, not my books.

 

[Rick Butler]

As a Cengage author for Linux+, I know that most colleges purchase the printed copies of my titles instead of just using the eBooks (which are part of the Cengage MindTap platform). The printed version is costlier than the MindTap version, but better because readers benefit from the composition/layout features (i.e., it's easier to learn from). That being said, I think it's important to always have both options available.

Exactly. While the ROI always comes into question with having multiple media options, it does make for happier customers. When CertMaster came out before, I laid a lot of questions in on audio accessibility, since my eyes aren't always up to reading things. And being an audiophile myself, I do better listening. It's how I got through CASP!

Many (most?) academic institutions never left that route to begin with. Many of the materials CompTIA bought as the seed for their training materials were originally designed for boot camps, not academia. Although they've made some improvements, the roots are still evident in the design of the materials. They played on their "official source" reputation, but the developers of their training materials don't have any access to information that we don't also have, as creators of learning content from other publishers.

I had an instructor ask me at a conference one time, when he found out I wrote textbooks for CompTIA exams, why don't my books cover all the exam objectives? As we talked, we figured out he was using CompTIA materials, not my books.

At the risk of sounding groupie-ish, I have read and used yours and Eckert's stuff in my classrooms. Always well written and clear - and fun to read since I know you a little bit.

Now one of my bits of sage wisdom for learning, that has served me well over the years is to read materials from multiple authors/publishers. I find that different authors explain things in different ways, with focus on specific topics that may or may not cross over. In other words, it's always good to get a different approach.

I guess it slows me down when doing certs, for example, I read four different books on CySA, three for Cloud+, three for CASP, and so on. And there were things that were brought out or explained differently in each text. For me, it wasn't always about test preparedness, so much as it was about the fullness of knowledge.

Because when I got to teaching the material, unfortunately, my students were not there to hear Jill West or Jason Eckert's take on things - they wanted to hear from Rick Butler, because that's who was teaching the class. (sorry guys, the fedora rules all). And that's how it should be for every instructor., IMAO,

 

[MBA]

As someone who taught/may still teach in Community colleges and universities, I'll just mention that textbooks here in the US are now regularly going for $200-300. Those are required readings and are updated maybe every five years. The community college that I'm associated with uses widely available study guides for their Network Academy CCNA program and those guides in the bookstore are 40-100% more expensive than what the student would pay on Amazon. Another adjunct asked the bookstore manager why the cost was so high. Two reasons were cited: (1) they have to pay more because they have to source books from certain suppliers (its a state school, and there are state contracts), and (2) because they can get that price. The bookstore manager holds those study guides in stock all year but especially at the end of semesters; when desperate students will make impulse buying decisions to cram for an exam.

Brian,
Your post resonated with me. I teach at a private college (CompTIA academic partner). I am teaching Security+ and I had a back-and-forth with the bookstore contracted with the college (BN shame and name) about their pricing for the Security Pro and Security Pro + Voucher products. They have a 33% markup for the former and 43% markup for the latter in comparison to students buying direct. Students using financial aid have to go through the bookstore. I personally found the whole thing unsettling and tentamount to fraud. After all, these are electronic products, no heavy books are being shipped. It crossed my mind to post about this here to see if this was unique to our college and this particular bookstore or whether this is the norm. Sadly, after reading your post, I am realizing that this is commonplace.

From reading posts in this thread, besides the self-promoting, I am seeing a lot of enthusiasm here for students to acquire textbooks from Sybex, Cengage, etc. But people are overlooking an important point here. The additional cost for the student. The student is paying for the CompTIA courseware and the course fees, but we are telling them, that won't be enough go fork out an additional $50-$70 on a textbook. If I am a student in that situation, my first thought would be: why do I need to even have an instructor, pay for the course, or attend classes. I can simply buy materials for independent study and learn from cheaper videos courses on Udemy, Linkedin, YT, etc. I think this trend is definitely going to make our roles as instructors/trainers obselete.

It's a sad state of affairs.

Best,
-Moez

 

[Gregory Childers]

From reading posts in this thread, besides the self-promoting, I am seeing a lot of enthusiasm here for students to acquire textbooks from Sybex, Cengage, etc. But people are overlooking an important point here. The additional cost for the student. The student is paying for the CompTIA courseware and the course fees, but we are telling them, that won't be enough go fork out an additional $50-$70 on a textbook. If I am a student in that situation, my first thought would be: why do I need to even have an instructor, pay for the course, or attend classes. I can simply buy materials for independent study and learn from cheaper videos courses on Udemy, Linkedin, YT, etc. I think this trend is definitely going to make our roles as instructors/trainers obselete.

It's a sad state of affairs.

Best,
-Moez

I've seen this discussion on Reddit hundreds of times. Almost all of them have come to the conclusion that a cheap exam prep book, free or cheap abridged videos, and practices exams of questionable legal status are the best way to exam cram their way to certification without labs or experience.

