University of Maryland University College

Distance Education

 

SYLLABUS for CMIT 265:

Networking Essentials

GoArmyEd Number: 93378

INSTRUCTOR - Daniel Bennette About me , My Profile & (more)


WebTycho Server *** Instructor's Home Page *** Send Mail to Instructor

PREREQUISITE(S) TEXTS  COURSE DESCRIPTION
GOALS & OBJECTIVES COURSE PLACEMENT ASSIGNMENTS
COURSE PROJECT GRADING EXAMS
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY SESSION SCHEDULE PROTOCOLS

 

Course Dates:  03 Sep 2007  -  11 NOV 2007

(Course Duration: 10 Weeks)

PREREQUISITE

There are no formal prerequisites for this course, but a general working knowledge of a PC is assumed. Regular access to the World Wide Web using a Java-enabled, graphical Web browser are required for the DE version of this course. I suggest having at least either Internet Explorer 7.x or Netscape 7.2x (or Mozilla). Students will need access to a MS-Win 2000/XP/Vista computer for installing, evaluating and utilizing software for this course. Additional (free) software may be required to be downloaded during the course of the semester.

Students will be required to access the WebTycho course environment 2 - 3 times per week.

TEXTS

Our main textbook for this course will be the McGraw Hill publication listed below.  It will be supplemented with Internet, World Wide Web and UMUC Database readings to provide current information and contemporary readings to support the depth of understanding needed for CMIT students. This course will be heavily augmented with additional outside readings. We will cover two chapters per week (view the Table of Contents).

Meyers, M. (2004). Mike Meyers' Network+ Guide to Managing & Troubleshooting Networks, w/ CD-ROM. Burr Ridge, Illinois: McGraw Hill, 0-07-225560-9.

View Summary Table of Contents
 
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

(Formerly CMIT 265M.) An introduction to networking technologies for individual workstations, local area networks, wide area networks, and the Internet, with emphasis on the OSI model, security, and networking protocols. A general knowledge of networking, including Microsoft operating systems, is provided. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: CMIT 265 or CMIT 265M.

COURSE PLACEMENT


The computer information technology (CMIT) major is designed to combine the benefits of a traditional college education with the benefits of hands-on training in state-of-the-art computer technology. Students become technically competent, but also learn to write well-organized and clear memoranda and reports. The computer information technology curriculum integrates technical skill with communication skills, superior general education, and breadth of knowledge in the computer information technology field.


The student who graduates with a major in computer information technology (CMIT) will be able to


CMIT 265 is the prerequisite for the following ensuing CMIT courses:

  1. CMIT 320 Network Security
  2. CMIT 366 Windows 2000 Professional
  3. CMIT 367 Windows 2000 Server
  4. CMIT 368 Windows Server 2003

 

COURSE GOALS and OBJECTIVES

The primary objective is to provide students with a sound theoretical and practical foundation in the field of networking essentials, so that they can better design, develop and manage Information Technology resources.

At the completion of this course, with appropriate study, students will be able to:

 

Arrow icon linking to Top of page

SESSION  SCHEDULE

The  session schedule provides a schedule of topics to be covered during the semester. This schedule includes all textbook chapters by calendar week and week dates. In addition to the session schedule, your WebTycho assignment folder will have Examination dates, project due dates  and assignment due dates. The session schedule can be found in the WebTycho Syllabus area of WebTycho. All graded Assignments must be submitted via the WebTycho assignment folder. You should also be familiar with the DE Student Calendar.

Academic preparation for this class, requires that you dedicate a minimum of 150 - 160 hours total for this course of study.  Distance learning courses are designed for the University student whose duties, location, time, and/or other circumstances prohibit  attendance at a regularly scheduled class times.   You should note that more of the burden for learning falls on the student in a distance learning course. The instructor will act as a mentor and guide, but the responsibility for reviewing, organizing, and learning course materials falls predominately on the student.  For those students who are self-motivated and disciplined, and enjoy learning on their own, successful completion of these courses shouldn't pose a problem. Please consider this carefully when budgeting your time. This distance education course is not considered independent study, but involves bi-weekly collaboration with fellow students.

We will be working in groups, and I strongly recommend that you establish close relations with your group members once you have been assigned to a group. Although group grades will not be assigned, group participation will be taken into consideration (5% of of your 35% participation grade). Members of each group will have an opportunity to provide confidential feedback about individual group members' contributions, support and assistance. A group also has the authority to expel a member (by majority vote) under justifying circumstances and after consultation with the instructor (this would have a negative impact on the affected student's participation grade).

There may also be a need to download and install software from the Internet. If you have a slow connection to the Internet, you will want to consider alternatives (e.g., UMUC computer lab). You cannot install software in the UMUC computer labs, so to benefit optimally from the instruction, you should have a MS-Windows based computer with administrative priveleges under your control.

Arrow icon linking to Top of page

ASSIGNMENTS

The chapter assignment schedule will be posted in the WebTycho Course Content area .  The Conference area will indicate which problems and discussion questions have been assigned to students.You will have a two week period in which to participate in conferences, thereafter which, the Conference area becomes a Read Only area, thus participation in that Read Only conference area cannot be made up. You must refer to the official WebTycho Syllabus for assignment due dates.  Arrow icon linking to Top of page

GRADING

Although this is not an English class, it is UMUC policy to expect students taking upper-level courses to present well-constructed, grammatically sound prose.  I plan  to place the greatest emphasis on technical content; however, I have the option to award  bonus points for especially clear, well-written material.  Points will be deducted for grammatically incorrect and substandard prose. The Conference area in WebTycho should be considered a formal discussion area where grammar is graded, while the Study Group area in WebTycho is an informal collaboration place where your grammar is not scrutinized.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a review by the appropriate authorities.  Make sure you understand and respect copyrighted material.

Grades will be based on the following factors:
 
Percentage of Overall Grade
Discussions/Exercises 35%  
Lab Project 10%  
Quizzes 25%  
Final examination 30%  

Grading Scale

          PENALTIES FOR LATENESS: Written assignments not in by due date: 5% /day
 

Participation--WebTycho Protocols

By registering for a WebTycho course, you are making a commitment to participate in your course conferences as well as other online activities. To contact your instructor, use the WebTycho conferencing software or e-mail links provided, which allow you to communicate with the instructor and your classmates in a virtual classroom 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please plan to participate regularly ( 2 to 3 times per week). You will note in the grading policy above that your online conference participation counts 35% of your final grade (participation is comprised of discussions, exercises, study group work and end-of-chapter quizzes). Participation can NOT be made up, so if you are unable to participate in a discussion or exercise, you will be deducted points accordingly.

You are required to participate in on-line conferencing, answer assigned questions/exercises and do a project, and take quizzes. The quizzes will be online covering material covered in each chapter. The final examination will be comprehensive, proctored and consist of multiple-choice and essay questions where the most weight will be on the essay/problem solving questions.

Bi-weekly online conferencing questions provide interaction with other members of the class. The material in both the self-assessment and online conferencing questions often finds its way into the final examination.

Writing and Research: Effective writing is critical to the intellectual life of university students and graduates within the workplace. Effective managers are usually effective communicators. Your work in this course must demonstrate your ability to master and effectively communicate course content. Effective writing

· Meets the needs of the reader
· Adequately covers the subject
· Uses expected conventions of format and organizations
· Demonstrates use of credible reasoning and evidence
· Satisfies standards of style and grammatical correctness
· Requires 100% compliance with UMUC's zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism.

 

Arrow icon linking to Top of pageEXAMS

There will be one examination during this course. Your quizzes will be taken online and mailed in to my alternate e-mail address. The final exam will be taken under proctored conditions, and is likely to include a mix of multiple choice questions, problems (depending on the subject matter), fill-in-the blanks, and  essay questions. There may also be a brief case problem to be analyzed.

Arrangements should be made early to schedule availability for your final examination.  Your online examination will be made available and will be computer-based. It is your responsibility to schedule a time to take the examination.

Make-Up Exams

Students are expected to take the final examination within the date range indicated in this syllabus or prescribed by the instructor. Students are also expected to notify the faculty member in advance if one is not able to visit our virtual class for more than 4 consecutive days.Arrow icon linking to Top of page
 

PROTOCOLS AND POLICIES

I believe that communication between instructor and student is paramount in teaching any course, but in Distance Education, the collaboration among students is most critical, thus participation accounts for a major portion of the composite grade.  You should think of me as a resource as well as a representative of the University of Maryland University College. My telephone numbers, electronic mail address and FAX numbers are listed on my homepage and within WebTycho. There are not many acceptable reasons for you not to be able to contact me (or arrange for me to be contacted) in case of some emergency.

If you know you're going to be on a business trip or away from an appropriate communicating device and assignments are to be  submitted during that week, as shown in the outline, please coordinate submissions with one of your group members to avoid late submission penalties.  Late assignments diminish your assigned grade by 5% for each late day. It is better to turn in assignments early to give oneself a buffer for the unexpected, unpredictable event which might otherwise lead to delays.  If for some technical reason, our WebTycho class environment is not available/accessible, please notify me by e-mail, but make sure you have check the status of the servers. It is highly unlikely, but not impossible, that all WebTycho servers will concurrently be unavailable.

Because you are all adults, I consider each of you a course resource  as well as a student.  Your participation improves the course  tremendously.  Much educational research has shown that the larger a part you play in your own education, the more you learn and the faster you learn it.  All questions which would normally be asked in a classroom, will be asked via the appropriate WebTycho conference by submitting a message for all fellow students to see (and respond to).

Distance education courses offered by the University of Maryland University College Maryland in Europe are conducted through computer conferencing. The distance education program is not considered independent study, and it does not attempt to emulate correspondence courses. Distance education program  students can expect to interact frequently with their fellow students and their teacher. Qualitative participation is weighted more than quantitative participation in this course.

It is each student's responsibility to maintain accurate records and transcriptions of correspondence throughout the course. Please make sure you have copies of everything which you are required to submit for grading.  In the event of electronic interruptions, an alternative delivery mode will be exercised to inform the affected parties of a problem and suggested resolutions.

You are expected to adhere to the general rules of online etiquette. To prepare to use the online conference you should read the Core Rules of Netiquette. If you are new to Distance Education keep those notes handy; you may need to refer to them during the semester. You will also want to be familiar with emoticons.

Each "to be graded" assignment will be  submitted to the WebTycho environment via your "assignment folder."  Do not submit assignments or homework to my e-mail address.

This is a very broad course in which the textbook is our main reference book.  The majority of information security and E-commerce knowledge will be learned through readings, scenarios/exercises and questions.  I expect you to have read the assigned chapters from our main text and be prepared to discuss  selected questions.  You will be responsible for all chapters as assigned.  In addition, you are responsible for all  supplemental reading assignments posted to the WebTycho class  area by the instructor.  You should check our virtual classroom at least three times a week.

One Convention that I would like us to adhere to throughout this course, is that you are not allowed to use the color RED within your documents to be graded [ Red is exclusively reserved for instructor comments ]. Normally these comments will come in the form of comments, corrections or merely to focus the reader on an area of text. You can use braces { a students' critical thought }. If there is anyone that is color blind to RED (for example, by not properly seeing the DO NOT emphasis highlighted in red twice on this syllabus), please inform the instructor.

Because we have different e-mail systems, as you are experiencing, I would like to ask you all to use your real name at  the end of your messages when sending an "0709CMIT265" message to me.  Initially, this will serve two purposes, one it will help me to identify the author and secondly it will serve as an end-of-message marker to help identify that a message has been received in its entirety. ALL private e-mail messages sent to me should include the prefix "0709CMIT265:" in the subject line for a timely and proper response.

All submissions into WebTycho will be in HTML or plain text ( or marked up by the WebTycho text editor). Please DO NOT submit wordprocessing documents (e.g., MS-Word, WordPro) unless specifically requested by me. Do not attach DOC files in the conferencing area of WebTycho. It is preferred not to use attachments, unless absolutely necessary (e.g., multimedia files). When submitting screenshots, please use GIF, JPEG or PNG formats.

The need for additional policies and requirements may arise during the course.  If the need arises, a new policy and/or requirement may be formulated such that this policy or requirement will be as valid as any written in this syllabus.  Please familiarize yourself with the current University of Maryland University College European Division Catalog, as this publication will serve as our guideline for academic policies and standards not otherwise mentioned within this document.  A current catalog may be obtained either from your local Field Representative or viewed at the UMUC Student Services web site (Acrobat Reader required). Arrow icon linking to Top of page

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

All UMUC students are responsible for adhering to the UMUC policy regarding academic integrity. Obtaining or giving aid on an examination is considered academic dishonesty and will result in appropriate academic action.

Integrity in teaching and learning is a fundamental principle of a university. UMUC believes that all members of the university community share the responsibility for academic integrity, as expressed in the University System of Maryland policy "Faculty, Student, and Institutional Rights and Responsibilities for Academic Integrity." Details are available from the Office of the Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies.

Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes (but is not limited to) copying verbatim all or part of another person's work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, computer programs, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator.

Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by carefully following accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge those sources in footnotes.

UMUC's policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism can be found in the current copy of the Undergraduate Catalog or is available from the Office of the Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies.

NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

If you have any condition, such as a physical or learning disability, which will make it difficult for you to carry out the work as I have outlined it, or which will require academic accommodations, please make your "need for assistance" known as soon as possible. Students with disabilities are advised to contact the office of Disabled Student Services (http://www.umuc.edu/studserv/dss.html). Under privacy laws, students are not required to tell their professors about their disability. A student with a disability need only notify the DSS office. That office will, in turn, notify the instructor about whatever accommodations that student requires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to top of page