Starting this next month, the University of Utah’s Technology Education department will be offering advanced Mac OS X IT classes.  Currently we offer the the Support and Server Essentials classes which cover an introduction to the Apple Certified Support Professional and the Apple Certified Technical Coordinator certifications.  

On February 9th to the 11th we will be offering Mac OS X Deployment v10.5, which covers deploying your Macintosh systems initially, deploying the OS systems for various uses, and providing updates and maintenance for the Macintosh system.  For any of you who manage large Mac labs or businesses that are migrating to or integrating Macs, this would be a great class for you attend.  It is one of 4 tests required for the Apple Certified System Administrator certification.  More information can be found the the following URLS: 

http://training.apple.com/itpro/leopard302

https://continue.utah.edu/edtech/detail.php?subject=edtec&catalog=631 

April 13th to the 16th will bring the Mac OS X Directory Services class, which covers the Directory system built into the OS X platform.  This covers the local directory and it’s management, Open Directory (Apple’s implementation of OpenLDAP), and integrating with third party Directory systems (like Active Directory and eDirectory).  Because there is so much information, this class will be a 4 day class.  More information can be found the the following URLS: 

http://training.apple.com/itpro/leopard301

https://continue.utah.edu/edtech/detail.php?subject=edtec&catalog=632

This summer we will also offer the Mac OS X Advanced System Administration v10.5 course, which is a comprehensive course on managing the UNIX aspect of the Mac OS X system.  Focusing primarily on the Command Line tools for installation, deployment, directory management, and automation, this course is a must have for every system administrator working with Macintosh machines, either at the user or server level.  This class is not yet scheduled, but is planned for the Summer semester.  It is the capstone course for the ACSA certification.  More information can be found the the following URL: 

http://training.apple.com/itpro/leopard401

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Technology Education department at (801) 581-6061.

I’m back from the Chicagoland area, and It’s good to be back home.  The trip home was mostly without incident, with both planes actually arriving on time (or earlier).  The trip was pleasant, and I made some really great friends with other instructors and developers out there within the ranks of the Apple Certified Instructor network.  

So, what about the training?  

Directory Services:  The Directory Services class was phenomenal.  It focused on connecting to various directory systems out there (both Active Directory and OpenLDAP), using the built in GUI tools, third party tools, and using the command line utility.  

We spent a lot of time demoting and promoting our servers to Open Directory Masters, while connecting to another directory system and making an Open Directory Replica.  

I learned a lot of new things at the training, mostly on how to replicate and create backup Directory systems for failover.  I’ll start covering each chapter in more detail as time permits, but needless to say it was a very useful class.  

Overall the flow was well designed.  The material was a little lacking in that some work in the workbook was not available or mentioned in the reference guide.  But other than that, it was well done.  The cognitive load was well managed with the timing of the class, and the constructivist method was well represented in this material.  Arek Dreyer, who wrote the reference guide, did a great job with the work.  I hope he works on the material again with the new 10.6 materials for which Apple Training is already planning.  

Advanced System Administration:  I want to preface this review by mentioning how this class was originally conceived.  When 10.5 came out, Apple Training looked at the existing certification and noticed that an Apple Certified Systems Administrator could go the whole certification process without once taking anything more than Server Essentials.  

Apple wanted to make the certification more meaningful, and so decided that knowing how to set up the environment was more important than knowing how to manage an Xsan or Podcast Producer.  And, quite honestly, they were right.  A Systems Administrator needed to focus on the core system that allows for Xsan and Podcast Producer to work well with the rest of the system, and not just the peripheral systems.  

So, basically, anything that didn’t fit into Deployment (system imaging and image maintenance) and Directory Services needed to be dumped into this class.  As such, the class is 5 days long and still too short for the material.  It’s also a fairly new class, as it is the only class that was not recreated from Tiger classes.

So, what do I think of it?  It definitely shows the signs of a kitchen sink class.  If you don’t have experience in the Command Line and didn’t take any of the other classes, you would be totally lost on this one.  It is completely designed to be a capstone course, and allow the student to design their own solution while completing the class.  

