Well, hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar where iMVP expert, Jimmy Yount will be stepping into ExitCertified's virtual classroom, iMVP, for a 30 minute tour. Before we get started with the webinar, let's talk about the functionalities. During the webinar, everyone's microphones will be muted, so if you have any questions, please post them in the Q&A box or the chat window at the bottom of your screen. We'll address these questions during the webinar. We'll also have a dedicated Q&A session at the end of the lecture. Today's webinar is being recorded and a copy will be sent out to each and every one of you by the end of the week. We'll also share a special promo at the end of the webinar, so stick around to learn more. All right, let's get started. Take it away, Jimmy.
All right. Good morning, everyone. As Michelle mentioned, my name is Jimmy. I'm kind of the head of the iMVP department here with ExitCertified, so let's go through why iMVP is leading the charge as far as online trainings go. You might be questioning what's the difference between iMVP and your normal online training? Well, first and foremost, we've been doing this for quite a while. We've actually been leading iMVP in-classroom IT training for the last 19 years. Generally, we tend to see about two thirds of our normal student population coming in as virtual training. Obviously, those numbers are increasing with the current times due to COVID-19. However, frequently, what we found in the past is that the students who wanted an in classroom experience either the classroom gets canceled due to insufficient registrations, or simply either they don't have the travel budgets or anything along those lines, or in the current situation, just can't travel outside of their homes.
iMVP offers a support for that by allowing us to do an audio/video training with online students and allows it to be interactive with a live instructor, just like you would normally have with an actual in-classroom experience. The reason why iMVP stands out a little bit differently and why ExitCertified those things the way we do, initially we start back with using an MVP system. MVP was what we used as the basis for online training for a while. However, it was limited in that we would do it from one center to a different center. However, now we've expanded that platform to include iMVP, which we incorporate a Polycom system, a video conferencing system which allows us to interact directly with a live instructor directly in a training center or in their homes even, and that we've been able to actually train over 3,000 remote students as a result just through the MVP platform.
Now, the limitations of this was simply that you had to travel to a center in order to actually be able to attend a classroom remotely. However, with iMVP, you can now take it from the comfort of your own home. With iMVP, It allows the in-classroom trainings to continue to be run by adding virtual students, allowing the registration numbers to maintain a consistency enough. We've replicated the in-classroom experience as best as we possibly can by allowing for a live video feed, which comes in directly between you and the instructor of your class. This allows the students to maintain being more engaged in the training. It's obviously a lot more interactive because you instead of having a recorded video, which you just watch as you want to, you can actually interrupt the instructor because it's a live instructor, and they can actually sit there and talk to you, and answer your questions. This actually incorporates and allows the students to be maintain engagement in the class and retain more information as a result.
You might be asking, what's the difference between iMVP and your traditional WebEx session? Well, iMVP is a little bit better than WebEx because we offer a high quality bi-directional video platform. You can see your instructor through a live video feed and your instructor can see you as well. Video conferencing can either be done through either a classroom environment or through a mobile video studio, which we send to our instructors so they can teach from the comfort of their home and still have a high quality experience for training your students. One of the other key aspects of training on iMVP is that we send them an iMVP kit, which I'll address in the upcoming slide as well.
The other aspect is that we send out a pre-classroom connection information, so we send out emails to students allowing them to actually test their connection, not just to the lab environment, but also to the classroom environment as well. During the training on the very first day, we will actually include a producer, who will pop into the classroom for the first portion of the class to give a bit of an orientation to what the Zoom is, how to interface with it best for, to make the most advantage of your training session. It also allows us to provide some troubleshooting support in case if you do have any issues, be it you have issues with your audio connection, your video connection, or you just simply don't know where to get your course materials, we're in there for you to support you in that process.
Of course, this is still an instructor-led training. So you still have the aspect of a live instructor, who's there to answer your questions and explain in detail. If there's a particular section you're not quite understanding, or you need a little bit more in depth explanation on, the instructor is live and can answer any questions that you may have.
Let me speak a little bit briefly about the bi-directional video. It's not a static image. It's not a kind of a virtualized thing. It's actually a live video feed directly from your instructor, and so by having that live video feed, we've actually found that students tend to pay attention a little bit more and a little bit more in depth. Also, it allows your instructor to make a bit more of a personal connection with everyone. Now, having the students' video feed, that's actually critical to this platform. The reason we say that is because it allows you the instructor to see you and kind of gauge his comprehension, making sure that everyone's on the same page, no one has that lost, confused deer in the headlights look to you, and in case of the off chance that you haven't had enough coffee and you're falling asleep in your chair, we can make sure to take a coffee break as well.
