ACI Learning Reviews

The course didn't seem geared toward in-charge auditors. There wasn't enough teaching of concepts an in-charge auditor could use. There were too many stories many of which didn't really apply.

I think the course was much too long for what material was being covered. Sections went into a lot of detail about different aspects of IT systems, but had surprisingly little about actually auditing those systems. The order of the sections was sometimes confusing. For example, the course began with a section on source of criteria for IT audits, followed by a section on basic IT terminology and aspects of IT systems. I would have thought it would make sense to lay the groundwork about IT systems and THEN start talking about how to audit them and what to look for. The instructor was friendly, but he tended to go into long anecdotes and back-and-forth exchanges with a person in the physical classroom that ate up a lot of time. There were 3 people physically in the room and around 9 on the virtual session. However, the chat and ask-a-question features were not used by the instructor and the online participants were largely ignored unless we jumped in with a question. Some of the content didn't seem accurate. For example, at one point the instructor had a lengthy back-and-forth with members of the class about random sampling. He insisted that judgmental samples where he selects cases could be as representative as a random sample. This isn't correct, and goes against the whole point of random sampling. He also thought that audits should be completed within 3-4 months. This could be true of internal compliance audits, but is incredibly unlikely for performance audits. Much of the material seemed to assume that participants were using Red Book and doing internal compliance audits. That's fine, but our office is using GAGAS and it was less relevant to us. I'd suggest specifically advertising the course on internal compliance IT auditing if that's the framework being used.

Expectations were more about trends in worlwide IA. The majority of the content was not towards this direction, at least for people who come from big IA teams of developped countries

- the first two days was so boring. - The instructor was giving to much details, to the degree I can't follow. For example, he was talking one hour in one subject and repeating himself without adding any extra value. - I believe the course is not worthy to spend 7-8 hours a day for.

Overall I was pleased with the instructor and the information that I walked away with. There was a problem with the course materials, as the virtual users were not provided all of the documents that should've been made available. My greater displeasure was with MISTI not allowing us to substitute this course for another after one of our employees separated from the company. As I discussed with the rep, an employee who registered for the course separated a few days prior. They would allow the seat to be transferred to me but they would not accommodate providing a credit to be used at a later date. I explained that I would not be able to attend the course in full as I had external consultants to meet with that week. The rep explained that they could not substitute the course because they are required to have a minimum number of students in attendance to move forward with the course. There were about 15 people who attended virtually and a number of students in person, so I don't understand how me not attending would have precluded the class from moving forward. We had an unfortunate circumstance that was beyond our control but MISTI would not be flexible to a customer who paid over $5K for two participants this year and in prior years.

under expectaiton we bring our labtop and we did not use it