Life as a Microsoft Certified Trainer

If you are thinking of becoming an MCT, check the following blogpost by Tjeerd Veninga from “Born to Learn”:

“You’ve probably heard me share my excitement over the growth in our MCT Community. Right now, there are 16,337 MCTs in 150+ countries.

As the MCT Community Lead, I receive a large number of emails from people who want to know more about our program. So I designed a flyer, called it ‘14,000 reasons to become an MCT’ (and ended up updating the flyer’s title 3 months later, and now need to do that again ).

If you are considering joining the MCT Community, you will find that flyer and a full program overview here. MCTs need to meet some requirements; you need to be Microsoft Certified, you need to have proven presentation skills. We then offer a wide range of benefits; full access to our learning products, free TechNet Plus Direct, a free license to Camtasia Studio and Snagit, etc. And you become part of the worldwide MCT Community; you can share experiences, tips and tricks with MCTs from all over the world. We support MCTs preparing for new technology and new courses through our MCT Readiness program: a library of recorded presentations that help you prepare for new training projects, with new sessions added each month.

Many new MCTs, many new benefits, so we ran an MCT readiness session for new MCTs to talk new MCTs through the program. This was presented by MCT Christopher Harrison, the session has greatly helped new MCTs get the most out of the program. If you are considering joining the MCT Program, why not take a look at this recording?

Things every new MCT should know (but is afraid to ask) was recorded in September – hearing Christopher refer to 15K MCTs makes me realize how fast our numbers have grown this year.”

Windows Server 2008 Pilot Trainer Event Announcement: Course 6416C and 10159A

Microsoft Learning is pleased to announce an MCT Trainer Prep event for course 6416C (Updating your Network Infrastructure and Active Directory Technology Skills to Windows Server 2008) and course 10159A (Updating Your Windows Server 2008 Technology Specialist Skills to R2) to be held at the Microsoft Learning offices in Dublin, Ireland. After the success of our T-Prep event for courses 6425B and 6426B in Redmond, Washington, USA, Microsoft is hoping to reproduce this success in a location that is more convenient for our European MCTs. This event will enable qualified MCTs to hear directly from course authors about what is new and different, and how to succeed in the classroom.

Here’s what Microsoft is planning:

• What: Five days of MCT-only instructor led training covering eight days worth of training content.
• Where: Dublin, Ireland.
• When: Monday, December 7 through Friday, December 11, 2009.
• Who: Attendance is open to all MCTs but will be capped at a maximum of 20 attendees. Priority will be given to MCTs who have participated in the Review Board for one or more Windows Server 2008 courses.
• Prerequisites: Attending MCTs will be asked to download and review the 6416C and 10159A course content before the T-Prep Pilot event begins. The event will focus on changes to the courseware and strategies for delivery, and will assume that all attendees are familiar with the course content before the event begins. Both courses are available today in their Early Content Release (beta) form on the MCT courseware download center. Attendees must bring copies of the courseware, either printed or digital as desired, as printed courseware will not be provided during the event.
• Cost: The T-Prep Pilot event is free of charge. The event includes five days of hotel lodging near the training center. Breakfast and lunch will be provided each day. Attendees are responsible for paying their own travel costs, including airfare, car rental and dinner.
• Requirements: Attendees will be required to provide constructive and critical feedback on the course design and content throughout the event. We are looking for talented and vocal MCT who will help us make these the best Windows Server courses ever.

Interested MCTs should get the full event details from the microsoft.private.mct.windowsserver2008 newsgroup. Microsoft hope to see you in Dublin!

Need to Take an Exam? Ask Your MCT for a Discount Voucher

Are you taking training courses to prepare for your certification exams? If your answer is yes, ask your Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for a discount voucher for your next exam! Your MCT can request discounted exam vouchers for you for various MCP and Microsoft Dynamics exams through the MCT Reward Program. Also ask your MCT for help identifying different exam paths toward your next Microsoft credential.

MCT Requirement

Microsoft recognizes and promotes MCTs as Microsoft technical and instructional experts. Program requirements ensure that MCTs consistently satisfy customers.

For the MCT 2009 program year (from April 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010), MCTs must fulfill the following requirements.

1. Meet MCT competency requirements for each course they deliver.
   • Acquire a valid Microsoft Certification
   • Demonstrate instructional presentation skills
2. Administer course evaluations to every student and maintain high customer-satisfaction scores.
3. New MCTs must deliver at least one Microsoft course within their first year as an MCT.