Now, like I mentioned before, we have a difference between the classroom environment or a mobile studio, which allows the instructor to teach from home. The two differences are, obviously, classroom, you have a Polycom there in the room with the instructor. You've got two nice large TVs at the back of the room, which allows the instructor to see the content they're sharing, as well as a nice, large video feed of your remote students. The other aspect of this is that we have a mobile studio platform now, which allows our instructors to actually teach from home as well. This includes a high quality camera as well with the same specifications as our video conferencing system we have in classroom, but it's just a little bit more portable. This allows the instructor to teach from home and still provide you with a high quality experience, complete with an annotation ability for the slides.
Going, leading that into it. Why is Zoom so different than everything else out there? First off, it's a very high quality video feed, as I'm sure everyone has been able to see and hear me just fine, and coming through nice and crystal clear. There's also a high reliability with the platform. One of the really nice things with Zoom is that what makes it a little bit different is that it actually is programmed specifically so that based upon the device and based upon the bandwidth you have available on your connection, it will adjust its bandwidth consumption accordingly.
Key point in case for this one, I once had a student who was connecting into one of our classes who was complaining that they had ended up being snowed in at a remote location and they needed to travel back to their home to take class. They were wondering if there's any way they could connect in the classroom, and there is. We actually were able to connect them in through a hotspot they were able to run and had a tablet. They were able to actually follow in to the classroom for the first day while they were heading back to their house. The really nice part about this was at the end of the class, the student reached back out to us and let us know that for that entire day of complete connection all the way to the classroom for eight hours, they ended up only using about 2 or 300 megabytes of their bandwidth on their mobile hotspot. It was very nice, low bandwidth consumption.
You also have the option to be able to dial into the class, so you don't necessarily need to use a computer to connect in your audio, although that is preferred. You also have the option to be able to dial in over a telephone as well. Some of the other perks are that you'll be able to see the screen sharing. As you can see, slides come through nice, and clean, and sharp. The instructor has the ability to annotate slides to bring attention for your students directly to specific aspects within the slide. You have the capabilities to have chat, as everyone is able to send messages in, ask questions currently in the session. You'll also be able to do that in a live classroom as well. Difference being is that the instructor will see that on their computer screen and be able to respond appropriately.
We also have a couple other features which are available to our Zoom sessions, including breakout rooms. You can think of this as a virtual discussion, if you will, where you can break up into smaller groups and have discussions or workout a specific lab issue as well. Unfortunately, with our classroom environments, due to our partner restrictions with our vendors, unfortunately, all of the classes, the recording is restricted. Even though that Zoom does have the capability to record a classroom, such as we're recording this demonstration right now, unfortunately for our classrooms, we do have to turn that feature off. Again, we want you to ask your questions in classroom while you're taking the class so you get the most out of your training possible.
Now, previously, I spoke about doing a connection test before the class starts. This is what my team does, is that we will send out information directly to your students providing a very simpilized step-by-step process for testing a connection, not only to the classroom, making sure the appropriate software is installed, but also to make sure that they can test connection to the lab environment as well. We have multiple, different tests based on the vendor and based on the classes that you would attend. Each class is a little bit differently, so we send out a new class set up connection test for every time you take a class with us. This way you can make sure that you still can connect into the right infrastructure.
The other part about this is that this actually provides us live feedback based upon the individual students, as far as if they ran into an issue in the setup, we can reach out to them. If they have questions, then we can figure out exactly where they stumbled upon or where the issue happened in the setup. It allows us to actually interact with your students directly and kind of help navigate the support for you.
Previously, I had talked about iMVP kits. iMVP kits, we send out an iMVP kit to every student who's taking an iMVP class, presuming they haven't taken a class with us before. Any new student is going to get an iMVP kit. These kits include a USB headset and a USB webcam. The nice part about these is it gets shipped out to you. They don't cost any additional aspects to the training we consume that cost ourselves, but we provide that to you free. The equipment is yours to keep, actually, so you don't need to return it. You don't need to worry about sending it back to us the week after class or anything like that. It's your equipment to keep. The only thing that we actually ask of you is that you keep it in a safe place so that in future courses that you take with us, you have access to it again.
Hey, Jimmy. My laptop doesn't have enough USB ports to support that USB headset. How would I connect audio?
Excellent question. The aspect of iMVP is that it allows you to actually have the capability to dial in over a traditional telephone, be it using your cellphone or a landline at your house, you're going to actually dial in for the audio connection as well. If you only have access to one USB port, say for the webcam, then go ahead and connect your webcam and you'll still have a great audio connection through your telephone.
The other aspect of iMVP is what makes us really stand out is that with every single class that we do over iMVP, an iMVP producer is assigned to that class. They'll come in, roughly about 15 to 30 minutes before the start of class, greet students as they come into the classroom, make sure that everyone is able to connect, troubleshoot and assist with any technical difficulties, either connecting to the video environment or to the lab environment. Again, we give a brief overview of Zoom to students granted we understand that Zoom is becoming vastly more popular in the world that we live in right now, but we still want to make sure that everyone is familiar with all the features that Zoom has to offer to make it the most engaging environment possible for your students.
