Instructors Get Free Courseware
Frank Lucente | Assoc. Professor at Westmoreland County Comm. College
Frank started using TestOut Office Pro and TestOut IT Fundamentals Pro online courseware in 2020. He’s seen some incredible results.
Kim Arlia | Adjunct professor at Central Piedmont College
Busy adjunct frees up her time while helping more non-traditional and working students by reducing face-to-face class time with TestOut Office Pro.
Spencer DeGraw | Professor and Program Director at Ensign College
Spencer's TestOut Pro certified IT students get the same jobs & pay as 4-year degree grads with the level playing field that TestOut courseware provides.
Jed Patrick | IT Prog. Coordinator at Mountainland Applied Technology
TestOut Pro Certifications put students in a hands-on testing environment where they can prove what they can do.
Kris Rosenberg | Professor & Program Dir. at Oregon Institute of Technology
TestOut Pro Certifications help schools emphasis skills-based training curriculums that produce job-ready graduates.
Bill Baur | Professor at Sussex Community College
Professor has extra time to motivate students because TestOut Office Pro saves him hassles and headaches grading and tracking students' progress.
TestOut Pro Certifications help schools emphasize skills-based training curriculums that produce job-ready graduates. Some of the places Oregon Tech students are getting jobs are: Intel, Google, State of Oregon, Nike, and Providence Health Systems.
After working as a chief information officer (CIO) for college campuses for 20 years, Kris Rosenberg explored a career change. He loved aspects of his job, like working in education and training and mentoring employees, so he considered teaching. He drove by Oregon Institute of Technology every day but didn’t know a lot about it, so on a whim, he set up a meeting: “I went in wanting to know more about the place and walked out with a teaching gig.”
Kris then taught a class as an adjunct instructor and continued working as a CIO all while earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in IT. Upon receiving his master’s, he resigned as CIO and taught for Oregon Tech full time. Within a year, he was made director of the IT and cybersecurity program.
In his new role, Kris began to zero in on Oregon Tech’s focus on using skills-based curriculums: “The challenge was how can I give the students hands-on experience without having to invest in massive amounts of time and resources?” As a CIO, Kris had success using TestOut courseware to train his employees and had used it himself as a recent student, so he brought TestOut to his program: “TestOut enabled me to revamp our curriculum in a very large-scale way very quickly, and it added value to me individually; rather than spend all my time building the tools and resources like lectures, quizzes, and labs, I could use my time teaching, mentoring, and inspiring students—doing the things that an instructor is actually supposed to do. After vetting the grading and reporting capabilities of LabSim, I had a time- and resource-saving solution difficult to live without.”
"Our program’s culture and mindset is around making sure the students have an applied education and possess industry skills come graduation. The Pro certifications were a natural alignment to this."
Kris used TestOut Pro certifications from the very beginning, starting with PC Pro. He took the exam himself and saw that the simulated tasks were the same tasks he would expect an entry-level technician to perform: “Our program’s culture and mindset is around making sure the students have an applied education and possess industry skills come graduation. The Pro certifications were a natural alignment to this because they give us a way to test if the students really have the skills and can perform the tasks we would expect them to perform out in industry. Having an assessment tool and final exam like a Pro certification gives me confidence as an instructor to know that the students have achieved the learning outcomes and have mastered the skills in the course.”
Kris currently uses every Pro certification offered as a final exam and high-stakes certification. He’s found that the students appreciate being able to walk away with not just a degree but with certifications and that they feel more confident talking to employers: “Our students like the exams, leave our program knowing they have skills, and use their performance-based credentials to their advantage in a competitive job market.”
Some of his students go on to take CompTIA or Microsoft exams: “If we have students who are interested in jobs that require CompTIA or Microsoft exams, we’ve found that, generally, students are prepared to take them after earning a TestOut Pro certification, sometimes with additional studying. But in most cases, we’ve found that for the entry-level jobs, most HR managers accept the Pro certs, and students can save time and money by sticking with them.”
“Our students like the exams, leave our program knowing they have skills, and use their performance-based credentials to their advantage in a competitive job market.”
Kris has been thrilled with TestOut’s LabSim courseware solution and the difference the Pro certifications have made: “The quality of education at Oregon Tech has shot up significantly since adopting TestOut’s training and certifications three years ago. I’ve seen big leaps in the quality of the students. It’s really made a difference. The fact that a student can take a class and have a cert at the end of the class is huge. Oregon Tech’s goal is to have over 90 percent employment rate up to six months after graduating, and LabSim and the Pro certifications have sustained this. Our students walk out of our program with four or five TestOut certifications in addition to a degree. I cannot express enough gratitude to TestOut--not just for me personally, but it’s really important to the students. It’s making a difference in their lives.”
"I cannot express enough gratitude to TestOut--not just for me personally, but it’s really important to the students. It’s making a difference in their lives."
"The biggest thing that has made TestOut’s LabSim and Pro certifications useful for our program is going all in and using them the way they’re intended to be used. But you have to proactively build upon them--I still give assignments and quizzes and use the custom exam builder to keep my students in check and engaged. I don’t think LabSim courses are meant to just hand over to your students and say, ‘come back in ten weeks and let me know how it goes.’ You have to really use the tools and make the effort to stay involved with your students and do the things an instructor traditionally should do, and LabSim frees up your time to do it.
"The Pro certifications will fit in your program if you’re focused on a skills-based and job-ready curriculum. If you’re focused on theory and memorization, then you’ll need to change your mindset and make adjustments to integrate them. Just know that it takes more effort to teach like this, but it’s worth it. Commit to using the exams as a final and tailor your courses around them. If your students pass, you’ll know that they’ve achieved the course outcomes and have the essential skills that an entry-level IT technician should have.”
Request free instructor access to get started setting up your class up with TestOut courseware.
Frank Lucente | Assoc. Professor at Westmoreland County Comm. College
Frank started using TestOut Office Pro and TestOut IT Fundamentals Pro online courseware in 2020. He’s seen some incredible results.
Kim Arlia | Adjunct professor at Central Piedmont College
Busy adjunct frees up her time while helping more non-traditional and working students by reducing face-to-face class time with TestOut Office Pro.
Spencer DeGraw | Professor and Program Director at Ensign College
Spencer's TestOut Pro certified IT students get the same jobs & pay as 4-year degree grads with the level playing field that TestOut courseware provides.
Jed Patrick | IT Prog. Coordinator at Mountainland Applied Technology
TestOut Pro Certifications put students in a hands-on testing environment where they can prove what they can do.
Kris Rosenberg | Professor & Program Dir. at Oregon Institute of Technology
TestOut Pro Certifications help schools emphasis skills-based training curriculums that produce job-ready graduates.
Bill Baur | Professor at Sussex Community College
Professor has extra time to motivate students because TestOut Office Pro saves him hassles and headaches grading and tracking students' progress.
