Brainbench Certification (www.brainbench.com)

Do TESC, COSC or Excelsior offer credits for Brainbench Certifications(www.brainbench.com)? These are tough certification to pass. It is well-recognized in IT industry. IBM, Shell and other prestigious company hire Brainbench Certified Professionals.

How do these colleges determine credits for any IT certifications including Brainbench certifications?

Last but not least, do they offer credits for vendor certification?

Thanks in advance for replies.

 

ayou would need to check with the schools, BUT if all else fails, if you can find a college credit class that matches the certificate you can do a portfolio assessment for the credit. check out Steve Levicoff's web site for a description of the process. Excelsior does not do portfolios, if you enroll in Excelsior they have an agreement with COSC to do the portfolios through them and then transfer the credit. That is one of the reasons I chose COSC over what was then Regents. So far I am very happy with my decision.

The additional benefit is the "special assessment" COSC has regarding Certifications. This might also be a possibility. You might call COSC and ask for special assessments and find out if it is possible. For me the $150 is a big bunch cheaper than a portfolio of 28-30 upper level credits and I do not have to do the writing!

Dan Snelson
COSC student off to take a mid term

 

Excelsior College does offer credit for many certifications including Microsoft. Excelsior was the only school whom Microsoft allowed to assess their exams directly and award College credit. Excelsior is also pursuing the assessment of other certifications for credit. I have not seen Brainbench as one of them yet. It would be good to check with them.

John

 

I emailed Excelsior re their stance on Brainbench certifications. Here is their response,
"Unfortunately, at this time
Brainbench certifications do not apply toward the degree requirements of the
BS/CIS degree. These exams have not been evaluated by the American Council of
Education (ACE). ACE is the organization that makes the credit recommendations
according to accreditation standards.
"

 

What is involved in ACE evaluating their certifications? They should evaluate and let us know whether they are gonna grant credits or not.

It makes much easier for all of us. Do we have to request ACE to evaluate their certifications or they would do by themselves?

 

I would seriously doubt that ACE would recommend credit for these certs. If I'm not mistaken, they are online unproctored quizzes. There is no way to prevent you from looking everything up in a book or prove that it is really you taking the exam.

 

Slappy has it correct - Brainbench tests have been free and unproctored for a long time - I think they may be starting to charge, but they are still online and unproctored and are therefore useless for judging someone's knowledge.

What they have been decent for is self-assessment and some employer's have used them for screening IT candidates (the test is taken when interviewing).

 

It is up to the course or certification process developers to request and fund the ACE reviews. ACE does not have a budget to go out and select courses or programs that they decide are worth reviewing. It is up to the requester to pay for it.