Course Policies: IS 333: Network Administation at Calvin College

Instructor: Professor Victor Norman

Course Text:

Douglas E. Comer's Computer Networks and Internets 5th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall 

Note that we will use the text book extensively during class time, so you must be able to refer to either a hard copy or soft copy of the current chapter of the text during class.

Grading.Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:

• Reading Reflections: 10%
• Labs: 35%
• Test 1: 10%
• Test 2: 15%
• Final/Test 3: 20%
• Class investment: 10%
  

A couple of things to note:

• Your assigned readings are a significant part of your grade.  And, if you don't do them, you'll do poorly in the other parts, I guarantee.
• Class investment has a non-trivial weight.  Thus, one can raise (or lower) one's grade significantly with one's class investment.  Class investment does not mean you have to ask or answer lots of questions.  It could be as simple as paying attention and showing interest with your eyes and body language.  Or, helping others during lab when they have questions. Laughing at my jokes is required.  Timely attendance also is considered here.
  
• There will be 3 tests. Each is cumulative.
• You will be allowed to "miss" 2 of the 12 assigned readings.  Use your "misses" wisely.
• In this class, A is for excellent work, B means good, C is satisfactory, D is unsatisfactory yet passing, F means failing or unacceptable. I sometimes curve final grades so that one-third of the class receives As, one-third receives Bs, and the last third receives Cs, Ds, and Fs.
  

Attendance: attendance is optional. However, you will do poorly if you skip class regularly (this has been proven time and time again).  If you will miss class due to illness or some other legitimate reason, you must inform me before class that you will miss class that day. Also, class attendance is factored in to the Class Investment grade.

Class Rules:

• Laptop use is not allowed, except by special permission. This is due to a few studies that show that when someone uses a laptop in class, the grades of the people around them go down more than their grade goes down.
• Cell phone usage in class is strictly prohibited. 
  
  
  
  You do not need to check your cell phone during class. Don't put it on the desk -- put it away. Each semester I have to chew out a few students for checking their cell phones during class. Pretend you don't own one during class. Tell your friends that during class, you
  • have no connection,
  • have lost your cell phone,
  • don't like them and don't want them to text you,
  • have a really mean professor who lives in the dark ages and doesn't understand that without your cell phone you are only half a person,
  • have a really nice professor who cares so deeply about your learning that he wants you to not be distracted at all so that you can do your very best.

Late assignments: Due dates for assignments will be in moodle. Assignments are due at midnight on the due date.  Assignments that are submitted within 1 business day after the due date will have 10% deducted.  2 business days = 20%, 3 days = 30%, etc.

Office Hours / Help outside of class: I generally don't officially post office hours, because students generally come asking for help at any time of the day or night anyway. Instead, my office hours are any time that I am in my office. My schedule is posted here.

If you need help with an assignment, please come ask for help.  I love to help students who come to me.  However, if the assignment is due that day or the next day AND you have not started, I will not look kindly upon your predicament.  I’ll help you, but I won’t look kindly upon your predicament.  One of my goals is to help students to learn to NOT do everything at the last minute.  I know that goes against some of your philosophies of life.  Sorry...

Disability statement: Calvin will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should notify the Coordinator of Services to Students with Disabilities located in Student Academic Services, HH455. Students should notify their instructors within the first two weeks of class.

Working together / cheating:  1) Don't cheat.  2) You may work in pairs/groups when doing the lab assignments and may submit one lab report for the group.  3) You may, and often should, collaborate in discussion and design for labs. 

My disability: I am deaf on my left side.  I wear a hearing aid, but it really doesn't help too much.  I appreciate students who speak loudly enough for me (and the whole class) to hear.  Thanks.

Course Organization:

We will use a teaching/learning method called Formative Assessment in this class.  This means that most weeks we will follow this schedule:

Friday night / Saturday:

• Do the weekly reading assignment.  When you are reading the assignment, keep the week's Learning Objectives in mind, so that you know what I consider to be important in the reading. Also, you should probably take notes as you read.

By Sunday, 5pm:

• Log in to Moodle and complete the reading feedback. The reading feedback "quiz" will consist of 2 or 3 questions and should take you about 5 minutes to complete. The quiz must be completed by 5 pm.

Monday:

• I will review the Learning Objectives for the week. These are the concepts that you should understand by the end of the week, and which will be covered in the reading and our discussions.
• I will go over the Reading Feedback questions that you submitted, and cover any especially difficult parts of the reading. It is very important that you submit your questions in the reading feedback. If you do not, I will assume you understood what you read.
• We will have a series of Questions and Answers that test to see how well you understand the reading.
• NOTE: I don't generally give any standard lectures like you may be used to getting in other classes. Some students don't like this, because without a lecture, they don't end up with a nice set of notes. If you want a nice set of notes, I highly recommend you take notes while doing your Reading Assignment.

Wednesday:

• We will continue answering questions from your reading feedback in moodle.

• We will meet in SB337 and do the lab. The lab will often have to be completed outside of class. The lab is due at 11:59:59 pm of the following Thursday.
• We will do a "Predictive Activity": we will work together to try to build solutions to a problem, without knowing how the solutions have been made already by designers of the Internet.

Why do I teach this way?

Bloom's Taxonomy is a way to categorize teaching and learning practices. It defines what we expect students to do or learn to do during a course. See some very nice pictures here. If I just lecture on the material, all I'm expecting you to do is "Remember" -- the very bottom of the taxonomy. It also leads to the lowest amount of long-term retention. In short, it is easy for you and me, but you don't get your money's worth.

Many students don't like my teaching method because I try to target the teaching higher on the taxonomy. Students learn by creating their own knowledge -- not by being told what other's have figured out. This is why I have you read the book, perhaps struggle with what it contains, and then I come in and help you understand. You will be struggling and creating your own knowledge -- which has better retention and is higher on the taxonomy chart. I also try to incorporate discussion groups and practice in the class, during class time and labs.

Time Expectations:

The course is designed so that you do about 3 - 5 hours of work each week outside of class time. Much of this time should be spent in the reading and studying of the assigned readings.