Thoughts on CompTIA's Security+ Learning Content

[Steve Linthicum]

I'm interested in the thoughts of others relative to CompTIA's content (Official Student Guide and Certmaster Labs). I'm finding the content of remarkable quality, and I'm planning to utilize these products for both contract and academic courses that I'll be teaching in the future. Early on in my teaching career, I made the mistake of signing on to write a textbook on IIS4.0. What I found is because technology changes so quickly, the shelf life of learning content is extremely short. I think that goes a long way towards why we are seeing a reduction of choices in learning content.

One of the things I'm working on for teaching later this summer is adapting this content (Official Student Guide and Certmaster Labs) for the Canvas LMS that we use here in the California Community College system. I'm attempting to create a loose association of instructors to work together to create additional learning content (e.g. quizzes, discussions, projects, etc.) that we can share and utilize for our classes. If you have an interest in participating, email me at [email protected].

Steve

 

[Ivan Jude Busgano]

Sounds interesting. Count me in, @Steve Linthicum

 

[Jonathan Weiss]

I am in the same boat. @Steve Linthicum I am interested in figuring out how to best incorporate the CertMaster Learn structure and complementary materials into our Canvas LMS here at Ocean County College in NJ.

 

[Steve Linthicum]

Email me at [email protected] and I'll provide you with a link for the Canvas course I'm building that will incorporate supplemental materials. Yesterday in a back and forth conversation I'm having with the people at CompTIA, I wrote:

I wanted to share with you the "work in progress" effort I'm doing on the move of CompTIA learning resources into Canvas learning environment by inviting you to access the Security+ Canvas course I'm developing for fall use as a student. The link for registration and access is:
(link provided to Canvas course)

As you will note for example I've added in each lesson the "Practice Exercise" with instructions on how to load a screenshot of their results in order to have the instructor enter how many points students will be awarded for completing the exercise. I indicated an arbitrary 20 points maximum for each Exercise, providing instructors with the ability to modify the maximum points to adjust the relative weight given to each lesson.

What I can tell you as an adjunct faculty member is the more "canned" the approach with meaningful exercises, coupled with the least amount of work a faculty member has to do, the better your sales of this learning content will be. My next effort in this regard is aligning Professor Messer's new SY0-601 video series (a free resource) with the lessons (by inserting links to those videos in their appropriate lessons as supplemental content). Frankly, these videos are a great resource, with wide adoption by those studying for the core CompTIA certifications (A+, Network+, and Security+).

Please feel free to share my thoughts with anyone you'd like.

Steve


On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 11:35 AM Steve Linthicum <[email protected]> wrote:

A couple of key additions and an explanation of their need is as follows:

1. Discussion Boards - Today's cybersecurity courses are generally being taught in an online format and even when they are online they are being taught in a fashion that doesn't promote student-to-student interaction. Discussion boards, that include student responsibility to respond to other student postings promote this interaction. Discussions can also include real-life scenarios that are current in nature (e.g. Sierra College ransomware attack).

2. Lab Related Reports - Lab reports where students can detail what they learned, providing proof beyond a mere screenshot of their lab completion. For example, students in a lab where there has been a cybersecurity event might be required to complete and turn in the sample attached report, serving as proof they completed the lab.

3. Summary Reports - Where for example students are given the assignment to listen to a current podcast (e.g. Security Now!) and report on the podcast's content.

The key here is as academic faculty we are required to grade assignments and must meet specific learning objectives. Hence the need to widen assignment coverage beyond that needed to have success on the certification-related exam.

 

[Rick Butler]

Sounds like an amazing project. If I didn't have a full-up summer schedule with service migrations here, I'd get in on that.

Personally, when I see the CompTIA Study Guides, in particular, my response is, "Where have you been all my life?"

For years on end, I went between Cengage, Pearson, and McGraw Hill. I always found them to be analogous to versions of the Bible, where you have various translations and interpretations - with the preference to always going back to the original languages and writings. Sure, you get the essence of what's on the exam, but you get one particular author's look at it. Whenever I personally studied for an exam (and still basically do), I would pick up two different books from two different publishers on the same topic and study them both, before ever going into test questions, which I would try to get from a third vendor. That way, I felt I had a well-rounded look at what was on the exam, and more importantly, what was more important (because this, to me, is actually far more critical so one can shape their study time efficiently)

Had CompTIA been writing study guides years ago when I was redeveloping curriculum, I would have "went right back to the source", and never even looked around, given that the students, at least in my school, would only get one textbook.

/r

 

[Steve Linthicum]

To prove this idea is working, Jonathan Weiss (see his posting above) joined in this effort and spent time and effort aligning the Messer videos to the Guide's lessons. I did a little cleanup (mostly reformatting the content on the Canvas lesson pages) and that work is done. The attached table details that connection with the "L" identifying the Guide lesson and the "T" identifying the lesson topic. Of interest is the finding the following Messer videos where we are currently challenged finding content in the Guide relating to these subjects:
Race Condition
Blujacking and Bluesnarfing
RFID and NFC Attacks
Log Management
Third-party Risk Management

I'll be doing a little searching in the Guide to make the connections.