Everything you need to know about our new Microsoft course series
Have you ever wished you could read the notes an instructor made while writing a course? Well, today you can. Our very own edutainer Wes Bryan often shares his notes to help the team here at ACI Learning understand everything we need to know about a course, from concept to creation. Today we’re giving you a peek into details behind a few of Wes’ most recent course releases. We hope this will help answer some of your questions as you decide which course to binge next!
And… it just so happens… these courses were developed as part of a new effort here at ACI Learning: Now, our certification-aligned ITPro content will be developed as a series of skills-based courses, that will ultimately also combine into our more traditional, certification-specific course option. The naming of the split-out standalone courses will be more generic to the topic covered, essentially giving users more ways to consume content to fit their needs.
Why are we doing this?
Helpful content for a learner can be hidden behind a certification name. For example, you may want to learn about networking in Windows. Instead of this being within the MD-100 course only, it would now be available as a skills-based option within that series too. With this approach, it should be easier for users to find the skill they want to learn especially if the goal of their training is not necessarily certification prep.
How will it look for you?
In the ITPro platform, the certification-aligned content will be available as:
Multiple, skills-based courses.
A typical ITPro certification course (a combination of the skills courses), with the practice exams and labs attached.
When will users see these changes?
The first set of courses in this format are aligned to the MD-100 exam, which is releasing throughout March and April 2023.
Upcoming courses with this option:
- Manage Installing the Windows Client – March 31
- Configure Networking in Windows – March 31
- Configure Windows Client Storage – March 31
- Manage the Windows Client – Q1-Q2
- Control Access to the Windows Client – Q1-Q2
Other upcoming courses that will follow this approach:
- Splunk
- CySA
Now that you understand a little more about our skills-based course releases, let’s look at our first series in this style of offering. These titles were all updated and released in March 2023.
Course Title: Manage Installing the Windows Client
Course Description: This course will show and help the learner to install, deploy and manage the Windows client operating system. Following the course, the learner will be able to install, configure and manage Hyper-V on Windows clients as well as configure and customize Windows client settings.
Details: This course offers a lab and practice test, and more than 17 hours of episodes and content.
What Wes says: We will use a variety of GUI-based utilities as well as command line interfaces such as Command Prompt & Powershell. Who is this course for? Anyone really – whether you are taking an exam or on the Support Staff team, or a beginner to Windows, this will ensure you have a background in basic OS and networking skills. Why are you excited about the course? I love working in Windows and I am excited to help our learners navigate and configure the most popular enterprise OS in the industry.
Course Title: Configuring Networking in Windows
Course Description: This course will show and help the learner to configure common TCP/IP settings in Windows clients. Following the course, the learner will be able to install, configure, manage as well as troubleshoot wired and wireless network settings on Windows clients.
Details: This course offers seven episodes.
What Wes says: You don’t have to have a Windows background to get benefit from this course. Just have a basic concept of TCP/IP settings and network knowledge, and we can take you from there.
Course Title: Configure Windows Client Storage
Course Description: This course will show and help the learner to configure local storage in Windows clients. Following the course, the learner will be able to configure, manage and optimize storage drives, as well as format Windows volumes with file systems such as NTFS, FAT32, and ReFS. Finally, the learner will be able to configure and manage file and folder permissions in Windows. In this course, we will use GUI-based utilities such as the Windows Setting interface, disk management, command line interfaces such as command prompt and power shell.
Details: This course offers 10 episodes.
What Wes says: This course is all about how you, the learner, can configure Windows Client Storage. We’ll walk you through the majority of the tools you have to manage that task.
This course is for anyone, whether you are preparing to take the exam, on the support staff team, a beginner to Windows or have a background in basic OS and networking skills. We are assuming you have an understanding of some of the basics across the industry regardless of what operating system you are in and know a bit about networking. It’s important you have that concept because when we talk about storage, we’ll also talk about shared storage. I have worked in Windows for a long time. I really like working in Windows. It’s not the only operating system I use but one thing I love is helping our learners navigate through the most popular enterprise system. I love being able to help you be more successful in your Windows endeavors.
