Hi, J.D.! You wrote:
Why is it that VMware will not release the course material to the student until the class actually begins?
First, let me insert a quick clarification. It sounds as if you took VMware training courses directly from VMware. VMware Authorized Training Centers ("VATCs") set their own policies about the details of the class experience, so I can't speak on their behalf. It's entirely possible that one VATC might be able to supply you with your book ahead of time and another not, and then VMware direct-delivered classes might also be different.
For VMware's direct-delivered training business, the cost of enabling students to preorder their books has always seemed, to us, to exceed the benefit. Anytime students are allowed to get their books before class, we must provide some way of helping students who arrive at the start of class without their books. Airlines lose luggage; briefcases are stolen; and people simply forget. The cost of equipping each class with a reasonable number of spare books of the correct version is surprisingly high.
Of course, this would not be such a big deal if, when you came to class, you could get the materials in PDF format.
Why is it that VMware does not provide the course material (student kit) in searchable pdf format?
Yes, that'd be great, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, business rears its ugly head.
There's plenty of training on VMware products out there; the best is from VMware and its VATCs, and then there's the rest. We at VMware object strenuously to companies that "borrow" our hard work in developing courseware for their own unauthorized courses. We've had enough experience with unscrupulous people scraping content from our paper course materials to know that, if we made our materials available in electronic copy, we'd be doing them a great favor.
All the technological countermeasures against that kind of thing -- watermarking, PDF copy protection, etc. -- have their limitations, to say the least.
Of course, somebody could argue that all training on VMware products, authorized or not, ultimately benefits VMware. I am not sure about that assertion: I've seen some bad training out there. Bad training, in my opinion, includes grossly out-of-date training. A company that scraped its content from VMware's would not know when to update it.
But maybe someday the benefit to students of searchable PDF course materials, plus the benefit to VMware of wide access to training (of whatever quality), will tip the scales. I don't know when or if that might occur.
In the meantime, we're trying to make our paper course materials more searchable: by adding different kinds of index features.
