Suggestions for a more ideal course
This is my personal view of what an ideal course should look like.
The course should consist of chapters, sections, and subsections. A chapter is a self-contained topic. The chapters have a sensible sequence so that the lab exercises can build on each other.
For example, the Authentication chapter could consist of the Basics, MAC-Auth, and 802.1X sections. Within the sections, the vendor-independent basics are explained first, then the concepts of the product or solution of Extreme, then the implementation (commands) including all the commands necessary for verification and debugging.
There should be an exercise for (almost) every section, which you can also possibly do after a chapter.
After a chapter, the student should understand how the concepts work and should be able to implement it on his or her own or at the customer's site.
Additionally, there should be discussion of the best practices and how to implement the features in a real setting--many times the customers ask on how they might be able to implement that for their own scenarios.
The splitting up of the concepts into several discreet, short courses works against that idea--"this is not part of this course and is being discussed in some other course." There should be a holistic concept that lets the participants leave the class with the feeling they have achieved something and with the knowledge that they can implement and troubleshoot their networks after taking just ONE, or at the most TWO, courses that cover a product / concept in its entirety, including deploy, operate, and troubleshoot. This should, naturally, include more realistic labs and real-life scenarios.
The course duration should be at least 4 days, better 5. There are initial costs on the side of the ATP and the participant, so that short courses become expensive. If something unexpected happens during the course or a chapter or exercise takes longer than planned, it is easier to make up the time.
We have been doing almost all courses (XMC, Control, Fabric, Wing, ...) in 5 days for years and the participants are very satisfied. We only have negative feedback for Fabric Deploy, Wireless Cloud and Wireless Cloud Troubleshooting. Too many topics for two days, exercises and questions are simply too short.
