Real Live (Virtually) Learning

The ultimate way to become proficient with a product or environment is direct, hands-on interaction, but that's not always practical or safe. Simulations and remote labs are an attractive alternative.

By Anne Martinez

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Novell's Remote Practicum

Novell Corporation, a long time pioneer in IT certification, is also leading the way in the use of remote lab technology. Starting with its Certified Directory Engineer designation, Novell has made the practicum more practical. Instead of requiring candidates to travel to a specific site equipped with the necessary technology and applications to support a hands-on skill assessment, Novell has brought the environment to the traditional certification testing outlets, specifically the VUE network.

The exam is administered using PCAnywhere over an IP link from a local testing center. The test-taker is connected to a directory environment containing errors, and instructed to fix it using the usual NDS utilities. Because this is a live environment, it’s quite possible to muck-up something else while tending to the first problem, just as it is in the real world. At the end of two hours (or sooner if you really know your stuff) your success is automatically evaluated through health checks on each of the servers in the remote environment and a pass or fail grade is calculated.

This new test delivery system was launched in March of 2000. The practicum isn’t available at every VUE testing outlet yet, but is live in multiple countries and about a dozen US locations.

Most certification students and their managers will agree that the ultimate way to become proficient with a product or environment is direct, hands-on interaction, preferably on a regular basis. But for many certification candidates that interaction is either not available, or not desirable. Not available, because their workplace or home doesn’t have an array of routers; not desirable because a mistake while experimenting with the company’s live Windows 2000 network could bring catastrophic results. Then not only won’t you be certified, you’ll likely be out of a job. Enter the simulation and the remote lab.

By mimicking an actual computing environment, simulations allow you to practice skills and tasks in a risk-free, affordable setting that facilitates learning. Although simulations are nothing new, their use as a certification training tool is just now becoming widespread. Sure, certification exam simulation software has been available and popular for years, but reproducing a substantial part of an actual operating system or application is a tougher and more expensive undertaking. Fortunately, the technology to build, maintain, and run these sorts of applications has matured enough that we can expect them to become an increasingly routine part of certification preparation. And it’s a welcome addition to the training arsenal.

There’s another good reason to jump on the simulation bandwagon – simulations are already appearing in certification exams, and you can expect their presence to grow. The traditional multiple-choice certification exam isn’t in immediate danger of extinction, but simulations and remote environments will become a routine part of certification assessments. Novell has already made the leap, with its remotely based hands-on practicum exam (see sidebar).

Faking It

Simulation software is typically purchased on a CD-ROM or downloaded from the Internet and installed on the user’s personal computer. Often, but not always, it’s incorporated into a CBT learning package. In this case, a particular lesson will walk you through a specific task, such as assigning file or directory permissions, and then present a simulation of the live environment and ask you to complete the task on with little or no additional guidance. The better simulation products will allow you to make wrong choices instead of only allowing the correct ones, and provide feedback on your performance.

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