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Date: Fri, 05 May 2000 13:02:00 -0500
From: lpi-announce-bounce@lpi.org
To: lpi-announce@lpi.org
Subject: LPI Weekly News - 5 May 2000

Welcome to the (seldom) weekly newsletter of the Linux Professional 
Institute (tm)!  

LPI is dedicated to providing a standardized, multi-national, and 
respected program to certify levels of individual expertise in Linux.  
Our goal is to design and deliver such a program from within the Linux 
community, using both volunteer and hired resources as necessary. We 
resolve to undertake a well considered, open, disciplined development 
process, leading directly to the establishment of a recognized and 
widely endorsed Linux certification body.

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What's News?
------------

LBE a Success
-------------
   We had a great crowd turn up at Linux Business Expo in Chicago
   and many people took advantage of the free testing being
   sponsored by Linux International.  Thanks to LI and Ziff Davis
   for making this event possible.

101 Beta to Wrap Up
-------------------
   Thanks to the great turnout at LBE, we've got enough data to
   close the beta period of 101.  The exam is undergoing final
   quality assurance right now and you should see your test results
   in the near future.

102 Incentive to End Soon
-------------------------
   Don't forget that if you paid for and took the 101 exam, you
   can still get the 102 exam for free as long as you can take
   it by May 12th.  Contact scott@lpi.org for your voucher!

Level II Development Under Way
------------------------------
  I'm pleased to report that we have begun development of the second 
  level of our certification program. This level aims to certify 
  competency of intermediate level Linux system administrators.  

  The process for building Level II will be similar to the process 
  used in Level I. The major steps involved are:

    1. Establish the purpose of the level. This step is complete. 
       You can view the prototypical job description for Level II 
       at:
		http://www.lpi.org/jobdesc-l2.html

    2. Job Analysis Study: The purpose of this is to scientifically 
       identify the tasks performed by professionals at this level.

    3. Objective Development: This stage involves writing the 
       objectives for the exams at this level.

    4. Item Development: This stage involves writing items to cover 
       the objectives and ensuring the quality of the items.

    5. Test Publishing

    6. Beta Period
 
    7. Beta Analysis and Cut-Score Setting

    8. Publication of Production Exams.

We have already begun preparations for the job analysis study. Kara
Pritchard, our Assistant Director for Program Development, is recruiting
subject matter experts to help with writing the tasks for the job 
analysis survey. Actual task writing is scheduled to begin this
weekend. The job analysis survey itself should begin in any time now.
If you are interested in helping with any of these tasks, run, don't
walk, to your nearest email client and fire off a message to Scott
(scott@lpi.org) or Kara (kara@lpi.org). 

FAQ Attack
----------
  Since most of this information has been added to the FAQ online at:

	http://www.lpi.org/faq.html

  As usual, I'm going to include our most frequently asked questions
  and in response to the large number of "Are you going to translate
  the exams to Yiddish" type questions, I've also updated a section
  on translation:

   Q: When are you going to translate your exams to my language?
      What about the testing obstacles presented to individuals 
      for whom English is not their native tongue? (2.10)
   A: LPI feels that we have to walk before we can run, so we will 
      table this issue until we have completed the deployment of
      the English versions.  After that, we will explore translation 
      of the exams into other languages, providing that for a given 
      language there exists both significant interest and sufficient
      resources to support a translation.  We have already seen 
      significant interest in German, Japanese, Spanish, and French
      translations and as we make progress on our deployment of our
      English exams we are continuing to seek adequate interest and
      resources to make translated exams available.  
      
      We understand that language is a barrier that inhibits the
      global reach of our exams and may introduce difficulties for
      individuals speaking English as a second language.  We are
      very interested in providing our exam in as many languages 
      as possible so long as we can secure the necessary resources
      and assure that we will be releasing a psychometrically valid
      exam.  For those individuals who are seeking resources to help
      prepare for our exams and are not native English speakers, we
      suggest that you contact a local Linux Users Group (LUG).  You 
      may find one near you at:

	http://www.linux.org/users/

      Your local LUG should be able to provide suggestions on
      locating educational materials.

   Q: I keep hearing that the first few exams are "beta"; what's
      that mean?
   A: In order to assure that we've got a psychometrically valid 
      test and to establish proper cut scores, LPI need to closely
      scrutinize the results of our early test takers.  The exam
      that's available through VUE right now is the "production"
      exam and is exactly the same exam content that will be 
      available after the "beta" period is over.  The only 
      difference is that you'll have to wait a 10 - 12 weeks for a
      snail mail letter to let you know if you passed or not,
      instead of the instant gratification of knowing when you
      leave the test center.  The "beta" counts 100% towards your 
      level one certification.  Keep in mind that we need lots of
      early adopters for validation, so get out there and test,
      test, test!  (The faster we can validate the test, faster
      we can get you your results!)

  Q:  Hey!  I checked my score on the VUE web site and it says I
      FAILED!  What's going on?
  A:  Due to an unforeseen problem with the data feed from one of our 
      vendors, the VUE exam results web page is incorrectly reporting 
      that everyone who's completed the 101 exam (formerly known as 
      Test 1a or T1a) has failed.  This is NOT correct.  We're 
      working with VUE and our other partners to remedy this situation 
      for future releases of the test, and the problem will go away 
      once exam 101 is out of it's "beta" period.  Rest assured, the 
      initial exams for exam 101 are being evaluated at LPI by hand 
      to assure their psychometric validity and when the results are 
      in you'll receive notification via good old fashioned snail mail.  
      Until exam 101 goes out of it's "beta" period you can safely 
      ignore this message.  VUE has modified the web page to notify 
      customers of the problem until LPI can find a solution with our
      supplier.

  Q: I'm a Linux newbie, what should I do to get ready for LPI's
     exams?
  A: Although LPI only provides the exams, not training or 
     courseware, there is a virtual mountain of learning material 
     at your immediate disposal.  A good place to start when 
     looking for a framework for Linux self study would be our exam
     objectives.  This page:

        http://www.lpi.org/p-obj-101.html

     links to all the objectives for our level one (junior system
     administrator) certification exam.  Drilling down into the 
     detail of the exam via the POMS system:

	http://www.lpi.org/cgi-bin/poms.py

     will give you a good idea of what each  objective is about, 
     and where available, also provide you with direct links to 
     related learning material.  A similar page will exist for each 
     exam we develop and can be accessed from:

	http://www.lpi.org/p-index.html

     If you would prefer to take a course or training session 
     with an established vendor, let me suggest that you visit:

        http://www.lintraining.com

     There you can find links to vendors providing training and 
     courseware for Linux around the world.  Finally, you may also 
     wish to visit the Linux Documentation Project at:
        
        http://www.linuxdoc.org

     If you are speaking English as a second language and find 
     that you are having difficulty with the documentation that 
     is available on the net, you may also want to investigate your 
     local Linux users groups.  You can find them at:

        http://www.linux.org/users/


Resources
---------
LPI Home                http://www.lpi.org
LPI (German) Home       http://www.de.lpi.org

Dan York's Certification Articles:
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue33/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue34/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue35/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue37/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue40/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue43/york.html
    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue46/york.html

Ray Ferrari's Articles:

    http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue50/ferrari.html

Other Linux Certification Programs:

(SAIR)  http://www.linuxcertification.com/
        http://www.redhat.com/corp/products_training.html
        http://www.enterprisecertified.com/aboutecc.htm

Archives of OLD discussion list emails:
(Last updated about July 1999)

linux-cert:
   http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-cert%40linuxcare.com/
   http://lists.linuxcare.com/linux-cert/threads.html
   http://linux.codemeta.com/archives/linuxcert_archive/

linux-cert-program:
   http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-cert-program%40linuxcare.com/
   http://lists.linuxcare.com/linux-cert-program/threads.html

linux-cert-corprel:
   http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-cert-corprel%40linuxcare.com/
   http://lists.linuxcare.com/linux-cert-corprel/threads.html

linux-cert-pr:
   http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-cert-pr%40linuxcare.com/
   http://lists.linuxcare.com/linux-cert-pr/threads.html

================================================
Corrections, Additions, Comments?  Send them to:
    Jared Buckley
    jared@lpi.org
================================================

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