A critical review of SANS Live-Online Training
We were wrong and couldn’t be happier about it.Since the beginning and throughout the pandemic, we had assumed that students were not as happy with the Live Online experience as they had been at conferences. Today, with a year of experience under our belt, we got the results of an analysis of student ratings of content and instructors from the Live Online platform. Surprisingly, students rate their experience just as high – and for some courses even higher – as they did for those same courses and teachers at in-person conferences. Even students’ GIAC certification test scores are higher than historical averages.
It turns out that the interactive nature of courses combined with very talented instructors actually created some significant advantages for students. Students had a lot of positive things to say about the overall learning experience, the labs, the skills acquired, the online classroom interaction, the dynamism of the instructors, and the teaching assistants who help with labs and reference material.
The Top Four Elements That Help Students
1. The experience is effective. Students appreciated the downloadable course materials, lab materials, course books, archived video recordings, daily classroom sessions, and cloud-based labs. Just as importantly, they thrived in the interactive student-to-student and student-to-instructor chat rooms, which are new to the classroom experience.
Here’s what students had to say:
“The combination of the instructor, classmates, written course materials, Live Online format, and the interactive labs was outstanding. I would recommend SANS courses to anyone interested in a challenging and interactive learning atmosphere.” – William N., U.S. federal government
“I honestly can't imagine how much effort [the instructor] put into creating and delivering this training. I was worried about the Live Online format, but I think it might actually be better than most in-person training.” – Chantel Strickland, Cisco
"The Live Online delivery platform ensures students are able to access content, virtual machines, labs, resources, and chat 24 hours a day... Additionally, after the course ends, access is still available! Priceless!” –Britni T., U.S. federal agency
"Having a subject-matter expert instructor with tons of real-world experience makes the course material easy to digest, and the Live Online platform is the best platform I've experienced!” – Jeremy Swanson, Mantech
2. Hands-On Interactive Labs and Ranges Help Students Develop Necessary Skills. The labs build critical skills based on scenarios and challenges created by the course authors. These scenarios are based on their actual experiences as cybersecurity practitioners. During the pandemic, the labs were adapted to be used immediately by students on their jobs – in some cases, on the same day due to remote work environments. Students have access to 1,700 labs with more than 1,360 hours of interactive activities and cloud-based range environments. These hands-on activities allow students to analyze data from real compromises, reinforcing the skills they’ve been taught and will need at their jobs.
Here’s what students had to say:
“Integrates all the lesson material and builds on the previous labs. A huge benefit is having examples of how the analyses are done so students can read and learn from those. Plus, really appreciate the instructor going through and providing excellent explanations of the work.” – David Palmer, USG
“The labs do an excellent job of reinforcing the copious amount of material. This greatly assists in at least building some sort of memory of the material.” – Matt Whitney, U.S. military
“The course material is backed up with very well-crafted labs that give you an opportunity to actually use and interact with the tools and techniques covered in the course. Having the labs delivered as Virtual Machines that we can run locally and continue to use after the class is a great benefit for continued practice.” – Michael Rizzo, Palo Alto Networks
"I have attended in-person SANS training courses and I would say overall the Live Online experience works really well and was actually better for the hands-on labs as far as being able to use a larger monitor and the environment." – Don Young, Virginia 529 Programs
"Everything from the instructor to the platform to the labs and materials were great. It all fit together and made this Live Online learning process go smooth. GoToTraining and Slack worked great! I wouldn’t change a thing." – Robert L., U.S. federal agency
3. Instructors Bring Real-World Skills to the Classroom. Students learn from industry leaders who are not only instructors but also practitioners working in the field, authoring books, and building tools. In their comments, students say they appreciate the fact that those instructors actively practice what they are teaching. Knowing that instructors are experts working on cybersecurity challenges worldwide gives them confidence that the skills they are learning are current best practices. We were also reminded that the exceptional quality of instructors matters – it has been the primary reason why students provide such positive reviews.
Here’s what students had to say:
“Frank Kim does a fantastic job of keeping the students engaged, pausing at the right points, and adding commentary on real-life similar events. This is my first online/virtual course and I’m surprised at the proactive engagement of the students. I would have thought that you could only get that type of involvement from on-site/in-person course instruction. ” – Sean Ayers, UPS
“Doc is outstanding. I didn't know how I was going to get through 6 days, 10 hours each day. Today I literally looked at my husband funny when he walked in and said he was off work. It couldn't be that time already. It just couldn't be. Time is flying because Doc is interesting and knowledgeable.” – Christina Horton, Amazon
“I appreciated Eric's anecdotes today based on his years of experience in the industry. For example, I liked the ‘bind, James Bind’ story. Eric shared a good mix of useful, interesting, and funny information to keep the class interesting.” – Joseph Perryman, Rackspace Technology
4. Classroom Interaction Engages Both the Remote Students and the Instructors. Students want to feel connected to other students and instructors. They appreciate the interactivity that is key to effective learning and can ask each other questions and interact continuously during class. This has encouraged many students to engage in asking questions, making them better able to absorb the material and learn more in the process. As a result, student classroom interaction is often more effective. The instructor can give detailed responses to students and provide additional supporting resources (websites, code, etc.) in chat windows that allow for better sharing than physical rooms. Students are also less intimidated about participating, and we see a higher quality of engagement.
Here’s what students had to say:
“I wasn't sure what to expect from this type of remote learning and was pleasantly surprised at how well this has worked, having multiple ways to communicate to [the instructor], the moderators, and other students.” – Ben Storey, Deloitte
“Really loved how interactive and participative the moderator & TA were. Definitely helped to engage the class and also ask questions to help everyone learn more.” – Charin NG, CSIT
“I continue to appreciate the balance offered between the audio and chat platforms running simultaneously, as it gives a real-time opportunity to interject on a topic or ask a question in the moment, which is ideal compared to waiting until the end of a module.” – Caitlin Icart, Best Buy
In sum, students are telling us that they love the SANS Live Online experience, content, and instructors. One student summarizes the overall comments better than we can:
“I've always gone to SANS as my vendor-of-choice for on-site training, but I am now just as likely to select SANS Live Online for my future training needs. The Live Online experience was just as effective in presenting valuable material in a superb format, and the instructor and staff were excellent in creating a classroom environment with the tools available to them (GoToMeeting, Slack, & Skype). Taking the course Live Online…did not diminish my experience one bit. If anything, I think I may have had an even better learning experience, and surprisingly gained closer camaraderie with my classmates!” – Harold Stockton, Global Payments Inc.