But there are problems:  If you don’t focus on the on-going narration (which the instructor had better be creating along the way for the sanity of the learners), then you can easily get lost in the details.  There is a lot of focus on current UNIX solutions, potential issues, tools that are still in development, and proprietary command line tools that Apple has created to manage their utilities.  All this is thrown at the student in four pillars:  Planning and Implementation, Networking, Administration (monitoring, security, and automation), and Troubleshooting.  

The narration is thus:  You have just been hired as the new PretendCo Systems Administrator, and the company is on the cusp of huge growth.  You find out that the company, up to now, has been running on one server, set up as a Standard configuration system for convenience.  You now have to do some real management to scale up the system you put in place in order to cope with the new growth expectations.  

For me, it’s going to be a challenge to teach this in a For-Credit schedule, if just because the course narration will be really difficult to keep in the student’s mind.  When I offer this class, I’ll be spending a lot of time focusing on the instructor notes, so that I can keep that narration flowing.  I may need to build the narration into some online exercises as well.  

So, overall, Directory Services was a hit, and a blast to teach.  Advanced System Administration was great, but I was honestly only able to keep up because of what I had already known having both taken all the previous Apple classes, and my experience with Linux.  I’m thinking that I may make the Linux Fundamentals a prerequisite for taking this class.  That way I can know that my students have had time to whet their experience on a UNIX environment in the command line.

This week I finish up with my T3′s for Apple with Advanced Server Administration.  This class is focused primarily on running the ADDIE process (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) throughout the IT  infrastructure of a company, and build it up using both the GUI and Command Line tools.  Because it is assumed that you have been learning the GUI tools up to this point (this is the capstone course), it primarily focuses on the command line tools available to the Mac.  

I’m not sure when we will offer the class at the U, as much depends on other training offerings and any additional infrastructure we would need, but I already have a lot of people interested in this class.  Most of them are Linux administrators who are going to be supporting the Apple platform, and want to do so with SSH (just as they would with Linux).  I already have a list of people who would love to take that class.  

Anyway, it all hinges on whether or not I’m judged “good enough” to train.  Partly judged by my peers, partly judged by the Master Trainer, my fate rests in their hands.  At this point, however, I’m less concerned.  I’m rather more concerned with how my family is doing back home.  I’m literally counting the days until I fly out.  But I will miss the Chicago area.  

Anyway, more details on the classes I attended during this trip sometime next week.  I’ll give a teaser for the classes, and give you my opinion of the materials and flow of the class.  

As promised, here is my review for the Mac OS X Deployment 10.5 T3 that I attended this last week.  

First, the location.  Of course I’m biased, but I have always loved Chicago, and as such enjoyed the trip Villa Park and Oakbrook Terrace.  The hotel was nice, and the location of the training facility was fairly easy to get to.  The only problem:  no sidewalks.  It makes it difficult to walk when you don’t have sidewalks, and there isn’t enough room to walk on the street (without getting hit).  Other than that, the location was nothing to complain about. 

The materials:  There are quite a lot of material for this class, and I was a little concerned that it would be impossible to fit it all into a 2 day training.  Luckily, that was the thought of the course developers as well, and as such the training was extended to 3 days.  That fits in perfectly with my training schedule I have planned for the University, so I didn’t complain. 

The Subject Matter:  There was still a lot that I wanted to cover but couldn’t in the class, mostly those focusing around the command line.  But then, there is a separate class for that, which I will be attending in two weeks.  ^_^  But those important topics, such as deploying through the command line, and imaging through the command line, were covered in depth.  Also planning, scaling, and third party utilities for managing a deployment option was well covered.  

One really nice thing I liked about the class was a mandate for the student to immediately apply what they have learned to a real world situation.  They do this through a Deployment planning sheet, which the trainer should have printed out for each student.  We didn’t have it, but it was made available to us in PDF form, and there is a link that comes with the learning materials to PeachPit’s website for the same PDF.  Once the form is filled out, the last chapter talks about real world solutions in many large companies, school districts, and training centers, and gives the student time to go through their document to see what they find useful, and what they don’t need, in their deployment of OS X.  

The Requirements:  It is essential the student have a command of both the Mac OS X GUI and have command line experience before starting this course.  Basically, students would need to have completed at least the Server Essentials course, and be able to manage a UNIX command line experience.  Why?  Because at the beginning of the course you are just expected to set up your computers with little assistance from the book.  At this point, it is expected that the student knows already how to set up a brand new install of Mac OS X. 

