Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP
Course Syllabus
Course Description: This course prepares students for jobs as network technicians. It also helps students develop additional skills required for computer technicians and help desk technicians. It provides a basic overview of routing and remote access, addressing, and security. It also familiarizes students with servers that provide e-mail services, Web space, and authenticated access. Students also learn about soft skills required for help desk and customer service positions. Network monitoring and basic troubleshooting skills are taught in context.
The course duration is one semester, beginning in the student’s sophomore year.
Prerequisites
The completion of this course requires the following:
Reading Age Level (RAL) of 13
Successful completion of Networking for Home and Small Businesses course
Instructional Philosophy: This course requires extensive student reading, completion of written assignments and completion of hands-on laboratory projects. Additionally the students will practice learned skills by providing technical service support for the all of the school’s computers. There will be a balance of lecture and demonstration throughout the course. The course is comprised of the following learning styles:
The course presentation is designed to continually reinforce the material covered each week on approximately a module per week schedule. First, the students independently read the material as a first pass at learning the material. Second, the students re-enforce what is learned by answering Focus and Concept questions in the engineering journal. The review questions are broken up into daily homework assignments in an effort to aid the students in their time management. The third re-enforcement is a daily lecture covering the material in the module and paced with the reading and homework assignments. The end of the lecture is used to review the homework assigned the previous night. The fourth re-enforcement is the completion of weekly hands-on laboratory assignments directly related to the module material. Typically 4 or 5 labs are completed for each Module and each lab has a set of review questions used to evaluate the completion of the lab. The last re-enforcement is a comprehensive review of the material presented during the week and an open question and answer session to finalize the material learned. A final test assessment is completed the day following the review.
The
assessment for the course will be divided between the written homework
assignments, the hands-on laboratory assignments and a module test. An additional bonus component is also
attainable by completing trouble tickets.
Course
Goals
Help students recognize the significant impact of networking on their lives
● Teach students how to build and support a home or small business network with Linksys equipment
● Instill a sense of awe in students and encourage them to learn more about how things work and to pursue careers in networking
● Prepare students for entry-level jobs in the industry by employing interactive and engaging instructional approaches that help them gain practical experience
● Teach students the fundamental concepts of networking
● Provide opportunities for extensive hands-on interaction with PC and networking equipment to prepare students for careers and certification exams
● Establish the relevancy and context of networking in our everyday livesIn addition, the course provides instruction and training in the proper care, maintenance, and use of networking software, tools, and equipment.
Major
Course Projects and Assignments
Upon completion of the Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP course, students will be able to perform the following tasks:
●
Describe the structure of the Internet and how communication occurs between
hosts
●
Install, configure, and troubleshoot Cisco IOS devices for Internet and server
connectivity
●
Plan a basic wired infrastructure to support network traffic
●
Configure a server to share resources and provide common Web services
●
Implement basic WAN connectivity using Telco services
● Demonstrate proper disaster recovery procedures and perform server backups
●
Monitor network performance and isolate failures
●
Troubleshoot problems using an organized, layered procedure
● Describe the OSI model and the process of encapsulation
1. Technical Performance Projects. Module Laboratory Assignments will be completed throughout the duration of the course:
2. Applied Academics Projects. For each of the modules, the student’s will be responsible for reading the Module and completing the end-of-module review questions. Daily lectures, a weekly review and a test are completed to finalize the material in each module.
3. Problem Solving Projects. The student’s will develop and practice their problem solving skills by supporting the computers throughout the school. The various problems and issues that are presented serves as an effective means for the students to develop broad-based, practical troubleshooting skills required to tackle any networking issue. Time will be scheduled on a daily basis for the students to work on completing trouble tickets.
Course
Assessment Plan
Performance Standards: Grades for the course will be based on the following levels of performance:
Grade
Performance Standard
A
Independent Learner
Did research, designed and planned; applied academic skills; evaluated work and made adjustments; did quality work; needed little help from the teacher; sought and found resources independently; displayed a positive attitude; demonstrated knowledge with a grade of 90 or higher.
B
Semi-Independent Learner
Did research, designed and planned; needed some help from the teacher; did quality work with a few flaws; needed feedback from the teacher to realize work could use improvement; redid work to meet standards; displayed a generally positive attitude; demonstrated knowledge with a grade of 80 or higher.
C
Dependent Learner
Needed help to research, design and plan or had to be given a plan; relied a great deal on the teacher; had to be given procedures for performing tasks; required significant help to produce a quality product; needed help to evaluate a product; final product still did not meet standards; attitude displayed could use improvement; demonstrated knowledge with a grade of 70 or higher.
D
Highly Dependent Learner
Needed significant help to research, design and plan or had to be given a plan; relied a solely on the teacher; had to be given procedures for performing tasks; could not produce a quality product independently; needed help to evaluate a product; final product still did not meet standards; poor attitude; demonstrated knowledge with a grade of 65 or higher.
F
Failure
Did not complete assignments; if assignments were completed, they were of such low quality that they did not pass; failed to follow procedures; did not show criteria for determining quality; behavioral problem; scored less than 65 on knowledge tests; produced a poor or no portfolio.
|
Assessment Description |
Percent of Grade
|
|
Laboratory Assignments |
40 |
|
Tests |
40 |
|
Homework (Module Review Questions) |
20 |