The IT certification industry has sold them hopes and dreams. Get these certs in weeks or months and you're on your way to a successful IT career! There is pressure to put butts in seats (physically or virtually) so marketing departments sell them on hopes and dreams. Sales people aggressively push classes as if they were selling timeshares. Trainers/instructors get classes full of students who lack basic foundations and in many cases, a decent work ethic. We do what we can with what we've got, but the students leave unsatisfied because they weren't prepared for the training and they've spent a lot of money to be disappointed. They become disillusioned to the training business and decide to find the cheapest and easiest way to get that cert and check that box. They don't need trainers......they need to discover the secret shortcut! They pass A+, Net+, and Security+ within a few months with no IT experience whatsoever. And then they struggle to get hired because they have no experience. They become disillusioned again, and blame it on the certification industry who sold them hopes and dreams. And the cycle continues day after day, month after month, and year after year.

As far as the training materials are concerned, I could not care less which books we use. As long as they cover 100% of the objectives for the exams, I'm fine with it. I've taught from CompTIA official curriculum, 30Bird, Wiley, McGraw-Hill, and a few others. While they all expect me to help them pass the exams, my goal is to help them understand and apply the information in the real world. Passing Cloud+ is great, but being able to set up automation to spin up new VM instances is better. Passing Security+ is great, but being able to spot a well-crafted phishing email is better. Passing DataX is great, but being able to create complex algorhithms to solve business problems is better. I've spent 25+ facilitating and mentoring students to help them develop career skills.

 

[jasoneckert]

I've seen this discussion on Reddit hundreds of times. Almost all of them have come to the conclusion that a cheap exam prep book, free or cheap abridged videos, and practices exams of questionable legal status are the best way to exam cram their way to certification without labs or experience.

The IT certification industry has sold them hopes and dreams. Get these certs in weeks or months and you're on your way to a successful IT career! There is pressure to put butts in seats (physically or virtually) so marketing departments sell them on hopes and dreams. Sales people aggressively push classes as if they were selling timeshares. Trainers/instructors get classes full of students who lack basic foundations and in many cases, a decent work ethic. We do what we can with what we've got, but the students leave unsatisfied because they weren't prepared for the training and they've spent a lot of money to be disappointed. They become disillusioned to the training business and decide to find the cheapest and easiest way to get that cert and check that box. They don't need trainers......they need to discover the secret shortcut! They pass A+, Net+, and Security+ within a few months with no IT experience whatsoever. And then they struggle to get hired because they have no experience. They become disillusioned again, and blame it on the certification industry who sold them hopes and dreams. And the cycle continues day after day, month after month, and year after year.

As far as the training materials are concerned, I could not care less which books we use. As long as they cover 100% of the objectives for the exams, I'm fine with it. I've taught from CompTIA official curriculum, 30Bird, Wiley, McGraw-Hill, and a few others. While they all expect me to help them pass the exams, my goal is to help them understand and apply the information in the real world. Passing Cloud+ is great, but being able to set up automation to spin up new VM instances is better. Passing Security+ is great, but being able to spot a well-crafted phishing email is better. Passing DataX is great, but being able to create complex algorhithms to solve business problems is better. I've spent 25+ facilitating and mentoring students to help them develop career skills.

100% agree with all of this!

First and foremost should be teaching a skill or topic area, with an end goal of having students feel confident in their practical abilities in that skill or topic area. It's a bad thing if people skip that and just focus on getting certified (remember the days of the "paper MCSEs"?).

I've always considered certification a secondary thing - a "nice-to-have" that procures more callbacks for job interviews.

That being said, the best aspect to certification - specifically CompTIA certification - in my opinion is that it provides a nice topic framework for which we can build courses around. In other words, the work CompTIA puts into exam objectives from industry SMEs means that I don't have to duplicate that effort when designing program content - I can start with that as a template, filling in the rest of the topics as necessary.

 

[Steve Linthicum]

Maybe at the end of the day, the only folks who are complaining about the more traditional training material types are us older ones who've been in the field and started their careers out with that hard printed book from Barnes and Noble. I know that CompTIA has put a lot of time and money to try and build CertMaster, but I also wonder if they are painting themselves into a corner.

 

[MBA]

No pts for me.

 

[Rick Butler]

Yep - that's a big phat zero for me too. /r

 

[Tess Sluijter]

2 points for me, because the Netherlands did away with those backwards cheques in the 1980s. Oh and because we never actually had an encyclopedia (although I did have Encarta! So, half a point?)

 

[jasoneckert]

1 point for me, mainly because I've never heard of 'vynil' records

 

[Hank Cox]

I agree, thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts! Students who expressed a preference wanted to use a PDF or printed book, not the ebook.

The "online only" ebooks means we can no longer buy CompTIA materials to use in classrooms that are not internet connected. I will miss having the choice of using CompTIA materials when teaching security in secure classrooms!

Paper books and PDFs can be used anywhere in the world. Redundant copies can provide fault tolerance. Paper books and PDFs are free of the connectivity, authentication, authorization, and service availability risks associated with ebook access.

The current ebook (PT0-003) lacks features that printed books and PDFs have provided for years. Either a printed book or a PDF would be more useful for learning or teaching.

	PDF	ereader	printed book
available offline	yes	no	yes
does not expire	yes	no	yes
can search content	yes	no	no
can highlight content	yes	no	yes
can annotate content	yes	no	yes
has index	yes	no	yes
ease of navigation	good	fair	fair

On the quiz, 0 points for me unless 'vynil' counts!