The command line experience would be more along the lines of familiar with syntax of commands.  Most, if not all, of the commands used are Mac OS X Utilities and not your typical UNIX commands, yet the syntax is the same and therefore the student needs to be familiar with that syntax.  There may be some situations when troubleshooting is necessary, and as such the student will need to know how to get to the man pages.  

Something else that would be important before taking this class is having troubleshooting knowledge, and an understanding of what you are being prepared to learn.  This way if something doesn’t quite work they way it’s written in the book, you can step outside of the given examples and find alternatives.  That’s part of learning, something that many students I have had in the past didn’t quite understand.  It requires reading/studying ahead of time, asking questions, and being attentive.  

The Pace:  Unlike both Support and Server Essentials where we pend a lot of time trying to catch the class up after some really long first setup exercises, this class is paced just right for the materials.  We as a training class (of 10 trainers) finished with plenty of time on the last day to cover some topics more in depth, and that was with us doing the majority of the optional exercises.  So with a typical class at this level, the pacing will be such that students will have some time to play with some configuration, or perhaps have a long lunch as a thank you for coming to the class.  

Overall, it is the best designed Apple training course I have attended so far.  The materials are well designed, the pace is just right (low to medium cognitive load), and the course talks well to adult students (through Constructivist methods).  This is a class that may not run often here in Utah, but will most likely be a well attended class when it does.  It is by far my most favorite class to date.  ^_^  

Also, I’d like to say thanks to everyone that attended, because they gave me some very welcomed constructive criticism, and the Master Trainer was a great host.  If only the Cubs could have won all three games I was there, rather than just one of the two.  Oh well, there is always next time.  

This week I am preparing for training in Chicago (Villa Park) for OS X Deployment, 10.5.  The class is newly remade, with a pretty hefty schedule for something that was supposed to be just 2 days long.  As it sits now, It looks like it will be a good 3 days for the class, though I will find out for sure next week.  

The course seems to be pretty straightforward, focusing on deploying Mac OS X to a large audience.  All the bases are covered from planning to execution.  It will be a great class to sit through, and prepare to take the certification exam.

This will be the second time I am leaving my wife and son for training.  Luckily, this week will be a short one, as I am leaving on Monday, and coming back late Thursday night.  This way I will still be able to teach my Server Essentials class on Friday, and not put the students one more day behind.  

The next step will be going to Mac OS X Directory Services 10.5, and Advanced Server.  These classes are 4 and 5 days each, respectively, and will put me a full 11 days away from my wife and son.  I didn’t do well last time around Christmas, but this time the major holiday will be behind me, and I will have another that following week to devote to my son.  

At any rate, it will be the first time I have ever been to Chicago in my life, and I’m really excited.  I’m a big Chicago Cubs fan, and have always wanted to see the Windy City.  Perhaps I’ll get a chance to head into town for the weekend.  One can only hope.  

Today we have received official word that the University of Utah will be offering For Credit classes that are official training certification courses for Apple, Cisco, and Linux. Starting this Spring the School of Computing will be offering special topics for the Cisco Network Academy’s CCNA Exploration course, Apple Support and Server Essentials, and the Linux Professional Institute courses for level 1 and level 2. INterestingly enough, there has been a lot of interest from the Engineering students on learning Cisco, and and the Business IS students for Linux and Apple.

These classes will be graded (not Pass/Fail for those worried about their GPA), and the courses are electives so anyone can take them from any department. That being said, there will be a hefty special fee to augment the cost of the labs, and the cost of the training materials. You would be surprised how much companies charge for their proprietary training materials.

CCNA Exploration Course
The CCNA course will be the latest course offerings (as of September 2007), and will be a 4 credit hour course. This is because of the large amount of information you need to get through, and need to study up on in your free time. It is not for the faint at heart, so you may want to take a Networking course first to prepare for it. It covers network connections, Frame Relay, Router setup, Switch setup, different routing protocols (RIP, OSCL, IS-IS, ect.), and will even have a wireless section.

