The Manta IBM i Training Library is a collection of courses for programmers, operators, system administrators, and users. Each course takes 2-4 hours to complete. The library is designed as an integrated curriculum. Students can progress from entry-level courses to advanced topics that prepare them for professional certifications.
Courses can be ordered in many ways, as described below.
Individual Courses. You can take any individual course for only $120. Click here for a complete list of courses.
Series. Related courses are combined into a series. An example is the 7-course RPG Programming series. When you order a complete series, you receive a 10% discount PLUS the Competency Exam for each course in the series at no additional charge. Click here for a list of available series and their prices.
Special Package Offers. Additional savings of 10% to 30% are available when you order all series and stand-alone courses covering a given subject area. An example is the RPG Development Combination Pack, which includes not only the RPG Programming series, but also the IBM i Programming Environment, CL programming, DB2, and SQL series plus two stand-alone courses. Click here for a list of available combination packs and their prices.
The IBM i Training Library. When you order the complete library of over 100 courses and competency exams, you receive an additional 25% discount off the combo pack prices. Since the discounts are cumulative, this is more than 50% off the price of buying the courses individually! Click here for library prices.
Student Reference Guides. Student Reference Guides (SRGs) are available for all Manta series and stand-alone courses. Each Student Reference Guide includes a summary of all major topics covered in the courses. A detailed IBM i glossary is also included. As a result, the guides make an excellent reference when students have finished their studies and are back on the job. Because each guide also provides a place to take notes, we recommended that each student acquire his or her own copy.
Multiple Users. Regardless of the product you order, your MantaNow license limits the number of students who can use the product concurrently.
Individuals and most small organizations prefer the single-user license. The single-user license does not limit the number of students who can use a product, only the number who can be using it at the same time. With formal scheduling (for example, by assigning a morning or an afternoon to each student), we find that up to ten students can share a single-user license.
If your organization prefers to train students in groups, rather than one at a time, consider a multiple-user license. Unlike the single-user license, the multiple-user license lets more than one student at a time use the same product.
You can move from a single-user license to a 5-user license by multiplying the single-user price by 1.5. For each user over 5, add 10% of the product price to the 5-user price.
Keep in mind that the price depends on the maximum number of concurrent users, not the total number of users. For example, if you want 50 students to take a course in a given week, a 10-student license should be sufficient.
The user limit applies to whatever product(s) you order within the IBM i Training Library. If you buy a one-user license for the entire library, for example, only one student can use the library at a time. To increase the number of students who can train simultaneously, you can move to a five-user license for the library or buy additional user capabilities for only those products used by multiple students. A popular combination is a single-user license for the library and a five-user license for the Program Development Combination Pack.