Stanford IT Certificates

4 courses at $125 each

IT benchmarking certificate

http://scpd.stanford.edu/public/category/courseCategoryCertificateProfile.do?method=load&certificateId=1217574#searchResults

 

Have you earned any?

 

Great find! I did the computer security certificate and thought it was a good addition to my resume. This certificate is well priced as well.

The only problem with these certificates is that you don't get instructor support. You get recorded sessions and end of the course exams.

 

Very interesting and seemingly reasonably priced, but there are some issues:

1. This is not very workable for many students security and confidentiality reasons: "The project requires participants to gather data from within their own organization for analysis. "

2. I can't think of even one pedagogical reason to require a 100% score to pass: "A score of 100% on each course exam is required to successfully pass.
Important: You have a total of 3 chances to pass the exam. If you do not pass on the 3rd try you are NO longer eligible to earn the "IT Measurement and Benchmarking Certificate". However, you may still re-take the exam to earn a "Certificate of Completion"."

3. What do these two sentences mean when you consider there are four courses? "On average, students complete the certificate within 6 months. Each course is approximately 1 hour long. "

 

I would assume the final benchmark project is very time consuming,

 

I'm pretty sure they will ask you the same set of questions 3 times. These courses are only 1-hour long! What else can you expect for $125?

The software security course is a gem. You get a certificate by completing the foundation course itself.

 

This is fair enough in my opinion. Exams are open book and multiple choice. I passed all the exams for security certificate on the first try so the 3 chances is very reasonable.

 

It encourages students to cheat; whenever you ask the unreasonable, you tempt even the most diligent student to bend the rules.

 

I did the Security Foundations as well. Initially wanted to go for the IT Benchmarking, but the obvious company project kept me away from it. My it background is more or less based on hanging around endless times on the Internet, meaning for example I know roughly how a trojan works but cross site scripting and such is a bit far out for me. It took three attempts to get in the "minimum" 90% area. I also took it at the beginning of this year and it was all a single final exam of ~30 m/c questions. Also I contacted someone who took it as well when it was 3 parts and he only managed to successfully finish two of them. So don't take it thaaat easy.

 

So your opinion is that achieving 100% on the exam within three tries is challenging? Did I understand you correctly?

 

Yes, but my experience is limited to the Computer Security Foundations Certificate.

 

Noted. Thanks. The IT Benchmarking Certificate is interesting for a project that is coming up...

 

I'm enrolled in the first course in the IT Benchmarking series

You have 90 days to finish it. However, the course is one 30 minute and one 25 minute lecture (video), plus the course slides. It can be easily done in a few hours, watch the video twice, run through the slides. The lecturer is both employed as a lecturer at Stanford and works at Google, and the lectures are easily understandable.

Examination is I believe 6 multiple choice and true/false questions. Questions are easy and based on the lectures. Two of them were somewhat problematic, more than one answer could be rationally considered to be correct. However, not much of a problem as when you submit the exam you get the feedback showing you which questions you answered correctly (I wasn't paying much attention to the exam feedback so I only saw this on my second attempt).

The bad - finished the exam 45 days ago. No confirmation or certificate either by e-mail or postal system. Used the online contact form. No response at all. I still have the customer service e-mail address to try, I was waiting to see if maybe a letter was delayed by the postal system.

 

Their organisation skills are indeed a bit weak. It took them quite a while to send my certificate over to Europe and they even had sent me the wrong one first. But their email support is quite helpful and I received the right one about a week later. Malajac, if you get to the stage of the company project, please share your experience in how far there is any interaction or in how far the data is really necessary to finish the course.

Also on a side-note: I'm always looking to build certificate clusters. The (free) ACT Certs make a great addition https://www.act-online.net/index.php?option=com_matrix&Itemid=100 to the Stanford (Security) Certificates.

 

ACT looks great. Do you get a free cert for each course completion? I browsed, but did not see how to get the certs. Are these issued by UT Memphis or Vanderbilt?

Thanks!

 

Note for the ACTS certs "You must be a US citizen or US National to participate in ACT Online." I was interested in taking these but unfortunately I don't qualify.

 

For the ACT Certificates: After finishing the MC question with 70% you get the certificate as a high resolution graphic file (png). It has the FEMA & Act Logo on it and is signed by three people of the University of Memphis followed by the line "ACT Online is developed in collaboration with the University of Memphis, Vanderbilt University, and Sparta Inc." They are looking quite decent, especially for the fact that they are free. There is also the option to get some kind of a transcript snailmailed by the University of Memphis (for $15 each). So far there are 8 of them available, a few others are under review by the FEMA. They usually even send out email notices, when a new one gets approved.

And @emmzee: I had the same problem, but I in these cases I just use a friend's post address in the US. It's probably not perfectly alright, but I guess chances are quite low that they demand their png files back

 

That's a reasonable price IMO.

 

I am curious, can anyone scan their certificate and show to us? I just want what it looks like, and worth to have a IT certificates with STANFORD UNIVERSITY name on it. I have so many IT certificates, and I don't want anymore unless it worth to display.

 

A bit sad that people just look for education to have a fancy diploma to show to their friends. I can recommend you to go to ebay and buy your self an impressive diploma to display in your office. You can get good fakes from Harvard and Stanford at the PhD level.

The IT certificate from Stanford is a small certificate with only one signature from the dean of engineering. You do get a transcript but they are for CEUs and not for credit. The certificate does not display the name of the University but the center of professional development. If you are looking to buy an impressive certificate to impress friends and employers, this is not the best certificate to get. I have seen some impressive certificates from the University of San francisco that use the title "Master certificate" to make it look like a degree when it is only a continuing education certificate.

I guess the next wave would be to offer short "Doctor certificates" with lots of signatures in order to get students. I'm sure you will seen them very soon.