Is the course up-to-date?

Cloud technologies are in a constant state of flux, so it is next to impossible to be 100% up to date with the very latest content. However that is not really the issue. The question is is the content sufficiently up-to-date with the certification exam. Or for a non certification course, is the material sufficiently up-to-date with the industry that I don't look foolish if I follow your training in my workplace?

The answer is, Yes. The courses are sufficiently up-to-date to provide valuable job skills and assist you to pass the exam. We also provide content on the latest releases (opens in new tab) to help you stay right up to date with important new releases as they happen.

Certification courses

The certification courses are maintained to keep pace with the material on the certification exam. As new technology or features are announced we will consider their relevance to the exam, when they will likely start appearing on the exam, and possibly add some notes or practice questions about them. However this new content will not automatically be added to the course material. (If we added material that is not needed from the exam it would distract you from what you need to know, and unnecessarily increase the length and cost of the course).

As the service or feature becomes more common, and we have feedback that it is starting to creep into the exam, we will assess the impact, and include a lecture or two on the topic as appropriate. This process is constantly underway with courses updated in some way; monthly, and some almost weekly.

We do rely on student feedback, so if you see something on the exam that you don't think was introduced or covered, please let us know the topic, and the type of questions so that we can adapt the course.

Note: It is not our intention to teach every possible topic or question that might show up on the exam. We teach foundation skills plus the topics that have a high probability of being on the exam. This is sufficient to help you become a skilled engineer, and achieve a credible pass on the exam if you study diligently. Higher skills, and additional marks on the exam, can obviously be secured with additional study on top of the foundation we provide

non-Certification course

The content of these courses are set by the lecturer based on what they feel is appropriate for the skill levels targeted and the expected entry skills. It is not practical to teach everything from foundation to Guru in one course. Consequently students need to choose courses based on their entry skills and the desired skill level. In some cases that may require a couple of courses to reach the highest level of skill.

Within that framework the lectures are maintained and updated as appropriate. The course will be up-to-date at the time of release, and will be updated at intervals. Or replaced if updating is no longer a practical approach.

If you feel that there is a feature or attribute that is sufficiently important and appropriate to the level of the course, please do let us know (politely) on the community Discussion forums or contact us by submitting a request through our help page and we will discuss it with the lecturer or attach supplementary resources until the course can be updated.

Course updates

The various lectures are updated as needed —sometimes to fix small things like typos and other times to add a lot of new information. Many of the bigger updates will show up as completely new lectures.

The certification exams lag quite far behind the leading edge of Cloud services. New features and services often lag by 9 months or more, and many never appear on the exam at all. Since the certification courses are targeting a vendor's certification exam (not All the possible topics) newer features may be mentioned but given lower priority until students report back that those new topics appeared on their exams. This approach helps keep the courses more focused and at an acceptable price point.
Cloud vendors makes dozens of changes every week and it takes a lot of time to re-record videos every time something is updated or added. Consequently, while we focus on priority changes, some older videos may remain in the course unchanged because the service has not changed in any important way. The age of a video is not necessarily a measure of the validity of the material being taught.
It is most important to understand the foundational services even if a vendor brings out a new service offerings that seem to supplant them. For the exam you really need to understand how the services work more so that the latest feature set.
Updates lectures that have been recently updated are tagged with a stamp stating that the have been updated. Some students find this useful when revising to ensure that they have seen the most recent material.

If you need help, please contact Pluralsight Support.