At various times during the program year, Microsoft conducts audits of the MCT community to ensure compliance with program requirements.

• Find detailed requirements in the MCT Program Guide

If you have questions about the certification process or about the program requirements, contact a Microsoft Regional Service Center near you.

• Find a Microsoft Regional Service Center

Detail: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mct.aspx#demonstrate

Changes to MCT Rewards Discount

Beginning August 27, 2009, the MCT Rewards exam discount that your Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) offer to students will change to 10 percent worldwide. MCT Rewards Discount Vouchers that were issued before this date with the original discount amount remain valid until June 30, 2010.

Discount Vouchers eligibility

MCT can offer MCT Rewards Discount vouchers to thier students and to people in thier personal network. MCT Rewards Discount Vouchers cannot be resold. Discounts may vary by country.

For a list of discounts by country, click here

Windows Server 2008 Pilot Trainer Prep Event Announcement

This fresh in from Matthew Roche, Quality Architect, a new MCT Readiness Opportunity.

 

As most MCTs are aware, Microsoft Learning is in the process of revising several Windows Server 2008 courses: 6416, 6425, 6426 and 6430. We have involved the MCT community along the way, and as we prepare to release the first two revised courses, we want to involve MCTs even further. And with this goal, Microsoft Learning is organizing a Trainer Preparation (T-Prep) Pilot class for courses 6425B and 6426B to enable qualified MCTs to get early access to the training content and to hear directly from course authors about what is new and different, and how to succeed in the classroom. Here’s what we’re planning:

 

·         What: Five days of MCT-only instructor led training covering eight days worth of MOC training content.

·         Where: Redmond, Washington, USA.

·         When: Monday, August 31 through Friday, September 4, 2009.

·         Who: Attendance is open to all MCTs but will be capped at a maximum of 20 attendees. Priority will be given to MCTs who have participated in the Review Board for one or more Windows Server 2008 courses.

·         Prerequisites: Attending MCTs will be asked to download and review the 6425B and 6426B course content before the T-Prep Pilot event begins. The event will focus on changes to the courseware and strategies for delivery, and will assume that all attendees are familiar with the course content before the event begins.

·         Cost: The T-Prep Pilot event is free of charge. The event includes five days of hotel lodging near the training center. Breakfast and lunch will be provided each day. Attendees are responsible for paying their own travel costs, including airfare, car rental and dinner.

·         Requirements: Attendees will be asked for constructive and critical feedback on the course design and content throughout the event. We are looking for talented and vocal MCTs who will help us make these the best Windows Server courses ever.

 

If you are an MCT and are interested in participating in this event, please respond to this opportunity via the Microsoft Learning Nexus web site today.

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/2009/08/windows-server-2008-pilot-trainer-prep-event-announcement

Live Blog WPC 2009: Digital Products and Delivery Models (Ben Watson and Sharon Harris) #WPC-CPLS

11:08 Ben and Sharon getting underway… started a few minutes late, and Ben and Sharon missed their entrance cue. Must have been late risers after the party last night! )

Ben leads our Learning Products and Services team, and Sharon manages our platforms and community businesses on Ben’s team.

11:10  MOC Update: First off the bat—mea culpa: Next Generation MOC fell flat, so we’re restoring MOC to its former glory. All classroom content going back into student book! (big applause) Lab Answer keys going back in the book! PDF of the student book will be on the student CD as well.

11:14  All MOC courses now target 145 NSAT (as rated by MCTs). 6419 is the benchmark—all courses will be at least that good. All courses will be reviewed by MCTs. Today MCT courseware NSAT at 135.

11:15  Major sustained engineering investment—WS2008 refreshes coming in October/November; Vista coming too—everything we’ve done over 18 months will be revisited to ensure we will hit NSAT of 145 per title.

Please: make sure your MCTs are reviewing our titles—we need the feedback to trigger our quality revisions!

11:18  Ben talking about Learning + Services: combining on-site learning with on-line learning…

On-site vs. On-line: Reference (MS Press vs. e-reference); Courseware (MOC/MOAC vs. MODL); Certification (Exam simulations vs. virtual labs performance-based exams); e-learning

11:21  Why go digital? Increase revenue; save time; cut costs; improve efficiency

11:23 Announcing new product: MOC Labs Online!  Very simple thing: we took labs from MOC courses and put them on hosted servers. Now you don’t need to install the labs on local machines in classroom, you can just connect to our labs online!

