An investigation into internetworking education

Computer network technology and the Internet grew rapidly in recent years. Their growth created a large demand from industry for the development of IT and internetworking professionals. These professionals need to be equipped with both technical hands-on skills and non-technical or soft skills. In order to supply new professionals to the industry, educational institutions need to address these skills training in their curricula. Technical hands-on skills in internetworking education can be emphasised through the practical use of equipment in classrooms. The provision of the networking equipment to the internetworking students is a challenge. Particularly, university students in developing countries may find that this equipment is ineffectively provided by their teaching institutions, because of the expense. Modern online learning tools, such as remote access laboratories, may be used to address this need. However, the provision of such tools will also need to concentrate upon the pedagogical values. In addition, traditional remote access laboratories provide only text-based access, which was originally designed for highly professional use. Novice students may struggle with learning in these virtual environments, especially when the physical equipment is not available locally. Furthermore, non-technical skills or soft skills are social skills that should not be neglected in graduates’ future workplaces. A traditional model of developing soft skills that was used in face-to-face classroom may not be as effective when applied in an online classroom. Research on students’ opinions about their soft skills development during attending internetworking courses is needed to be conducted. In order to address both research needs, this study was focused on two research aspects related to online learning in internetworking education. The first focus was on research into providing a suitable technical learning environment to distance internetworking students. The second focus was on the students’ opinions about their non-technical skills development. To provide a close equivalent of a face-to-face internetworking learning environment to remote students in Thailand, a transformation of a local internetworking laboratory was conducted. A new multimedia online learning environment integrated pedagogically-rich tools such as state model diagrams (SMDs), a real-time video streaming of equipment and a voice communication tool. Mixed research data were gathered from remote online and local student participants. The remote online participants were invited to use the new learning environment developed in this study. Qualitative research data were collected from twelve remote online students after their trial usage. Concurrently, another set of research data were collected from local students asking their opinion about the development of soft skills in the internetworking course. There were sixty six participants in this second set of research data. Although the research data was limited, restricting the researcher’s ability to generalise, it can be concluded that the provision of multimedia tools in an online internetworking learning environment was beneficial to distant students. The superiority of the traditional physical internetworking laboratory cannot be overlooked; however, the remote laboratory could be used as a supplementary self-practice tool. A concrete learning element such as a real-time video stream and diagrams simplified students learning processes in the virtual environment. Faster communication with the remote instructors and the equipment are also critical factors for a remote access network to be successful. However, unlike the face-to-face laboratory, the future challenge of the online laboratory will creating materials which will encourage students to build soft skills in their laboratory sessions

A pedagogical rich interactive on-line learning platform for Network Technology students in Thailand

Internetworking enables communication between networks and forms the foundation of the Internet. Internetworking teaching is typically conducted in a traditional face-to-face classroom, but nowadays it can be conducted online. Online learning environments have many advantages that include allowing remote students’ access to not only curriculum but also lecturers and other enrolled students. However, unlike some other disciplines, teaching internetworking courses online is problematic because students need to be given access to internetworking equipment. It is technically possible to provide remote access to online students in order to compensate for the lack of direct physical equipment access, which normally is offered to traditional students. However the standard method of remote access only provides students with a limited text based method of configuring internetworking devices. Internetwork simulators are of value but they cannot provide students experience working with real devices. A pedagogically rich, interactive on-line learning environment using low-cost, assistive multi-media based technologies was therefore developed. This paper presents details of the platform and results of its deployment from an Australian university to a small group of students in Thailand.

State Model Diagrams - A Universal Runtime Network Management Tool

Modern networks are complex systems made up of diverse devices such as routers, wireless access points, and firewalls running many interacting protocols. Networks can be managed by a range of command-line interface (CLI) tools and/or Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). While CLI tools are often preferred by network administrators, they do have some inherent disadvantages. Text based CLI outputs can be verbose. Furthermore the commands are sequential and it is therefore more difficult to navigate between different devices and protocols. GUIs assist but it can be problematic to concurrently display runtime data from multiple sources. In response to these problems State Model Diagrams (SMDs) were developed and implemented as a run-time network management tool

An Evaluation of Firewall Configuration Methods

Firewalls are essential aspects of all networks. However they are complex and if not correctly configured and managed may result in security breaches. The traditional text-based Command Line Interface is a powerful but difficult tool to use. It is inherently sequential requiring multiple commands. Web-based Graphical User interfaces are progressively being deployed such as the Cisco Security Device Manager. With features such as AutoSecure it is possible to automatically generate device configuration code. Furthermore firewall implementation is relatively simple with configuration code again being automatically generated. However, the code generated may well be substantial. Successful management of secure devices requires the network administrator to be able to understand how the different protocols are interacting in order to be able to successfully conduct fault diagnosis. This paper demonstrates how State Model Diagrams can be a useful management tool for firewall management

An integrated multimedia based platform for teaching network security

Configuring a secure network is of paramount importance to all organizations. Accordingly staff should be appropriately qualified and trained. The Cisco Network Academy Program (CNAP) recently introduced the Cisco Network Academy Associate (CCNA) Security course for college students, university students and practicing professionals. This course is designed to provide the skills and knowledge to design, configure and manage a secure network. One of the key technologies employed by this course is the Security Device Manager (SDM). However it has been demonstrated that there are significant limitations with SDM. This problem is exacerbated when courses are offered on-line to remotely located students. This paper demonstrates that these problems are addressed when students are provided with an integrated multimedia based platform incorporating SDM and also the State Model Diagram (SMD) method of device configuration and management

Dynamic patterns for low vision internet working students

Internetworking is the enabling of communication between networks. Much of the configuration of internetworking devices is performed via remote access using a secure telnet. Cisco is a major provider of such devices. The Cisco Network Academy Program (CNAP ) is a worldwide educational program me delivering a range of courses in internetworking. A group of potential internetworking students are those with low vision. Many people classified as blind retain some residual vision. Dynamic Pattern System (DPS) enables the detection of combinations of large coloured areas on a screen known as a pattern to represent text characters. Such patterns can be based upon the student’s remaining visual capacities. Sequences of patterns delivered at a set rate and can represent words, sentences or signs. DPS has the potential to enable students classified as blind to have hands -on experiences in networking and internetworking using combinations of patterns to represent both internetwork device configuration information and network topology diagrams