A290/A590
General Course Information
and Grading Scale.

General Course Goals.

I hope to accomplish several things in this course. While we have been doing this course for several years, and I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be covered and how, things can change as we progress.

In general, there are two areas I want cover: the conceptual/technical and the practical. In many cases, these are related, but not always. The conceptual amounts to the "why" and the technical amounts to the "how" aspect of any class. We want to learn why things work and how to use them.

The practical is the "hands on" component. This is what you will do primarily in the labs, where we will show you how to do use the various software tools to accomplish a variety of tasks.

"Technical" Course Goals.

The conceptual/technical goal of this course is still very practical in nature. We want you to learn about 802.11 wireless technologies and IPv6. Both of these will become more important as time passes and we have a great opportunity to learn quite a bit in a short time.

When you complete this course, you will have learned about or worked to some degree with: OSI Model Fundamentals, Fundamentals of Signaling, Ethernet hardware and concepts, Ethernet network analyzer, 802.11 hardware and concepts, wireless Access point configuration, wireless network analyzer, IPv4.2 fundamentals, routing fundamentals, IPv6 fundamentals, configurations and implementation.

I will try to make this experience as practical as possible, using what I know about systems currently in place in both business and education, so that when you are done, you can honestly say you have some useful multimedia knowledge and experience.

For your information, here is the unofficial course description:

Overall, the goal of these A290 courses is to offer students (CS and non-CS majors alike) an opportunity to learn a fair amount about a pretty specific topic in a short time period. Each course lasts for approximately 8 weeks and carries 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 credits. As our Department Chair put it, in a humorous way, the goal is to give the students "just enough to make them dangerous." Of course, the real goal is to give you a chance to learn about a greater variety of topics without taking lots of additional time.

This particular A290 will carry 1.5 credits and deal with two topics that fall into the category of "The Future of Networking." In the first part of the course, we will look closely at the entire group of 802.11 wireless technologies that have become so pervasive. We will try to decide whether all networks in the future could be wireless, or whether there are some things you still need a wire for. This means we will also briefly look at the current wired technology: Ethernet. Our topics will include: Signalling, RF (Radio Frequency) issues, configuring an 802.11 Access Point (AP), security issues and security options. In addition, because these courses are designed to be flexible, I hope some of our topics and discussions will be student-driven.

The second part of the course will address the network protocol that will eventually become the standard: IP version 6. While the adoption of this new version of IP has been slower than predicted, it offers many potential advantages over the current version (IP 4.2). Our topics will include: IP 4.2 versus IP version 6, IPv6 internals, configuring IPv6 on a host, working with IPv6 in a routed network, and challenges in adopting IPv6. Again, I hope some of our topics and discussions will be student-driven.

Grading.

Ughhh! I know this is never fun, but here's what I have in mind at this point.

Active Class Participation: I want to make this course as interactive in the classroom as possible. This will only work if everyone is a truly active participant. This is an idea different from attendance [see below]. I'm expecting every student to be engaged with the materail and prepared to ask questions or provide examples. Everyone should be ready every day to come "up front" and demonstrate or explain something. Because I think this is such a crucial part of this course, it will represent 40% of the course grade.

Attendance: Because I post the lecture outlines in advance, attendance is mandatory if you want to pass. If you skip lectures on a regular basis, thinking you can get by on the posted outlines, you will fail. I know, it's happened many times in my other courses where I make similar resources available. Lecture attendance will be part of your final grade and taken in the form of attendance cards, explained on the first day of class. This will represent 5% of the course grade.

Homework/Quizzes/Assignments: There will be 2-3 homework assignments and 2-3 quizzes that will represent 15% of the course grade. The labs will not be graded, per se, but the assignments will be based on material presented in lab. In addition, what you do in the labs may appear on the exams, so you'll still have to learn this stuff.

In-class Presentation:There will also be 1 or 2 in-class presentation for each student. A list of possible topics will be available and each student will be given some flexibility in selecting topices. Details on the scope and length of the presentation will be provided in class. The presentation(s) will be worth 15% of the course grade.

