IT Insights Blog — LabSim

Every generation has cultural artifacts it thinks are awesome. Think about movies and television. Forty(-ish) years ago, everyone raved about movies like Star Wars, The Godfather and Grease, or shows like M*A*S*H, Happy Days and All in the Family. We still have Star Wars in 2016, as well as other artifacts that have either undergone a phoenix-like rebirth (can you believe we're in season six of the new Hawaii Five-O?), or simply never left the stage (the next new Star Trek series begins in January). There are also new and different towering cultural phenomena, however, like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and films, or the zombie-tastic The Walking Dead on AMC.

In the late 1960s, instructors at the University of Southern California created a full-body mannequin simulator for anesthesia students to practice real life scenarios. In the 1980s, when personal computers became more accessible, aviation simulations were developed to give students a taste of real flight before ever leaving the ground. In both of these fields of study, effective training is a matter of life and death, and simulation has been the mainstay to success.

Prior to joining TestOut, for 17 years I was an interior designer specializing in kitchens. There is a lot to consider when designing a kitchen — the materials, methods of construction, and a whole lot of preparation. When someone would ask me to design their kitchen I always discussed the importance of three things: ...

When tech titan IBM needed a better way to meet the IT training needs of its global workforce, company officials turned to TestOut Continuing Education. Our online simulation-based training is exactly what the company needed to efficiently teach PC and IT networking skills to IBM employees worldwide. Here’s how it all came together: TestOut’s partnership with IBM began in the summer of 2015 and has already proven to be a force in the IT training realm. At the time the partnership was formed, IBM was attempting to bolster training effectiveness at its worldwide training centers.

2:45 A.M. is early. Real early. Especially when you’ve had a hard time sleeping because you know that you’re going to be on live TV in a few hours. Getting some decent shut-eye is difficult when you are constantly considering just how bad things could go. Will my mind go blank? Will my statements be coherent? Should I invest in a yurt out in the remote wilderness in case I royally mess things up and want to completely disappear from society? Such was my state of mind earlier this week.