FLaSKU - A classroom experience with teaching computer networking: Is it useful to others in the field?

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Shanmugatha "Shan" Suthaharan, Associate Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: In general, every educator has a classroom experience that he or she wants to share for the benefit of other educators and students in the field. This paper presents a classroom experience with teaching a computer networking course to both undergraduate and graduate students in Information Technology (IT) areas. This course uses conceptualization and summarization techniques coupled with standard teaching methods, such as independent learning, incremental learning, and out-of-class assignments. It also defines two terms: independent conceptualization and dependent conceptualization, and adopts them with a summarization technique to improve conceptualized computer networking. Two simple examples are presented to illustrate these definitions. The paper also presents a teaching philosophy and a flexible grading policy that help motivate learning over earning a grade. The experience and knowledge gained from the delivery of a computer networking course over eight years is shared in this paper. Course evaluations were conducted using a departmental questionnaire, peer evaluations, and an independent survey. The course evaluation results of over eight years demonstrate a significant improvement in the overall quality of the course delivery. The methods, results, and findings can deliver benefits to young university educators and students in the IT field.

Additional Information

Publication
Proceedings of the ACM SIGITE 2014, pp. 15-20
Language: English
Date: 2014
Keywords
Conceptualized learning, incremental learning, independent learning, computer networking

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