Many folks have heard about “Flipping the Classroom”. The Internet and the online learning tools are opening new doors to traditional training and teaching models. We have leveraged these same tools and have redefined the traditional certification training model – we call it “Flipping the Certification Model”.
Let’s start with what the traditional model is:
- You sign up for a 5 day bootcamp course and pay (roughly) between $2,500 and $3,700 dollars.
- You travel to a city/location for a week incurring travel expenses.
- You are out of your current job for that week and your employer must find a substitute.
- The bootcamp includes lecture and hands-on labs to practice what you learn.
- The last day of the course is “Testing Day” where you take the certification test.
- You Pass/Fail.
- You return to work certified or not certified depending on your test score.
What we have done is flipped the model to the following:
- You pay a nominal (usually around $35) test fee and take the test online from anywhere you choose.
- The test is organized into areas of expertise – so you may pass some areas you may not pass others. This is key to flipping the model. It means we have invested time to organize the tests into areas of expertise, knowing it is possible for a learner to have certifiable knowledge in one area but not another. The result of this is the learner knows what areas they need to study/practice, and they can opt out of training they pass on.
- You then take only the training you need (each area is individually priced), again organized by area of expertise. This saves time and cost.
- This is done online with no travel – saving huge time and expense.
- Each training area is comprised of video (rewindable, reviewable) and hands on labs. Again, we have invested in design of the areas so they are presented separately yet part of the whole certification objective.
- At the end of each training area, you retake only that part of the test online – no travel expense.
- You are given reasonable time (usually 30 days) to complete this process so you can maintain your current job functions.
- In the end, your certification is based on the better of your initial tests combined with the secondary area tests.
- You will be either certified or not certified at the end of the courses and tests.
Interested?
For more information on what we call our Network Science Certification – look here!