Find out how other campuses have incorporated LabSim certification training courses into their curriculum
and the results they’ve experienced.
Academic Case studies
DeVry University
Throughout its history, DeVry University has strived to prepare students for the challenges they’ll face
in the workplace by bringing the real world—with “active learning”—into the classroom. This emphasis on
real-world training and career placement—and its proven success—has made DeVry University an ideal choice
for adult learners who return to school for a career change or additional training. Read full case study.
Focus: HOPE Information Technologies
Focus: HOPE is an adult vocation training facility serving students in the Detroit, Michigan, metro area. A non-profit
organization, Focus: HOPE houses an Information Technologies Center (ITC)that extends practical training and experience to
students—many of whom are displaced workers or looking for a new skill set to change the direction of their career. “Some have
retired from one career and are learning new skills, while others are fresh out of high school.” Read full case study.
Henderson College
Henderson College’s Chief Information Officer, Kimberley Conley, taught a theoretical networking class online
but refused to teach a much-needed online A+ Essentials course, feeling it was impossible to teach the practical,
hands-on course without a physical classroom where students could practice. Conley discovered TestOut’s LabSim
courses in 2006—the perfect way to give her students the practical environment she’d been dreaming of—and
began preparations to teach the A+ Essentials course online. Read full case study.
King Career Center
At King Career Center, a career preparation school for 11th and 12th grade students , instructor Teena Calkin
teaches Public Safety & Security. Students learn the roles and procedures of criminal justice professions, and
Calkin needed a way to teach the subject so that students learned it correctly and developed accurate technique.
LabSim’s Crime Scene Investigation course was her solution. She says, “With LabSim, they learn the exact processes
they need to go through virtually. If they make a mistake, LabSim doesn’t let them continue until they get it
right. Read full case study.
Middleburg High School
Middleburg High School in Middleburg, Florida, offers a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program with computer technology classes for its 9th–12th graders. Charles Thompson, teacher in the CTE program, works hard to provide his CTE students with real opportunities for hands-on experience to master the skills for building and maintaining computers and networks. But Thompson takes his job a step further to combine his students’ technical knowledge with the practical advantage of becoming certified in A+ and Network+. “I take my students to a Pearson VUE testing center at Florida State College at Jacksonville after they’ve proven they’re ready to certify,” Thompson said. Read full case study.
New Jersey Career Center
A professional environment for students, New Jersey Career Center offers a Computer Technology program with
training for Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA certifications. When the program began in 2002, NJCC searched for a
way to give students realistic, hands-on experience, and LabSim was the solution. NJCC students are passing
their certifying exams at a high rate, including student Al Arena, who revitalized his career after a lay-off
by completing LabSim training at NJCC and certifying for A+, Network+, and CCNA. Read full case study.
Penn Foster
Penn Foster is a school of independent study that offers more than 80 different programs of study for distance
learners. Always looking for ways to expand Penn Foster’s course offerings, administrator Jeff Orr was intrigued
by LabSim’s Crime Scene Investigation course. Having no physical campus, there was no way Penn Foster could have
taught a crime scene investigation course without a product like LabSim, where students can work at home but
still get the necessary hands-on experience to learn correct CSI procedures. “LabSim provides this realistic
hands-on experience and the ability for us to actually evaluate how our students are doing working through
these simulations,” said Orr. Read full case study.
Richmond Senior High School
Brian Burch, teacher, wanted to create a 21st Century classroom environment where his students—juniors and seniors—would learn technology skills that would
prepare them for college and careers. He looked for an interactive A+ training curriculum that would allow him to be facilitator and his students to be
problem-solvers. Burch found LabSim and called it “a dream come true.” The virtual labs keep costs low for hands-on training, and the students have
become fully engaged, discovering talents that many of them didn’t know they had. Read full case study.
Allen Luck, Santa Fe College
Allen Luck started out as a student in Santa Fe College’s Network Services Technology major. His coursework
integrated LabSim training for A+, Network+, and Linux+, as well as Microsoft and Cisco technologies.
With the practical, hands-on experience gained from LabSim, Luck was hired as a full-time Systems Admin
for Santa Fe immediately after graduating. Now, part of his job is administering LabSim on campus, and
he understands better than anyone the value of the training.
Read full case study.
Schoolcraft College
A college outside Detroit, Michigan, Schoolcraft has many adult students who never thought
they’d be back in school. Many have already worked in computer-related jobs, but they don’t
have the degree to back up their experience. Computer Information Systems professor William
Schlick works with these students and uses LabSim to supplement his instruction and train
students in A+, Network+, and CCNA. Schoolcraft students learn they have skill sets they
never realized, and they excel in LabSim training.
Read full case study.
Virginia College
Virginia College’s Online IT program offers 30 courses related to IT certifications. VC’s IT Program Director,
Tommy Whitlock, needed a solution to give his distance education student real-world, hands-on training, without
requiring them to purchase expensive hardware to “practice on” at home. The school discovered TestOut in 2004,
with LabSim training courses that give students the practical experience VC was looking for. Read full case study.
Walla Walla High School
At a rural high school where over 70 percent of students never complete college, instructor Dennis DeBroeck works
hard to give his students a state-of-the-art technology education. When the cost and upkeep of a physical lab
became too great, DeBroeck needed a solution to give his students real-life experiences. He discovered LabSim in
2001 and has seen hands-on learning, reduced costs, and less hardware gone to waste. Most importantly, his students
come out of the program with some college credit, and they’re finding higher level IT jobs. Read full case study.
Westchester Community College
Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York, has nearly 12,000 part- and full-time students, as well as an additional 8,000 continuing education
students. Almost one-half of Westchester students are over age 25, returning to college to advance their career. With more than 50 associate and
certificate programs, daytime, evening, and online students have plenty of options for their education and career development. One of those options
is Computer Security and Forensics. Read full case study.
West LA College
At West LA College, 80% of the student body take their courses online. That means finding high-quality online
course material that will give students “the equivalent or better learning experience online” than they could
have in a classroom on campus. TestOut has been their answer in the IT program. Professor Marcus Butler has
built his entire syllabus around the LabSim training courses, with lab simulations, instructor videos, and
practice exams. The results: students are gaining hands-on experience and preparing for their careers. Read full case study.
“It has been a while since we’ve spoken. I wanted to tell you that I have had a
great deal of success with TestOut products. I recently earned my first certification,
Security+, which I would not have been able to do without the comprehensive learning
environment provided through this software. Books are OK but being able to implement
the concepts discussed in a hands-on situation really helped me to get these
unfamiliar topics locked-in.”