Computer Technology

This course is the starting point for a career in IT. This course is designed to teach the student computer architecture, the operation of its internal components and peripheral devices, its memory organization, and software installation and configuration. The content of this course is intended to reflect the objectives of the industry recognized A+ Certification.

This course provides a hands-on guide to planning, designing, installing, and maintaining the infrastructure used to support voice, video, and data communication. The communication media covered includes copper cabling, fiber optic cabling, and wireless transmission. The subject matter corresponds to that of industry-wide structured cabling standards, with particular emphasis on the standards published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), National Electric Code (NEC), and topics covered in the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) certification.  Topics include safety considerations, transmission media, testing procedures, system components, installation techniques, and customer support phases. Coverage of wireless networks with a focus on IEEE 802.11 standards, design considerations, security, best practice, and troubleshooting methodology are reviewed.  The material is reinforced with projects using equipment from a variety of vendors, such as Cisco, Aruba, and Ubiquiti.

This course is a continuation of Introduction to Networks, with increased focus on the installation and configuration of local and wide area networks in a small to medium business environment or Internet Service Provider (ISP).  Students will be able to describe the architecture, components, and operations of routers and switches in a small network, and learn basic functionality.  Students will also learn LAN, Switch, and Wireless Security concepts and configurations.  Topics include an introduction to routing using the Cisco IOS, expanded OSI model, Help Desk, Network Upgrades, expanded IP sub-netting and the purpose and responsibilities of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).  Students will learn security configuration using standard LAN and Wireless LAN networks that are used in business.  By the end of this course, students will be able to configure and troubleshoot routers, switches, wired, and wireless LANs and resolve common issues with both IPv4 and IPv6 wired and wireless networks. 

This course provides students with the skills and knowledge to plan, enter, refine, and debug programs that solve typical business problems. The finished programs are compiled and packaged into stand-alone applications, which are then installed on personal computers for use by office workers who may have minimal computer skills. Although Visual Basic is used exclusively in the course, as students build complete, real-life, multiple-form applications, they learn fundamental programming concepts and techniques used in all programming languages. This is an introductory course and as such assumes no prior programming experience.

In this course students will develop a basic understanding of the C++ programming language.   Students will be able to design and implement simple programs dealing with numerical and string processing.  They will be familiar with rudimentary input and output operations, algebraic manipulations, logical expressions, and string manipulations.  Through this course, students will engage in a variety of exercises that use problem-solving techniques related to science, engineering, and programming.  Proper programming format and guidelines for best practice will be emphasized.  Both in-class and outside of class programming exercises and projects are required.  Students will also be exposed to the C programming language, which is a subset of the C++.  The students will learn bit manipulations.

This course is structured to introduce students to basic programming concepts and integral features of the Python language.  In this course students will develop a basic understanding of the Python programming language.  Students will be able to design and implement simple programs dealing with numerical and string processing.  They will be familiar with rudimentary input and output operations, algebraic manipulations, logical expressions, and string manipulations.  Through this course, students will engage in a variety of exercises that use problem-solving techniques related to science, engineering, and programming.  Proper programming format and guidelines for best practice will be emphasized.  Both in-class and outside of class programming exercises and projects are required.  The Python programming language has become the “Swiss-army knife” of program languages. Python is used in everything from IT tasks, programming client and server-side programs, to performing in-depth digital forensics.

The Java programming language opens the doors to a cross platform Web-based programming. The students will reinforce their basic programming skills and apply them to the Internet environment. The students will learn how to develop applications and applets, how to add active content to their Web pages and how to respond to user-initiated events. They will learn how to develop Web user interfaces in a dynamic and responsive way. They will examine client server programming. All this will be accomplished in an Object-Oriented Programming environment using Java SDK.

This course is designed to give students the skills needed to identify and resolve computer and network security issues. The course will provide students an introduction to firewalls and other network security components that can be used to work together to create an in-depth defensive perimeter around a Local Area Network (LAN). Students will learn how to: identify threats; plan and design firewalls; develop a security policy; configure routers, workstations, servers, switches and firewall equipment for various packet filtering and security measures; create user authentication policies and methods; design and set up Virtual Private Networks (VPN); maintain and troubleshoot these systems.

This course provides students with the foundations of storing, managing, and protecting digital data. Students are also introduced to the concepts associated with server and storage virtualization. Emphasis is placed on understanding how to design, implement and manage virtual servers and local, remote, and virtual storage networks.

This course covers architecture, components, and the operations of routers and switches with increased focus on the installation and configuration of local and large complex networks known as wide area networks (WANs).  Students will learn how to configure routers and switches for advanced functionality.  Topics include physically connecting LANs and WANs to Cisco routers, implementing static and dynamic routing using the Cisco IOS, and troubleshooting routing problems.  Students will develop the knowledge and skills to implement routing protocols such as OSPF and NAT along with Access Control Lists (ACL) configurations and concepts.  Student will develop skills in network security, network management, network design, network troubleshooting, network virtualization, network automation, VPN, and IPsec concepts. 

This course is designed to have students completely integrate every aspect of their prior learning into a final cumulative project. Each student will design, implement, and present a project that falls within the specialty area of their matriculated degree path.  Projects will be pre-approved by the instructor through a proposal process.  Projects may include client-orientated tasks, practice orientated simulation, academic inquiry, or community engagement activities.  Each project will synthesize the work accomplished in the degree and demonstrate mastery of the program outcomes.

This computer technology elective course allows the student to explore any technology topic by selecting a course within CSCI or CYBS.