Faculty Contact Information:
1. Email Address: jrugg@faculty.ed.umuc.edu
2. Teaching Assistant: None.
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Consultation:
1. Office Hours: Daily in the WebTycho classroom and via email, by exception only.
2. Details of Contact: I check into the WebTycho classroom at least 5 days a week. I check my email daily. In both cases, you should expect at least a preliminary answer within 1-2 days.
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Required Texts and Readings:
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White, C. (2004). Data Communications and Computer Networks: A Business User's Approach (3rd ed.). Boston: Thompson Course Technology.
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Supplementary Readings:
The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author.All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.
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Recommended Journals:
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Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.
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Course Description:
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3 semester hours credit. Prerequisites: Either INSS 510, INSS 520, or permission of the Program Director. Provides analysis of data communications technology and its application within the public and private sector enterprise. Gives an in-depth view of the communications environment, data communications and telecommunications equipment, and local and wide area networks. The student is involved in case studies of communications systems design in educational, industrial, governmental, and military environments.
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Course Goals:
Upon completion of the course, participants should:
1. Understand the different network topologies, and their advantages and disadvantages.
2. Understand issues involved in network security and data integrity.
3. Understand the strengths and limitations of the Internet.
4. Discuss the roles of IT professionals in network design and maintenance.
5. Be able to research current topics in networking.
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Discuss the evolution of networks and the Internet
2. Explain the hierarchical, layered structure of a typical network architecture
3. Describe emerging network technologies and assess their capabilities, limitations, and near-term potential
4. Discuss important network standards in their historical context
5. Describe the responsibilities of the layers of the ISO reference model
6. Explain how a network can detect and correct transmission errors
7. Illustrate how a packet is routed over the Internet
8. Discuss the fundamental ideas of public-key cryptography
9. Summarize common authentication protocols
10. Summarize the capabilities and limitations of the means of cryptography that are currently available
11. Explain the different roles and responsibilities of clients and servers for a range of possible applications.
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Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.
Grading Late Examinations or Homework. It is expected all examinations and homework assignments will be turned in on time. I recognize there may be circumstances that prevent you from finishing homework / exams assignments on time. If such circumstances arise, it is YOUR responsibility to coordinate with me PRIOR to missing a deadline. Unless you have made agreeable arrangements with me PRIOR to the due date, grades on homework submitted after the due date will be reduced by at least one letter grade (depending on the degree of lateness). Also feedback on late work may be minimal.
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Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
10% - Participate in classroom discussions
30% - Term Project
40% - Homework assignments
20% - Final exam
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Description of Course Requirements:
1. Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. You should always fully develop your questions and responses in a manner commensurate with a graduate level course.
2. Term Project Overview. The term project will address some aspect of modern data communications technology as it applies to the modern business place. The coverage must have enough technical details to support your main premises without over-whelming the reader with a highly technical onslaught. Your intended audience is your fellow classmates. The topic must be proposed by the student and approved by the instructor. Approach the project as if you were to become either a) the resident expert on one and only one topic or b) you must present a proposal. Where applicable, your project should include standards / protocols and examples.
Project Milestones:
6 February 2005 - submit your desired topic by posting your choice and reasons to the Project Topics conference in the Conferences section of the WebTycho classroom. This conference will also be used to ask questions, make comments, etc., during pertaining to the project throughout the course.
13 February 2005 - I will comment on your topic and make suggestions, disapprove or approve your topic.
2 May 2005 - Post your project in Assignments section of the WebTycho classroom. If you desire, you may share your hard work with your fellow classmates by also posting your final project in the Projects conference in the WebTycho classroom.
General Project Requirements: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
Specific Project Requirements: You may pick any topic pertaining to data communications and / or computer network systems. You are to become an expert on that topic. You are to prepare the equivalent of a 10 - 12 page technical document (double spaced, Arial font with a size of 10, with a maximum of 1 inch margins all around) complete with illustrations where appropriate. You must include a bibliography with a minimum of five sources other than the textbook. A title page and bibliography are not included in the 10 - 12 page requirement although your Table of Contents / Outline is counted.
Project Grading: In conformance with the grading scheme for the Comprehensive Examination, your project will be graded as follows:
Content - 65%
English - 15%
References - 10%
3. Homework / Examinations Expectations. The homework assignments will test concepts and their application for specific chapters as outlined in the Class Schedule. The final exam is comprehensive and is designed to not only test your understanding of the basic concepts in the material presented in the text but also your ability to apply these concepts. It will be available for a 48-hour window the last week of the course.
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Course Schedule:
Note: The course schedule is broken up into 6 modules with each module corresponding to a specific task resulting in a gradable assignment by the given due date.
Module 1:
Term Project
6 February 2005 - Topic proposal due
13 February 2005 - Topic approval
2 May 2005 - Project due
Module 2:
31 January - 20 February 2005
Chapters 1-3
Module 3:
21 February - 13 March 2005
Chapters 4-6
Break:
14 - 27 March 2005
Module 4:
28 March - 17 April 2005
Chapters 7-10
Module 5:
18 April - 8 May 2005
Chapters 11-14
Module 6:
7 - 15 May 2005
Final Exam - Chapters 1-14. Given during a 48 hour period this week, tentatively scheduled 10-12 May 2005.
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Academic Policies:
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarismThe official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.
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Faculty Bio:
I was born and raised in the Great State of Wisconsin and joined the U.S. Air Force in 1974. I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Meteorology from Texas A&M University in 1987 and my Master of Science Degree in Computer Information Systems from Boston University in 1992. I retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1998. I am currently employed as a Team Manager and Senior Software Engineer for a multi-national firm in Germany.
Computer Background. I started writing computer programs for mainframe computers using the FORTRAN computer language in 1985. These programs dealt mainly with atmospheric and aerodynamic models. I moved to writing programs for IBM compatible computers using PASCAL, C, and ADA computer languages in 1988. During my 24 year career in the U.S. Air Force I spent a great deal of time in integrating microcomputers as replacements for aging teletype machines on the worldwide Automated Weather Network. I also worked at the Automated Weather Network main switching hub routing data packets over the worldwide weather data exchange network using various protocols and transmission capabilities.
I started teaching evening courses part time for Park College in 1992 and joined the UMUC - Europe staff in the Fall of 1993. Since then I have taught just about every under graduate programming course offered my UMUC plus a few side diversions in networking protocols. I started teaching graduate courses for UMUC - Europe in the Spring 2002.
I currently program for all Win32 environment plus Linux and Mac OS X. My recent projects involved Windows NT security and profile setup, enhancing and maintaining a proprietary script language to record and playback routine administrative tasks and application installation routines over a LAN. I currently have two main roles, first I am the System Architect for an expanding software distribution system and I am still working on a set of client / server programs, using Java, HTTP and XML, to remotely control, configure and install software on a client work station running Windows, Linux Mac OS X or Solaris.
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