Much of the lab will be virtual, and since the virtual environment software is open source you can implement your own test system on your computer at home. ^_^ The instructor is phenomenal, having taught professionally and in the Academic world for years. But, to be ready for any certification exam, you would need to take both semesters. This is similar to the program that Weber State University has in place.

Linux Classes
The Linux classes are being taught with the materials from our good friends at Guru Labs, and are excellent. The first semester is Linux Fundamentals and Enterprise Linux Systems. The books are geared to general Linux distributions, but have specific information for both Red Hat/Fedora and SuSE Linux.

The instructor is currently a programming manager that graduated from Boston University. He is very knowledgeable in Linux, and will also be teaching our non-credit vi class.

Apple Support and Server Essentials
For the first couple of weeks, Support Essentials will have the materials of 10.4, because Apple will not have the 10.5 materials ready until February. That being said, the concepts and contents of Support Essentials (first half of the semester) is almost identical to the 10.5 contents, and as the instructor I will be providing all the necessary 10.5 materials in training. Server Essentials will be all 10.5, and will be almost completely different from the 10.4 materials. There will be focus on Web and Mail (which is currently not covered in 10.4), and the Collaboration software (Wiki, Blog, iChat’s Jabber server, and iCal Server).

And, at the end of the class, we will have an open sandbox period to let you play with the server setup that you want, without someone breathing over your shoulder should you accidentally wipe your file server clean. ^_^

If you are interested in any type of technology degree from the University of Utah, and need some additional electives, I would recommend the certification classes. Not just because I teach one, but because I think it’s important to have some practical experience with the theoretical concepts that are out there. That, and all the EE students that we told about the CCNA program were excited (they didn’t have to do to SLCC to take the courses anymore). ^_^

Hope to see some of you in my class!

The computer industry is truly a wonder. No other industry has so much innovation, grows so quickly, or comes up with such a diverse method of doing things. As such, the industry seems to lack specifics regarding how to best learn about the technology. Most people within the industry then learn by experimenting, after given some basic information from the developing company.

But what if the skills desired are not necessarily applicable to a single company, but range through an entire industry and has diverse applications? This becomes problematic, as the development of any training material or reference material can become outdated quickly, and yet the need for such material is overwhelming.

On such example is Search Engine Optimization. Currently, there are several programs out there that claim to offer certifications based on their own issuance, but there is no guarantee that the certificate is recognized as an industry standard. Because of this, Search Engine Optimization is treated like an art form, rather than a set of skills that can be applied in a given situation.

The Lack of Standardization

Standardization only comes from an overwhelming acceptance from the industry at large. This can either be done unilaterally (i.e., Microsoft Certification, Sun Certification, Red Hat Certification), through a cooperative that organizes themselves from the industry’s base to form a set of skill standards (i.e., Linux Professional Institute), or from a set of recognized experts that determine the standard within their fields (i.e., standard college educational standards).

In the world of industrial training, the needs assessment is based on the skills required to do the job. Most companies conduct their own internal needs assessment, which will result in a job description. Some may even look at what other companies assign, and try to duplicate those requirements without truly understanding what the requirements mean. Either way, the needs assessment is completed based off of an individual company’s needs.

How to Build Solidarity
Solidarity within an industry comes from an industry-wide recognition of the requirements for a specific position or skill. Once solidarity has been reached (i.e., network administrator tasks are identified), they can be customized based on the company’s unique requirements and are more easily met by those looking to participate within that industry.

In order to gain that industry-wide recognition, it would be necessary to focus on building ties between the industry leaders, find the similarities, and focus on the skills that can bring about success as defined within the industry. This means conducting a massive task analysis across multiple companies in order to identify the standard skills that will benefit all.

The Daunting Task Simplified
While this may seem like an impossible dream, it can be achieved if identified in these generic terms:

1. What is the expected result?

2. What skills are necessary to achieve that result?

3. Which results and skills are unique to the company, and which are universal?

4. Which should be unique, and which should be universal?

5. How can the skills be best presented, so that those learning can apply them?

Once these questions are answered, a consensus has been reached to the point that training can be given, and that training has recognized industry approval. At that point, any certificate that comes with it can be seen as an industry standard. That is, provided that there is an evaluation system that can certify the skills can be practiced.