Exams: there will be 2 exams, representing a combined 25% of the course grade. The MIDTERM will be worth 10% of the final grade and the COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM will be worth 15% of the final grade.

Overall Grade: So, your overall grade will be based on the following:

Active Class Participation: 40%

Homework/Assignments/Quizzes: 15%

In-class Presentations: 15%

Attendance: 5%

Midterm Exam: 10%

Final Exam: 15%

Grading Scale:We will begin with the standard 90-80-70-60 grading scale. +/- grades fall in the upper and lower 2.5% of each range, respectively. This scale could drop by the end of the term, but it will never rise. This mean if you earn a 90.00% average, you are guaranteed an A-.

Important Course Policies.

Be absolutely sure you understand the following course policies, as well as those out-lined on the "Important Course Guidelines" page. It will be assumed that you have read and accept these policies before the end of the first week of class.

If you have never been in a CS course before, these policies may seem inflexible. However, they are similar to those for other courses in the School of Informatics and they are not unlike the sort of guidelines or contract stipulations you would find associated with a job in the "real world." Consult the Important Course Guidelines for a more complete list.

1. You are solely responsible for your performance in this course. We are here to help you whenever possible, but all of your choices have logical consequences. Make sure you take interest in your scores and Final Grade before you earn them.
2. No work will be accepted late, period. If I do not have a homework assignment in my possession before I leave the lecture hall the day it is due, it will be scored a 0 (zero). Similarly, if you miss the deadline on any material submitted electronically, even by .01 second, you should expect a score of 0 (zero) there as well. Should this occur with something like one of the Projects, the result would be at least a full letter grade on your Final Grade.
3. I do not accept work electronically, UNLESS specifically requested. While there some things, like quizzes and homework assignments, MUST be submitted electronically, no other work will be accepted eletronically. If it is due on a certain day/date, I expect it in legible hard-copy form before the end of the lecture period at that time. Anything else will probably result in a score of 0. [See #2 above]. The same is true for anything submitted on CD.
4. This is an Information Technology course, and we expect you to use the technology. What this means, specifically, is we expect you to have an IU Email account and we expect you to use it. We expect you to check email at least twice daily, under normal circumstances. IU policy already requires that all faculty, staff and students check email once daily. We are merely extending that policy to be "twice daily." If an announcement is made in class regarding a schedule change, etc., we would expect you to check email at every opportunity. Additionally, we expect you to monitor the A216 Lecture OnCourse site relevant to this course. This is an important resource and you should learn how to use it if you don't already know how. Just be sure you understand that "I didn't check email" or "I didn't read OnCourse or check the Course website" will not be acceptable reasons for not getting work done on time or failing to meet other course requirments.
5. Any requests for an alternative exam time must include documentation supporting the need for an alternative and be submitted at least one week in advance. There are certainly legitimate reasons to request an alternative, such as job interviews, conferences, etc. However, these are also events you know about well in advance. Any such request must be made directly to me, at least a week in advance of the exam, preferably two weeks.
6. Emergencies: I realize emergencies will arise, but it is still your responsbility to notify me as quickly as possible should such an emergency occur. NOTE: I consider an emergency to be something like a death in the immediate family in the last 24 hours or severe personal injury requiring hospitalization. In all other circumstances, I think you should be able to contact me before an exam or other major course event. My email and voicemail numbers are clearly indicated on the course HomePage and I am in my office by 7:30am on lecture days. I try not to be totally unreasonable in this regard, but if you come to me a week after missing an exam and claim you missed the exam because of car trouble, I will not be very sympathetic. Again, this is a policy consistent with other courses in the School of Informatics. [Also consider, if you missed a project deadline at work and didn't contact your Supervisor for week, would you expect her/him to be very sympathetic? If you had a major presentation to a client and failed to notify your Manager in advance that you could not attend, what would you expect the consequences to be?] Again, I am in my office on class days by 7:30am and can be reached via email and my voicemail, both of which are posted on the HomePage.

Finally ...

Don't let any of the above scare you away. I just wanted to be sure anyone enrolled in the course this semester or interested in this course in the future has a decent amount of information to make an informed decision.