RE: Comment on 360 students bypassing the OEQ on the IE Lab

Marko and all,

That is exactly what I am talking about. I'm glad that you brought up that exact example, as I did hear exactly the same thing from a buddy when asking about the program and the OEQ waiver being automatically bypassed as part of a sales feature.

I'm not trying to say that the folks who run the 360 are not good folks, I'm just pointing out that I like having the proctors being the judge of a pass or fail when talking about the strength of a cert. I want the CCIE certification to continue to mean something and the more impartial it is the better.

I also want to mention that I'm looking at this from a "value of the cert" perspective rather than from a vendor point of view.

I'm sure (or at least hopeful) that there would not be any arguments about that. I'm actually a fan of the OEQ and the TS section as they represent the different roles that an engineer would be in and add more value to the cert.

Andre

-----Original Message-----
From: Marko Milivojevic [mailto:markom_at_ipexpert.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:25 AM
To: Dufour, Andre
Cc: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: Re: Comment on 360 students bypassing the OEQ on the IE Lab

There is no recommendation from the instructor.

Officially yes, but one of the training vendors has confirmed it
directly that "whoever registers will get 30 minute extension and
recommendation". Also, they confirmed that they will make sure their
students who register even before April 1st will get this offer. I
don't think you even need to attend the course, just wire them the
money.

It's that same vendor who takes credit for inventing the rule.

--
Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427
Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert
YES! We include 400 hours of REAL rack
time with our Blended Learning Solution!
Mailto: markom_at_ipexpert.com
Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
Fax: +1.810.454.0130
Web: http://www.ipexpert.com/
On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 13:01, Dufour, Andre <Andre.Dufour_at_paetec.com> wrote:
> Instructing is a business and instructors are rated on how good they do.  If a
> student gets personal approval from a 360 instructor to bypass the OEQ on the
> lab, then I see a big conflict of interest.  What if an instructor does not
> give approval?  What pressures are there for an instructor (let's be
> realistic, customer service is part of being an instructor)?  How angry
> can/will some folks get when they don't get approval?  There are plenty of
> variables.
>
> I think the better route would have been to tout how much better 360 program
> students are doing in the labs (pass rate) as compared to non-360 students (of
> course there's muddy water, etc. but it is a fair approach).
>
> I like the idea of the stone-faced proctor that you have no personal or
> monetary ties to and how the lab, from what I understand, is normally graded
> by a proctor in another timezone that you will likely never meet, etc.
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