Simply the VMs from the course, hosted. Significantly reduces set-up time; available to students outside of class; you’ll always have the latest version! Lower hardware costs; can even run 64-bit software within browser.

11:29  If you want to give access to students to Labs Online after the class is over—we recommend you sell for $50 (or bundle with course if you like).  MOC Labs Online – expected to cost 12.5% of your local MOC price (if a MOC course costs you $200, then the on-line labs will cost $25); purchase through Courseware Library; English only initially; available in US and Canada initially, then rolled out by region. Toll-free instructor support; 99% up-time SLA; student access up to two weeks. Will launch on October 1st.

11:33  Announcing new product: Digital MOC!  Same MOC manual but watermarked PDF.  Save time on ordering; get latest version easily; full-text search; optional printing available. Use it for on-line or blended classes—no packaging or shipping costs! We will pass on some savings to you: will cost 90% of MOC (printed) price (e.g. if MOC course printed costs $200, digital version will cost $180). Purchase through Courseware Library; english initially; phased rollout.

11:36  Digital MOC will be watermarked with personal information about students (probably name, company, e-mail address) to help discourage piracy.

11:40  We did a technical preview for MOC Labs Online and Digital MOC: 22 CPLSes, 75 Classes, 500 Students, in 12 countries.  Converted 6 Exchange 2007 courses for this preview. Results? Identified improvements needed, and we’re working on them. “Just as good as printed MOC isn’t good enough!”  So – now ready to expand technical preview program.

CPLSes: Want to test Digital MOC and MOC Labs On-Line for Exchange 2007? It’s free from August 15 – September 15, contact dan.weis@microsoft.com (for Labs On-line) and bob.caswell@microsoft.com (for Digital MOC)

11:45 Not even going to try to summarize this one—let’s let the picture do the talking:

11:46  Going forward, you’ll see us continue to publish content (e-learning, ILT, snacks) developed by MSL, product groups, and community. Announcing SnackBox (beta), allows you to create your own learning snacks!

11:48  Courseware Library courses now called “community courses.” IT Pro/Dev courses can qualify for SATV, but individual titles may be “on probation” until NSAT/ratings tell us that these titles are good enough to count. 300+ titles available now, 600+ partners participating. Remember—can get new KPI points by contributing!

Courseware Library piloting printed manuals; more payment methods (paypal); improved reputation engine; will show MTM course data right in Courseware Library—full transparency! (applause)

11:52  Question time. Q: Will Digital MOC and Labs On-line be available to customers directly as an alternative to CPLS training? Answer: No—absolutely not. Exclusive to CPLS

11:53  Q: Can non-US/Canada partners participate in preview? A: Possibly—contact Dan or Bob (contact info above).

11:54  Q: How will sustained engineering courses work? Revisions? A: Yes, B versions. Q: Can a CPLS provide Digital MOC on a flash drive to distribute to students? A: How many of you would like this? We’ll look at it.

11:55  Q: When will Digital MOC and Labs Online be available in Europe? A: Within next 6-8 months, depending on how rollout goes in North America.

11:56  Q: Can instructors view what students do in Labs On-line? A: No. Q: Will Digital MOC be customizable? A: No, not in first release.

11:58  That’s it for now… back at 13:30

Experts needed – create some snacks!

Hopefully you saw the annoucement yesterday about the launch of the beta version of the community learning snack site called SnackBox. It’s the new place for technology experts to create and share Silverlight learning snacks.

While we’re in this beta phase, we’d love to have people who are experienced with Microsoft technologies (MCP’s, MCT’s, etc) create your own snacks and upload them to the site.  This will accomplish two things:

1.  The snacks you create will be there when we do the larger public launch later this year, giving you and your expertise visibility.

2.  We’ll be featuring the top authors on the site, giving you even more visibility.

So if you haven’t checked it out yet, just go to http://beta.snackbox.microsoft.com/ See what we have to offer, then use the feedback page to let us know what you think and if you’re interested in becoming one of our beta authors.  We’re limiting this beta phase to only 20 authors, so let us know right away if you’re interested and which technologies you’d like to create snacks about.