Franske ITC-2830 How to do well

Defining Doing Well

What does it mean to do well in a course? This is a more difficult question than it might seem at first. In most classes the goal of students is to get a "good grade" in the class. For some students this means an "A" while for other students it means a "B" or even a "C". Instructors are more apt to define doing well as to what extent you learned the material you were supposed to in the course. Grades are really supposed to be a proxy measure showing how much of the material you learned and retained.

Technical courses are usually a little bit different. The secret of grades is that by the end of the semester in a technical course most students either "get it" or they don't. This means most people end up with "A's" or "F's" with a few "B's" and a very small number of "C's" and "D's". Therefore, if you "do well" in a technical course you will probably end up with an "A". Since I'm the one doing the grading it's important then to know what I think doing well is. I think that doing well in a technical course is meeting the goals of the course. So, if we're going to do well we need to figure out the course goals.

Course Goals

What is the goal of this course? Most students in technical courses think it's to learn about the technology, equipment or software. If you look at the official course outlines from the college, which are mostly based on industry certifications, this is what you'll find listed as course objectives. However, this is only part of the course goals. The truth, and something most students don't want to hear, is that you will not succeed in a technical career simply by meeting the course objectives. A key reason for this is that the technology is always changing. The router command or control panel location you learn in class is almost guaranteed to change in at least some way before you apply your knowledge to a job. This is especially true in security courses like this one. I cannot stress enough how frequently there is information about new security vulnerabilities and countermeasures. You will need to immerse yourself in security news and updates to stay current in this area.

Therefore, the real goal of the course is to teach you to learn and think about the technology so that you can understand and interpret instructions, documentation and information about it and apply that to the varied situations you will encounter in the future. Nothing in the real world is even close to being as clear-cut as the labs and you need to learn to be flexible about applying what you know to new and different situations as well as learning more about new, related technologies. So the course goal is to prepare you for this by giving you an understanding and background information about how one set of technologies work together and interact with others. In security you also need to be able to take this information and think critically about what you're hearing. If you hear about some new vulnerability you have to understand enough about what's going on to understand if it is a threat to you and then design and deploy countermeasures to neutralize that threat. If you can do this you will have "done well" in the course.

Steps to doing well

In this section we'll talk about some specific things to make sure you do well in this course with the least amount of headache and stress possible.

Step 1: BE PREPARED

There is a course schedule. Use it! This is college, it is not the instructor's job to remind you of everything. Much effort and time goes into designing a schedule for each class which lists what is going to be covered, what readings need to be done and what is due. If something is unclear ask about it. There are a lot of students who end up with a lower grade than they should because they turn things in late or not at all, don't be one of them.

I try to be somewhat flexible with the schedule and due dates but don't count on this, plan in advance! When push comes to shove what it says on the schedule is the law of the land.

Step 3: READ

It is impossible to stress how important it is to do the readings. This means looking at the schedule in advance and finding out what the next class session will be about and reading the material before you get to class. Do not skip sections! Be willing to read though some parts two or more times to try and understand what's being said. If there are graphics and animations look at them! They are not there to fill space or look pretty they are there to help convey the information.

If you find something interesting or you are having trouble understanding something try to do some research on your own. This is an important reading related skill. Come to class with questions. You should know the material inside and out so if there is still anything unclear take advantage of the instructor and your fellow students and ask a question.

Step 3: DO THE LABS

The labs are not there to fill time. It is essential to experience how the concepts you have read about and we have talked about in class actually play out on equipment. Many labs are written in a step-by-step format that anyone could follow, do not mindlessly follow the instructions. You should understand exactly why you are doing everything that you are doing. If you don't stop and figure it out. This is very important to doing well on the final skills exam and the certification test, not to mention doing well with real-world problems. Again, the instructor and your fellow classmates are there to help, ask questions.

Step 4: PARTICIPATE

Come to class, ask questions. I do not take attendance, this is not high school. I also don't like to repeat information so come and pay attention. Be active and engaged in the class. If you are not here you will miss important information, it is not my responsibility to provide you with that information. You also may not be able to make up in-class assignments. If you are going to be gone for some reason you don't need to tell me but you should probably tell your class partner so they can get you some of the information you missed.

Conclusions

Doing well takes effort, probably more than you were expecting. Did you know that the national standard for a single 3 credit semester-long college course is an expectation of 9 hours (6 outside of class) of work per week? If you are taking 15 credits that's 30 hours of work outside of class each week, they don't call it "full-time" for fun. A 3 credit class like this one which also includes a lab component is expected to take 12 hours (8 outside of class) per week. Most students don't put in anywhere near that amount of time. To excel you probably do need that much time or more but honestly, you can probably do well with less. You should still plan appropriately for the amount of time you'll need though.

The good news is that I want you to do well too! If you think changing something about the class (for example the schedule, additional time on a topic, etc.) would assist you in accomplishing that share your idea. Much of the way this class has been designed is based on student feedback, something I take very seriously. I can't always promise we'll do it but if you don't ask you'll never know.