This is a three semester-hour junior level course with the main objective of helping you become familiar with supporting PCs running the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating system. The course will substantially, but not fully, prepare you to take the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (70-215) certification exam. You are not required to take the Microsoft certification exam in order to succeed in the course, nor does taking the course guarantee that you'll pass the Microsoft exam.

GETTING STARTED: If you have not yet done so, please read the introductory material at http://asgard.kent.edu/smallsys/distance.htm.

FORMAT: This course is designed for distance delivery entirely via the Internet. There will be no class meetings on the campus, and the course is entirely self-paced. You must be registered for the course (M&IS 34045, call number 14072) to get academic credit. Only registered students will be given the password into the actual course site.

LEVEL OF MATERIAL AND PREREQUISITES: This is a highly technical course designed to help prepare you to work with and support local and wide area networks that are based on the Windows 2000 Server operating system, the successor to Windows NT 4.0 Server. To succeed with the material, you should have taken courses "Principles of Systems Development," and "Data and File Technology." In addition to these formal prerequisites, it also helps if you have taken, or are currently taking, "Telecommunications and Networking," and/or "Network Management." If you don't consider yourself a "techie," you're in the wrong course here.

ACCESS: To access the course on the web, go to http://asgard.kent.edu/smallsys/distance.htm and follow the directions and links there. Obviously, using these web materials assumes moderate familiarity with the web -- you should know how to access web pages, and how to download and print files and other material. If this is unfamiliar to you, please see the handout (click on it) entitled Web Browser Notes -- Using the World Wide Web in Small Systems Technology.

OFFICE HOURS: You can E-mail me any time ghoward@kent.edu or phone at 330.628.5707. (This is my home number, so please don't call unless it's pretty urgent. Thanks.) 

ORIGIN OF THIS COURSE: This distance course is a result of my responding to a call for proposals from the KSU Provost's Office in the Fall of 1999 for web courses to be developed. The proposal was approved, and I spent much of the Summer term of 2000 preparing the web site and putting the basics of the course together. The course is entirely an experiment. KSU wants, as a University, to be a distance education leader. Accordingly, pilot distance programs and courses such as this are being offered more and more frequently. Because this is the only the second time this material has ever been delivered in this way, and because Windows 2000 is entirely new content technologically, we need your patience and feedback as we develop this course. The bulk of the content comes from the Microsoft Press Windows 2000 Server - Academic Learning Series text, which was just released in July of 2000. I primarily used the WebCT course authoring tool to develop and package the course. Some of the material was also prepared using Microsoft FrontPage. The asgard.kent.edu server is entirely supported by the instructor, and the WebCT server by the University.

LABS: The material is 100% conceptual -- there is no way for me to require hands-on labs in this distance course because not many of you will have the necessary computers available at home. Windows 2000 Server requires, among other things, a minimum of 64 MB of RAM. Your Microsoft Press course materials package does come with a Lab Manual and directions on how to set up a small local area network in your home, using two machines, a network hub, and the Windows 2000 Server evaluation software provided with the text. You can learn a LOT if you take the time and trouble to set up this network and work through the labs. Since this is exclusively a distance course, there will be no Windows 2000 computers set up in the College of Business labs exclusively for this course.

SELF-PACED: The course is entirely self-paced, and you can study in any order you wish, although a preferred order is suggested, as you will see once you log on to the course itself. The course begins with a self-assessment exam so that you can gauge where you need to study the most, and in what sequence. However, you must complete all required tests no later than 18 August to get a grade in the course -- no exceptions. If you want to take advantage of slow starts and initially light workloads in your other courses and get ahead in the early weeks of the semester, you could finish the whole course as early as mid-July with a focused effort.

CERTIFICATION: There is high demand in the employment marketplace for people who possess formal industry skills certifications. You earn these by taking a test or a series of tests that prove the depth of your conceptual and practical knowledge. The most important of these are the two main certifications available from Microsoft: the MCSE ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer") and the MCSD ("Microsoft Certified System Developer.") Small Systems Technology is NOT a certification exam preparation course, although it will help you immeasurably in passing the Microsoft exams. Click here for information on a highly successful certification workshop course that was taught in the 2001 Intersession and will be offered again next summer. If you have already passed some or all of the NT 4.0 certification exams, you may still be able to get credit toward future Windows 2000 certification. Read the Intersession course material for guidance. You are not required to take the certification exam for this course -- if you do well on the tests and other work, you can get an "A" and never go near the certification exam.

TEXTBOOK: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server - Academic Learning Series, ISBN 0-7356-0988-8, Microsoft Press, 2000.

Click here for details on the text. It may be found in many Borders and other commercial bookstores, and at Microsoft Press resellers (see http://mspress.microsoft.com ). Software and a Lab Manual are bundled with the above text. The text is required, because you must read the chapters from the paper text, and because much of the content in the web course comes from this book. You must make the purchase to be licensed to use the web content from the book.

TESTING: The only way to assure full validity in testing for a distance course would be to require you to physically appear for exams, on campus or at a commercial testing contractor such as a Sylvan Learning Center. Since this would be an unfair and costly imposition on you, we will do testing on the honor system. At the end of lesson on the web site, you'll be asked to take a very brief quiz. You'll have only one chance at the quiz, and the grade will be forwarded to me and made visible to you on the web site. You are to do the exam with no assistance from anybody else. Open books, notes, references, and web material are permitted. You will be asked during the first lesson to sign an affadavit certifying that all exams were taken without assistance from another person. If evidence is received that you had help on the tests, your credit for the course will not be granted or will be retroactively revoked. The signed affadavit must be mailed or FAXed (number is on the form) so as to reach me no later than 8 December. Click here to display the affadavit, which you can then print from your browser. Cheating of any kind will result in a grade of zero on the test or assignment in question. Duplicate turn-ins or other types of out-of-class work from multiple groups or individuals will be considered cheating and all members of all groups involved will receive zeros. A second offense of cheating of any kind will result in receipt of an "F" in the course. Violations will be treated using the procedures in the KSU Student Handbook, Section 3342-07.

DELIVERABLES: The only deliverable is the on-line for-credit quizzes, as was already explained.

HOW TO TAKE THIS COURSE: Detailed step-by-step directions on what to do, and when, will be presented after you have logged on. In brief, you will for each lesson of material read and study paper-based and web-based material, answer self test questions along the way (these do not count for grades -- just for practice), view PowerPoint slides and study outlines on the material you just read, and then take a for-credit quiz on that lesson.

FINAL EXAM: There will be no final.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this distance course, please contact your instructor by at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Student Service Center (181 MSC) (672-3391). We're happy to help!

GRADING: Here is a proposed grading scheme. Grades will be assigned on a curved scale, but will not be any more strict than the conventional scale of >90% = A, 80-89 = B, etc. That means that it is possible for you to socre lower than 90% and still get an "A", based on how the final composite scores work out. We are being flexible with grading because this is an experimental course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon successful completion of this course, you will have learned to: