REQUISITES and PREREQUISITES

IFSM 300 or equivalent (or special permission of instructor). Telnet/FTP capability and 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 administrative access to either a WinVista or WinXP or Win2000 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.

Although not a requirement, students are strongly encouraged to have a wireless router under their administrative control. The Course Technology textbook has projects and exercises using Cisco and Linksys equipment.

TEXTS

Our main textbook for this course will be the Course Technology 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 IFSM students. This course will be augmented with additional outside readings. The textbook will help prepare students to take the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) examination administered by a leading vendor-neutral certification insitution called Planet3Wireless Incorporated. We will cover a little more than one chapter per week (view the Table of Contents and Session Schedule for details ).

Ciampa, Mark . CWNA Guide to Wireless LANs, second edition. Thomson Course Technology: 2006-- (ISBN: 0-619-21579-8)

View Summary Table of Contents
 
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

An analysis of technical and managerial perspectives on basic concepts and applications in wireless local area networks. Through Hands-On projects and Case studies, an interactive learning experience is provided to help prepare students for wireless network certification and the challenges of wirless networking management with a special focus on wireless network security. Topics include but are not limited to mobile (GSM) wireless communications, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11x and IEEE 802.15x standards, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Wired Equivalent Privacy and WiFi Protected Access (WEP/WPA), Medium Access Control (MAC) Filtering, and trends in wireless communication.

COURSE PLACEMENT

Courses in Information Systems Management (designated IFSM) may be applied as appropriate (according to individual program requirements) toward

• the general education requirement in computing;
• a major in information systems management, computer information technology, or management studies;
• a major or minor in computer studies;
• a certificate in various computer-related areas;
• and electives.
  

COURSE GOALS and OBJECTIVES

On successful completion of this course,  students will be able to:

. Understand the IEEE standards and IEEE-proposed standards as they relate to wireless technology.

· Understand how to conduct a site survey, plan and deploy a wireless Local Area Network (LAN).

· Demonstrate a key understanding of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) security and how to minimize WLAN vulnerabilities.

· Demonstrate a knowledge of how to manage and troubleshoot a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).

· Understand Personal, Metropolitan, and Wide Area Wireless Networks.

· Identify and discuss the business and organizational issues involving Wireless communications technology and management as it applies to the wireless community.

· Demonstrate a high-level understanding of terminology associated with Wireless Telecommunications and discuss the Global System Mobile (GSM), Code Division Multiplex Access (CDMA), Second Generation (2G), and third Generation (3G) systems.

· Identify and discuss the business and organizational issues involving Telecommunications technology and management as it applies to the wireless community.

· Demonstrate a key understanding of the frequency coordination and application for Wireless spectrum (domestic and international).

· Understand the differences between Wide band -CDMA and CDMA 2000 as applied to the next generation of wireless cellular phone

· Demonstrate a key understanding of how network protocols will be incorporated into the next generation of wireless cell phones including the TCP/IP model.

· Understand Wireless Networking and the 802.11x standards.

 

SESSION  SCHEDULE

Academic preparation for this class, requires that you dedicate a minimum of 150 - 180 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. Group grades will not be assigned. 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 will also be a need to download software from the Internet. If you have a slow connection to the Internet, you will want to consider alternatives (e.g., UMUC computer lab).

ASSIGNMENTS

There will be several smaller projects required for this course. Each student will be required to do these smaller projects individually, although you are encouraged to collaborate with your group members. Smaller projects include, but are not limited to News Reports, Software/Hardware Evaluations, Internet Collaboration, Encryption, Web site maintenance and Solaris/Linux familiarity (FTP, Telnet, E-mail).  See the WebTycho environment for detailed due dates for each of these projects.

Case Projects will be assigned to groups to augment textbook coverage of a particular topic. Students will be graded both on their analysis of  the case studies, as well as the constructive critique of other students' analyses.  Case study analyses will be posted no group grade will be assigned, groups can disassociate (expel) a member for failure to actively participate.

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
End-of-Chapter Assignments	15%
Discussion Questions	15%
Current Events / Contemporary Issues Project (1a & 1b)	20%
Mid-Semester examination	20%
Proctored Final examination	30%

Grading Scale

• A = 90 - 100
• B = 80 - 89.9
• C = 70 - 79.9
• D = 60 - 69.9
• F =  0 - 59

          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 are required to participate in on-line conferencing, answer assigned questions/case studies, do a current events/contemporary issues project, and take two examinations. The mid-semester examination will be an online examination covering material up to week #5. The final examination will be comprehensive, taken under proctored conditions 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.

EXAMS

There will be two examinations. Your mid-semester examination will be an online exam. 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. Make sure that you follow the proper procedures for taking this examination (see http://www.ed.umuc.edu/de/deprocexam_procedures.html).

Arrangements should be made early to schedule availability for examinations. It is your responsibility to inform the instructor, prior to the examination availability, if you are unable to partake during the scheduled time period.

Make-Up Exams

Students are expected to take examinations 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.
 

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. Assignments are always due on a Wednesday.  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 Ciampa textbook is our main reference book and the Dubendorf is our supplemental textbook.  The majority of information about wireless technology 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 "0711IFSM350" 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 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 HTML or DOC files in the conferencing area of WebTycho. It is preferred not to use attachments, unless absolutely necessary (e.g., multimedia files).

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 Distance Education web site (Acrobat Reader required). 

 

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.

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