Feedback and Reflections

Our final class of the course has come :( 

Agenda

1. Final Comments and Resources - learning, friends, and next steps
• Class Contact Sheet
• Certificates
• Vue and Vouchers
• Student Employment Services & eJobs
2. Requirements and Requests
• SBAs
• Final Exam
• Feedback(s)
3. Testimonials and Reflections
4. Celebration Time - who brought the cake and ice cream?

Final Comments and Resources

Thank you for the opportunity to learn with you.  I appreciate your interest in learning and hope this course has raised your awareness, offered learning opportunities, and/or provided greater understanding relating to networking.  You have worked extremely hard, and I recognize this.  I am hopeful I met your expectations and goals, and possibly exceeded them.

Please take the opportunity tonight to establish connections with your classmates.  Together, you may form a study group, or even the next great company.  Give it a chance.  Blame me for making a new friend.  You are welcome to post your information on the class contact sheet, only available to CCNA Complete students.

Please remember to print out your certificates and letters from the gradebook.  I recommend printing in color.  If you need to obtain my signature, you will have to visit a future class and enrich the next group of learners :)

You can sign up for the certification exam from VUE.  Vouchers may be available on your student home page, under professional development (near the bottom), if you scored well enough on the E4 final exam.

Montgomery College offers Student Employment Services and eJobs.  This is a service of the college that offers assistance with resumes, interviewing, and much more.  It may be worthwhile to take advantage of the advising, planning, and counseling services.

Requirements and Request
You have worked hard, and should remember to keep your SBA files available, as a reference as well as a portfolio artifact.

The final exam is intended to challenge you.  Please do your best.

Please take a moment to provide feedback regarding this Cisco Networking Academy course.

The following forms are for different purposes. Please complete the form requested by your instructor, at the specific time requested.

Cisco Networking Academy

All students are required to complete a skills-based assessment, online final assessment, and a feedback form in order to graduate each semester and be eligible for the following semester. This form is intended for Cisco to improve the academy.  This form is found under take assessments of the Netspace.

Montgomery College

All students are required to complete a course evaluation at the end of the course. This form is used by the information technology institute to improve the course.

Derek

Each semester, I request informal feedback as part of my professional development. I am passionate about teaching and learning, and work to improve my knowledge and skills. Your feedback helps me grow, and is greatly appreciated. It is anonymous, unless you wish to add your name.

Thank you, in advance for helping to improve upon the Cisco Networking Academy @ Montgomery College Information Technology Institute, taught by Mr. Derek Sontz.

Testimonials and Reflections

Please consider posting a testimonial (if you liked the course), which will be posted on the blog and used to encourage others like you to take part in the CCNA Complete Learning Experience.

On a final note, consider taking a final look at the Reflections form as you prepare for the certification exam.  These are the certification objectives Cisco is certifying, and they would be nice to reflect upon prior to sitting for the exam.

Thank you again.  You are welcome back anywhere I am.

"Stay well, keep in touch, and do good work" GK

Final Classes

A lot of work has been accomplished.  A significant amount of learning has occurred.  There is always more to learn though.  Keep up the solid work ethic as the final semester and certification comes nearer.  Please add to, modify if necessary, and improve upon the shared document in an effort to achieve the perfect Certification Preparation Sheet (CPS :)

I appreciate and thank you for the opportunity to have you as a student, and would appreciate you returning any resources you may have borrowed.  Please return them to me before the end of the course.

In the remaining classes, it is important to keep track of the time. The following list are part of your CCNA Complete portfolio and items to be accomplished before the end of the course.

• Skills-Based Assessments (SBAs) are expected to be submitted to Netspace.


• tested and clearly labeled configurations able to be copied and pasted to host for immediate topology configuration
• this includes notepad configurations for each device as well as a single packet tracer file


• The semester completed, including the Final Assessment and Feedback
• Practice Certification Exams
• Review of Certification Objectives (Reflections and Shared Doc)
• Practice Final Exam v2

Shared CCNA spreadsheet
A shared spreadsheet is available for students to team up and develop for the purposes of directly identifying with the certification objectives and the many resources available for learning the objective.  They may come from a book, the curriculum, online, a friend, etc.  The important thing to remember is the power of working as a team in order to build something of value to the team and others.  Remember that there are many tabs to the spreadsheet.

Labs
Please ensure you have completed and submitted your Skills-Based Assessment (SBA) requirements.  This includes their Packet Tracer file as well as notepad files for each of the devices submitted to the shared folder.  You are welcome to practice any lab from any semester, however, I recommend ensuring the SBAs are understood and mastered.

Assessments
There is a practice certification exam.  It will be available on Saturday for students wishing to take them.  Additionally, the chapter assessments will be available.  The practice final exam will also be available for students to do for homework.  Please check the gradebook to see the assessments you have not taken yet.  Reviewing the personalized feedback can be most beneficial to students for reviewing before the final and certification exam.

Packet Tracer
Students have the opportunity to practice the Skills-Based assessments using Packet Tracer online.  There is a Practice Skills Assessment - PT available on Netspace.

Students are encouraged to actively participate in the following opportunities in teams.

1. Certification Prep: Develop the CCNA Objectives spreadsheet, ensuring a lasting resource is directly related to the areas of certification testing.
2. Troubleshooting: Practice configuring SBAs, having a student modify a few parts of the network, then have the remaining students troubleshoot the problems.
3. Review: Review chapter assessments related to RS and discuss what is clear, foggy, and unknown.

Continuing Ed???

If you are a student who needs some financial aid to register for module II, you need to know about this scholarship.  The application for the spring semester will be available this week.  

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/wdce/careerpathscholarship.html

ABOUT THE CAREER PATH SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
A limited number of scholarships are available, pending funding, through Montgomery College Workforce Development & Continuing Education for qualified students pursuing career path courses with the intention to obtain entry-level employment.  The scholarship is awarded for up to $1000 to cover tuition and fees only.  The scholarship may be applied to one or more eligible courses, within the career area chosen, to pay tuition and fees not covered by another funding source, waiver eligibility, or payment plan (including employers).  This scholarship will not cover 100% of the applicable tuition and fees if the total tuition and fees exceed $1000.

Gmail – Sign-Out Automatically

Too many students are staying logged in, well after they leave.  Play a bit safer.

Gmail – Sign-Out Automatically

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Tom Terrific

One of the features of Gmail I don’t like for security reasons is that every time I open Chrome, it automatically takes me to my Gmail account. Obviously if I lose my computer, a bad guy would only have to startup my computer and he/she would automatically be logged into my Gmail account – not a good thing.
A number of other people have complained of this issue.

• Forum

I have found a number of things you can do to help with this issue, but none seems to work ALL the time except for the last and that involves more work on your part.
1`. When you Sign In – unclick the “Stay Signed In” box.




2. Settings – Show Advanced Settings – Privacy – Content Settings – Cookies – Manage Exceptions – Add the line [*.]google.com – choose Clear on Exit.


3. I have noticed that it helps to actually choose Exit from the Chrome Controls rather than just clicking on the Red X.

4. Enable two-factor authentication. This certainly works, but makes another step for you to do.

About these ads

Best Practices

Students often ask, "what is the best way to get this information?" The quick answer is, through hard work, repetitive work, and time.

While past learning has been approached as 

1. presentation
2. read
3. assess

I would like to recommend something different, as this is an accelerated course.

1. Take the chapter assessment, only answering questions you KNOW are correct.
• Use the personalized feature to identify your weaknesses
2. Interact with the curriculum, paying special attention to noted weaknesses in your pre-assessment
• Use the Discussions to interact with classmates and identify clarifying information
3. Preview the Presentation Slides
4. Read  Chapter Summary on Blog
5. Be an active participant during presentations
6. Retake the assessment, this time doing your best to answer each question

Basically, reverse engineering.

Inclement Weather Information

In case of inclement weather, please check the Montgomery College web site: 

• http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/edu/ or 
• call 240-567-5000 for class delays or cancellations.

If the school or campus opening is delayed by more than half time of your class, do not report to class, otherwise come to class and conduct what is left of the class.  Example: Class meets on Saturday 9:30 - 12:30 p.m., the campus opens at 11:00, come to class and teach 1.5 hours. If an opening is delayed until 11:30, do not report to class. If the class starts late and you, your students and the room are available to make up the class time in the same session, you can complete the entire class; otherwise, the second part of the class will be rescheduled.

Most importantly, please keep in mind that Montgomery College will always be operating on its regular schedule unless otherwise announced.

Please be sure to check this web site for information or signing up for Montgomery College (MC) Alerts to receive text messages regarding MC school closures - http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Plain2.aspx?id=4106

 

We DO NOT follow Montgomery County Public Schools open/close policies!!!

Certificates of Completion and Letters of Merit

Certificates of Completion and Letters of Merit

How can I request a Certificate of Completion and/or a Letter of Merit for my Students?

A Certificate of Completion is awarded to all Students and Instructors who satisfactorily complete a Cisco Networking Academy® course. This is indicated by a “complete” marked in the Cisco® NetSpace grade book for the relevant course. A certificate of completion is not the same as a Cisco certification.

A Letter of Merit is a letter signed by Cisco CEO John Chambers that is awarded to Students and Instructors who score 75 % or above on their course final exam to acknowledge the excellence they have achieved.

Instructors can request, print and sign the certificates of completion and letters of merit for their eligible Students, for active courses and for concluded courses. They can do so for the entire class or for each Student individually.

Please Note:  

A) Eligible Students can also download their own Certificates or Letters from their Student Profile, accessible by clicking on the link of their name at the top of any page once logged in to Cisco NetSpace.
B) In order for the name of the Instructor to appear on the Student’s certificate, the Instructor must request the certificate first. If a Student requests their certificate before the Instructor does it, then the name of the Instructor will not appear on the certificate.

