Splunk Education provides copies of the course materials (slides, labs, etc.) in PDF format. These PDF files are protected. In particular, the slide decks cannot be printed. But most other documents can be printed, such as lab assignments.
I understand that this is not convenient for you, but I think that the slides from a class get dated pretty quickly. After class, the slides may be a useful reference for a few weeks or even a few months. But as quickly as things change for software, you probably should be referring to the online documentation instead of the slide decks whenever possible.
In the "olden days" of training, we supplied printed course materials only. That doesn't make sense any longer, as it increases shipping and paper waste. It also means that students had to sign up for courses weeks in advance to allow for materials delivery prior to class. Electronic course materials are now the standard, and are preferred by most students.
Since you asked, one of the reasons for the file protection is to prevent copyright infringement of the course materials. Splunk routinely finds these materials being used for profit in training courses in violation of our copyright. While the PDF protection does not eliminate this problem, it does reduce it. Unauthorized classes are a problem for customers as well as for Splunk, since they cannot be used to complete Splunk certifications.
