SANS ON-Demand Courses

itcsps4

Hello,

Has anyone here taken the SANS ON-Demand video courses?
I am currently looking into this but wanted to get some opinions from people who've actually used it.

If so how was the quality?

GirlyGirl

Taking the course is like being in the classroom. I have had both the classroom and On Demand experiences. The audio/video quality is great and I had no issues with it. I plan on buying an On Demand course in July or August at the latest. I feel as though you are able to go at your own pace, which is a plus in itself. If you want to stop the video to read a little more about a topic you can. If you read more about a topic an instructor is teaching in the course you'll look and he's 5 pages ahead of you and you're trying to play catch up. Personally the face to face course that I took is similar to a bootcamp I took. They both feed you the information, necessary information but at a semi-high rate of speed. The only time the instructor slowed down was for breaks and hands on activities not to mention the occasional questions. Those instructors can talk, they are confident and they are SME in the field. I am not sure if I would take another course face to face being that I absorbed more from the On Demand. It just depends on a few variables.

Going to an event has advantages so as speeches, tables full of goodies, competitions, networking etc. I say do the On Demand.

636-555-3226

I've done some. Not as good as being in-class and having that interaction (if you do interact), but that's a given. Basically you get all of the labs and files on a USB and a website download, plus MP3s of the lecture (which I find valuable in a long daily commute. The actual on-demand video part is more or less just the Powerpoint slides that you could skip if you just listen to the mp3s and have your book in front of you.

I agree with the girlygirl in that it's great to set your own pace. You can speed up or slow down the presentation all you want. Need to hit pause to do something else or do some background research? easy peasy. can't do that in class. The live class is really a firehose where you just listen and try to keep up. that part is a lot easier when you can pause & skip around however much you want.

docrice

I've done both OnDemand and live events. OnDemand allows you to run at your own pace on your own hours. You miss out on the interaction with other students, the instructor, the night talks, the capture the flag event on the last day in a team, NetWars, high-calorie snack breaks, etc., but if you need help there's a virtual mentor you can contact and in my experience they've been pretty timely/responsive. SANS is one of those rare organizations where they take their service seriously and they put real effort into making sure you're well taken care of as a student.

I generally opt to do live events these days since my employer is willing to foot the bill, but there are times when OnDemand is tempting since traveling has its own burdens in addition to the costs of hotel, plane, dining, and so on.

itcsps4

Thanks for the quick replies! it's hard to get away right now and I do like the option of self-study since I can go at my own pace. Right now I am looking at SEC505-GWCN, anyone here take it?

cyberguypr

505 was my first SANS class. Hands down the absolute and authoritative Windows security course. There's nothing that comes half-way close to it.

docrice

505 is sort of on my list well, and after doing live conferences for the last few years I'm thinking that going back to OnDemand for 505 (as I don't think it has a CTF at the end). Going through the class on your own time is very convenient and not having to deal with the stress of travel, time-zone adjustments, etc. is a nice bonus in addition to no hotel/accommodation costs which is easier to justify a training budget for your company.

That said, when you're doing OnDemand it's also easy to get distracted/interrupted by life and work email.

BrandonEckert

The video courses are very good.

berto_tester

Im am in one of the Graduate Certificate Programs all on Demand it is 4 courses, currently I am in the first course (504). I love it there are experts to help you out if you need it via chat, my instructor is only an email away. 504 Comes with NETWARS which is a ton of fun, and you can do the CTF Level 5 over and over again. You can go at your own pace, watch the videos more than once, it comes with audio as well. The audio for my 504 class was from a live event and the video was shot specifically for the on demand. So its like you get two different versions of the same class, if you listen closely you learn something new from each one.