The Evaluation
All standard certificates come with some sort of standardized evaluation system. Whether it is the old reliable multiple choice test, or a more hands-on evaluation process, the results are the same. That person is now recognized by the industry to have the skills required to perform the job he was trained to do. Whether that be SEO Specialist, Linux System Administrator, or Underwater Basket Weaver, the evaluation system is necessary to identify what is being absorbed.

But that’s not all! It’s also an excellent way to evaluate how effective the training material is, or the reference material can be. It all comes down to the Bell Curve, that hated curve what was always incorrectly applied in High School. The Bell Curve is actually the shape of a graph showing the normal distribution where the mean, median and mode are all identical.

If the materials achieve a success rate that at least meets that normal distribution, then the material can be called a success. If it weights heavily below the acceptable level then there is something wrong with the materials or the evaluation method, and therefore needs review and revision. This is very much unlike the High School bell curve grading system, where the bell curve was applied after grading to assign grades. If that method were applied in professional training, it would do injustice to the skills required, as it does not accurately reflect learning.

This week I am teaching my Mac OS X Server Essentials class, and it’s been going great so far. As such, I will be posting very little, but I wanted to make this post really quick.

For anyone interested in learning the basics about Mac OS X Server, I would nighly recomend attending the class. Granted, it’s $2,000.00 (Apple set price), but not only do you get to learn about the server, but you get to create your own server environment at the end of the class. And no one will be yelling at you when you break something. ^_^

Seriously, I think it’s the better of the two classes I currently teach. It’s more fun to play with the server than to work out how to fix a broken computer. At least, that’s my opinion.

And stay tuned for the new Mac OS X 10.5 Server Essentials class! Once the class is prepared by the Training team (after Leopard ships), then we will be offering that class as well. And it will be very different, spending more time on the new technologies, and less time on the Gateway Services (NAT and VPN).

Recently the University of Utah had a career fair for the students, with a number of employers from various industries around the country. Of such, several were looking for Information Technology and Programming students. Just for fun, I thought I would run a quick and impromptu survey with the employers to see what kind of candidate they were looking for. Before I discuss my findings, I want to first address the basics of the survey. Ultimately I was asking about certifications on top of degrees, and then asking the certifications that would be most helpful to those employers.

The Survey
This survey is only limited in it’s relevance, as I only had a total of 10 employers that were hiring IT and programming staff. The questions were not standard questions, but were posed slightly differently to each of the employers. Many were aware of the basis of the survey, but were unaware of what the specific departments were looking for in regard to certifications. And finally, I had no control group from which to base the question on (i.e., I didn’t ask how many applicants they talked with, and of such how many had certifications and would most likely be interviewed again). But I still think the responses were of use, because the employers were so ready with their replies.

The Results
Most of the employers I talked to were on a one-on-one basis. Each said they were looking for people that were IT professionals, or Computer Science students that had a good grasp on the conceptual as well as the practical. The biggest lament from these employers were that most students had a strong conceptual base, but because they had little practical experience in the regular grunt work, any new hire would need to go through additional training to get up to speed. This took money out of their pocket, and made them more likely to pass by a newly graduated student in favor of a more experienced professional.

So I posed the question: Would certifications help? The first answer I got was Yes!! It would cut down on the training time, and show some practical experience along with the conceptual. Then they started rattling off some certifications that would be of benefit. I won’t cover the certifications here, since we are most likely going to offer them in future, but I will say that many were certifications that the Education Technology and Professional Education divisions of Continuing Education offer. But that was just one employer, so I checked with others.

Most came back with a yes, because it shows more dedication to the industry to receive a certification on top of a degree. Others said that they would be fairly open to a degree, and certifications would just be the icing on the cake. But ultimately, all of them were very positive toward the idea of a portfolio from a newly graduated student that included certifications.

The Conclusion
So, based on these discussions, it appears that having a certification program included as an option for graduating students would be of benefit to the employers, and therefore make the student body going into those fields more desirable as a potential hire. While this is not really news to the business world, it may have some impact on various institutions that are looking to become more competitive with the so-called “diploma mills” that focus on the certifications, rather than the conceptual ideas behind the computer world.