A Teaching Pedagogy for Networking/System Administration Courses; Freshman through Senior Years

摘要

After teaching in undergraduate information technology (IT) degree programs for ten years and focusing heavily on the curriculum for such programs, particularly networking and system administration coursework, the authors have honed a pedagogical strategy for course delivery and evaluation. This strategy centers on the theory/hands-on mix, as students progress from their freshman through senior years of study. An IT degree program relies heavily on the application and integration of technologies, relative to other computing disciplines, but this paper focuses on the proper mix between theoretical understanding and hands-on technology in the coursework. In the framework laid out, early courses focus more towards the theory aspect of the technologies and then as students gain more understanding and confidence with applicable technologies, more relevance is given to in-depth networking/system integration and management tasks. An analysis of the framework is presented in relation to Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.