The ClearPath Method

Welcome to ClearPath

Welcome to ClearPath Learning Essentials for Beginners, from Ivory Trident. This content was created by Ivory Trident's ClearPath Learning team. I'm Heart, the AI voice who will be your guide through this module.

This short module gets you started with how the ClearPath teaching system works. It covers just two of our core concepts.

ClearPath was built to teach complex topics to groups of people inside an organization who have different starting points, and different ending points. We don't all share the same past experience, the same current knowledge, or the same goal. ClearPath is designed to take everyone from wherever they are, to wherever they want to be. Let's get started.

Your starting point and your goal

Two names stand behind this training. Ivory Trident is the company.

Its mission statement is to prosper by supplying customized and unique services to clients that meet or exceed their needs and wants. Notice those two words: needs, and wants. They are not the same thing, and we design for both.

ClearPath is Ivory Trident's training system for complex topics, such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and engineering.

Its mission statement is to help people and organizations find a clear, practical training path from where they are, to where they want to be.

Think of the letter U as you, the individual learner.

Inside any organization, different people need different amounts of knowledge about the same topic. ClearPath starts by bringing everyone from their true starting point up to a common rally point, where the whole group shares the same terminology and knows the limits of what each person is expected to know. From the rally point, you continue toward your own goal. You can stop at any level. And if you decide to go further later, the system is built so you can pick up right where you left off.

One more thing to know. Every topic we teach begins with a free presentation of the must-know items. It introduces the key terms and rules, and it often gets you doing a little hands-on work right away. Whatever path you take afterward, that first presentation will be valuable to you.

Must-know essentials and AccuFast

The first core concept is what we call RGB: words, concepts, and rules. RGB stands for red, green, and blue. In every complex topic there are certain words, concepts, and rules that are so fundamental that you must know them cold. We mark those in capital letters, RGB. Lowercase

rgb

marks items that are still important, but not quite as heavy-duty.

Here's the picture to keep in mind. Remember the small box of eight crayons?

If someone says red, green, or blue, you know exactly which crayon to grab. You're fast, and you're accurate.

The big box of 64 has colors like chartreuse, salmon, and periwinkle.

They're nice to have, and you may learn them later. But they are not what we mean when we say RGB.

So for every RGB item, we ask two things of you. First, be accurate.

Then, be fast.

Put those together, and you get

AccuFast

.

And one more: be confident that your

AccuFast

answer is correct. If your boss asks a question and you answer instantly, correctly, and with confidence, that is RGB.

Think of tying your shoes.

Or knotting a tie. You don't stop to think about the steps. That is the level we're aiming for with RGB items.

We have already been through all of the material, so we know which items are fundamental and which are less so. We gather the RGB items for you, up front, so that when a later lesson refers to one, you already know it. Then, as we work through the topic in depth, you have all the pieces.

One more thing to watch for. You may have noticed a red camera in the bottom corner of the last slide. Whenever that camera appears, it means this slide is worth a photograph. Take a picture of it with your phone, right then, for later study. A short list of four or five items is easy to review while you're waiting in line or sitting in a lobby, and those few minutes add up. The camera is our way of telling you: this is one to keep.

How to read ClearPath notation

The second core concept is our notation. In printed material we use a small set of symbols as shorthand, so we can tell you something without stopping to explain it every time. Here are the ones you will see most.

Single square brackets hold synonyms. Read them as, also called. In this example, the word control has the synonyms countermeasure and safeguard. Vendors, customers, and books use different words for the same idea, and that causes confusion. So pick one word and use it consistently. As you progress, you will learn to recognize the others too.

Double square brackets name the owner, author, or creator of an item, or the source it came from. The examples here are a document owner, Microsoft, and A18, which is one of the reference books we use. Think of it as a footnote that tells you where something came from.

DEF in brackets points to a definition you need. If you see [DEF-Availability] at the top of a paragraph or a page, it means: if you don't have a solid understanding of the word availability, go get that definition now. Otherwise you won't get as much out of the material as you should.

FIG in brackets points to a figure. [FIG-356] means go to page three hundred fifty-six of the reference book, and study the figure, chart, or picture there.

EX with a colon introduces an example. Here, password and

UserID

are two examples of ways to identify yourself on a computer.

Squiggly braces hold related items. They are not synonyms; they are simply connected. The compass direction north is related to south, east, and west. You may see them in one set of braces, or in several. Either way, we are telling you these items connect, which matters when a topic spreads across many pages.

Now, lists. A numbered list means a fixed set, such as the three ways to do something. When we number a list, we expect you to memorize it. Bulleted lists are different. The bullet symbol tells you how important each item is.

The diamond is the highest level. If there is a test, expect to see this material in some fashion.

The arrowhead means be familiar with it, and have a good working knowledge.

The plain arrow means working knowledge.

The check mark means learn the concepts of the list, rather than the exact wording. It is not a common list you will need to recite.

The round bullet is a lower level, generally used for examples. You will often see wording like, may be, or, should include.

The small square is the lowest level, and may also be examples.

And the hollow circle covers anything below that.

You don't have time to learn everything as if it were RGB. These symbols let you place a value on each item, and spend your effort where it counts.

And there's the camera. This is a slide to photograph: everything on it is itself RGB, and knowing the notation is what makes the rest of our training make sense.

Your next step

That's the end of ClearPath Learning Essentials for Beginners. You now know our two core concepts: RGB words, concepts, and rules, and the ClearPath notation. You will see both in every ClearPath course.

Thanks for learning with me. I'm Heart, and I'll see you in the next module.