Also, by allowing us to take care of the support aspects of your class, it lets the instructor focus entirely on preparing to teach for the class. Then the iMVP producer will step out of the class shortly after they go through their orientation to Zoom but, however, we will still be available via email or telephone throughout the week for additional support, even after hours. Occasionally, if we've all signed off for the night, it might take us a few more hours to get back to you, but we do respond back to all of our clients. Then for the instructors who are doing their initial training with us, or first iMVP class with us, we go through a separate instructor training with them directly to allow for them to understand and be comfortable with the platform itself.
For remote lab environments... Pardon me. These lab environments, we host on a virtualized environment. They're identical, exactly what you would be having if you were physically in a classroom and the computer lab yourself, but the difference being is that you can connect to everything either through a web browser or something along those lines. The instructor can actually remote into your virtual machine directly to allow you to give any troubleshooting or just double check to make sure, "Oh, I'm having an issue with this particular step of the lab environment." The instructor can pop in and actually help troubleshoot one-on-one. It's a nice, easy way... You don't lose anything with taking a virtual class versus a physical in-room classroom.
Now, to go back a little bit over the iMVP program. We've actually been doing this since roughly 2012, mid-year. We've been able to actually train over 31,000 students. We are most definitely not new to the online training platform. We've got a lot of experience with this and as you can see, the increase in numbers were very good and our customers actually really do appreciate the platform, and they actually keep coming back to us. As a result of iMVP's modality and our ability to reach out over the internet to basically anywhere in the world that you have internet, we actually have been able to train students in 67 countries worldwide. As you can look through this list, you'll see some of the countries are vastly more remote than others, but that just speaks to how much iMVP and Zoom are able to work successfully, and being able to train your students anywhere in the world.
Going back to a difference between iMVP and, say, WebEx specifically, there was a period in the history of iMVP where we were running WebEx classes as well. During that time, we had the ability to run quality surveys with our students based upon both different modalities, either in classroom, over iMVP or over WebEx. We really get a common thread of as far as what people appreciated more. You would think live in-classroom experience actually gives you the best overall. Actually, iMVP steps out just a little bit, but we do step out as a little bit more engaging, a little bit more interactive than the in-classroom, and allows your students to be more comfortable because they're able to attend from home and have that comfort of being at home in addition to still getting high quality training.
In conclusion, iMVP allows you the closest thing to an in-classroom experience without the travel and without cancellation of classes, and allows you to keep your training running. It also allows the students to remain engaged and have higher quality learning, and retain that information for longer periods after the training has been completed. Any other questions we have?
If I want to connect a laptop and a tablet to the meeting, can I do that simultaneously?
Absolutely. With Zoom and with the iMVP, we actually do allow you to connect as many devices as you want to, to a cloud server. Most of our preferred setup is going to be having a dual monitor set up, but not everyone has a dual monitor at their house. The option is that you can connect over, say, having a tablet there with you, you can still connect in the classroom. You can put the tablet up next to your computer monitor, you can see the slides coming across there and work on your labs on your main computer. Absolutely, we can definitely support you and allow you to have multiple, different devices connected into the same session. If you have any issues connecting those devices, just reach out to iMVP. We'll do our best to get you connected on those platforms as well.
Great. Can you speak about the website we use to download iMVP? How can we trust that we've downloaded the app versus malware?
The website that you run for the setup, the link for the software is actually directly from the developer of the software itself. You can hover over the link and it says, Zoom.us and gives you the direct download link for that. Obviously, of course, if you don't feel comfortable with that, we can work with you and redirect to the developer's website and you can download it directly from Zoom.us as well.
Any other questions?
We'll give a couple more minutes for questions to come in, but while we do wait, Jimmy, thank you so much for that in-depth tour of the iMVP platform. As I mentioned at the beginning of the webinar, we recorded this session. We're going to send a copy out to everyone by the end of the week. Let's talk about promos. We have two exciting ways for how you can save on your training with ExitCertified Right now. You can use the promo code Spring20 to save 20% on select training from now until April 17th. After attend a course, refer a friend or a colleague and get up to $100 dollar Amazon gift card. Your referred friend will also save 15% on their course. I'm going to share that link in the chat window for everyone.
It doesn't look like we have any more questions coming in. Once again, thank you so much everyone for taking some time out of your day to learn more about iMVP. If you do have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Actually, it looks like we do have a question in the chat window now. Someone who's taken a Nutanix course and the understanding is that they learn on their own versus with various links and PDFs, and then on a certain date, then they take a lab or test. I see. Okay, it sounds like someone's taking the on-demand Nutanix course. Okay, how far in advance can someone expect to receive their iMVP setup so that they can test their connection to the platform and to the lab environment?
Sure. Typically, we send out the initial set up emails roughly about two weeks before the start of class. If you happen to enroll after that two weeks period has started, then we'll send out the setup information as soon as your registration is confirmed.
Thank you so much, everyone. If you do have any questions or any other comments, don't hesitate to reach out. hope you all enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks, Jimmy.
Thank you.