To request Certificates and/or Letters for one Student, please follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Cisco NetSpace at https://www.netacad.com
2. From the ‘NetSpace Home’ page and the ‘Teach’ tab, click the 'Gear' icon located next to the course name. (For a concluded course, click on the ‘ShowConcluded’ button above ‘Actions’)
3. Scroll down to the ‘Enrolled Students’ section
4. Locate the name of the Student who needs a Certificate and/or Letter
5. Click the ‘Actions’ button found under the ‘Certificates/Letters’ column
6. Select ‘Get Certificate’ to print the Certificate of Completion for the Student and/or select ‘Get Letter’ to print the Letter of Merit for the Student

To request Certificates and/or Letters for your entire class, please follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Cisco NetSpace at https://www.netacad.com
2. From the ‘NetSpace Home’ page and the ‘Teach’ tab, click the 'Gear' icon located next to the course name. (For a concluded course, click on the ‘Show Concluded’ button above ‘Actions’)
3. Scroll down to the ‘Enrolled Students’ section
4. Right above it, click on the ‘Get All Certificates’ or ‘Get All Letters’ button
5. Read the confirmation message
6. Click ‘OK’
7. The following message will appear at the top of the page: ‘Thank you for submitting your request. You will receive an email within one hour when the file is ready’
8. The ‘Get All Certificates’ button will disappear and the following message will replace it: ‘Your request for certificates is submitted.’  

You will receive an email within an hour informing you that the file is now ready for download and will be available for 30 days in your Course Management page.

1. To download the file, please follow the steps below:
2. Log in to Cisco NetSpace at https://www.netacad.com
3. From the ‘NetSpace Home’ page and the ‘Teach’ tab, click the 'Gear' icon located next to the course name
4. Scroll down to the ‘Enrolled Students’ section
5. Just above it, click on the link of the file name next to the ‘Get All Certificates’ or ‘Get All Letters’ button. The date and time of the request appears next to the file name
6. Choose a location to download and save the zip file
7. Open the zip file. You will see one pdf document per Student

To view detailed information on the Certificates of Completion and Letters of Merit that are available to qualified Cisco Networking Academy® Students and Instructors, please follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Cisco NetSpace at https://www.netacad.com
2. From the 'Offerings' menu, click 'All Resources'
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the 'More' link
4. Click the 'FAQs and Tutorials' link
5. Click the 'Certificates and Letters FAQ' link
6. Click on ‘Download’ to view the FAQs that provide detailed information about Certificates of Completion and Letters of Merit

Recording - So Long As You Pay It Forward

Often times, learners wish to record the sessions.

The guidelines for recording sessions of Mr. Sontz, include, but are not limited to the following:

• All recordings are shared with classmates for others to benefit from... because "sharing resources is what networking is all about.".
• Save to CCNA Complete - Shared\Instruction\Class Notes folder
• Recording does not interfere with the professional learning environment.
• The content is the property of Derek Sontz, providing permission to learners for their educational purposes.

Please save your recording(s), or any class notes, into the same folder on the shared drive.

Finally, if a session is exceptionally good, please let me know, in order to share with future learners.

Welcome to CCNA Complete @ Montgomery College ITI Blog

Thank you for taking the CCNA Complete course at Montgomery College Information Technology Institute.

It is my goal to provide you with knowledge, skill, and resources to become successful. A primary approach is move learners from awareness to learning to understanding.

Please take full advantage of all class and lab time. There is a significant amount of information that will be shared and experienced.

I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Derek Sontz

mrsontz@gmail.com

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Please fill out this Name Verification Form

This form is a Montgomery College form intended to provide accurate information for certificates generated at the end of the course. An 80% attendance rate is required in order to receive a certificate.

Students Wanting CPA/CPE credit should complete the following Information: Address/ City/ State/ Zip

Additional questions are to enable the instructor to differentiate instruction and create an equitable classroom.

Welcome - First Night

By the end of this class, students will

• Present themselves to their peers and meet classmates
• Identify with and understand the relationship between Cisco Systems, Cisco Certifications, and the Networking Academy (Netspace)
• Discover resources for this course (books, software, online sites)
• Explore the curriculum and the Netspace interface
• Access online resources for the course

Agenda:

1. Welcome
2. Introductions: You and Me
3. CCNA Complete
4. Cisco Systems, Certification, and the Cisco Networking Academy
5. Netspace - Tokens, Logins and UI's
6. Resources - Packet Tracer, Wireshark

Homework:

• Before next class
• Take Pre-test
• Netspace - Discover, 
  Explore, 
  Engage
• Course Tour - curriculum, resources
• Begin reading curriculum and interacting with curriculum
• Before next week
• Reflections
• Cisco Learning Network Tour