By Brandon Harms, CISSP, CCNP, FCNSP, et al

SANS vLive! Online Security Training and Courses, promoted as the solution to employers’ lack of travel budget, offers a great alternative to a security conference. The training material and instructors are the same as you’d expect from a SANS conference, par excellence. The material is presented using the typical power point slides with live streaming of the instructor’s head, Max Headroom style, and of course an audiocast.  The instructor will answer any questions posted via a chat window as they are asked.

I recently attended SANS 580 Metasploit Kung Fu for Enterprise Pen Testing via SANS vLive!. The course was taught by one of course authors, John Strand. Typically a two-day course, the vLive! training was broken down into four 3-hour sessions with each session delivered bi-weekly for two weeks, i.e. three hours Monday, three hours Tuesday and the same the following week. Not being a fan of webinars, I was surprised by how well this medium worked. The combination of excellent material and engaging instruction by Mr. Strand provided an outstanding learning experience. The time between sessions gave students a chance to read the course material and do the exercises when they had the time. The instructor was available via email and phone to answer any questions about the material and labs, though I found that the material was written well enough, that I had no trouble completing the labs without additional help.

---

---