Message To Students

3. Practice. Learning new skills requires practice. We believe this is so important to e-learning that we have a special name for it. We call it e-Doing. It is very important that you complete the activities in the online instructional materials and that you also complete the hands-on labs and Packet Tracer activities.

4. Practice again. Have you ever thought that you knew how to do something and then, when it was time to show it on a test or at work, you discovered that you really hadn’t mastered it? Just like learning any new skill like a sport, game, or language, learning a professional skill requires patience and repeated practice before you can say you have truly learned it. The online instructional materials in this course provide opportunities for repeated practice for many skills. Take full advantage of them. You can also work with your instructor to extend Packet Tracer, and other tools, for additional practice as needed.
5. Teach it. Teaching a friend or colleague is often a good way to reinforce your own learning. To teach well, you will have to work through details that you may have overlooked on your first reading. Conversations about the course material with fellow students, colleagues, and the instructor can help solidify your understanding of networking concepts.

6. Make changes as you go. The course is designed to provide feedback through interactive activities and quizzes, the online assessment system, and through structured interactions with your instructor. You can use this feedback to better understand where your strengths and weaknesses are. If there is an area that you are having trouble with, focus on studying or practicing more in that area. Seek additional feedback from your instructor and other students.


Explore the world of networking
This version of the course includes a special tool called Packet Tracer 4.1. Packet Tracer is a networking learning tool that supports a wide range of physical and logical simulations. It also provides visualization tools to help you to understand the internal workings of a network.

The pre-made Packet Tracer activities consist of network simulations, games, activities, and challenges that provide a broad range of learning experiences.

Create your own worlds
You can also use Packet Tracer to create your own experiments and networking scenarios. We hope that, over time, you consider using Packet Tracer – not only for experiencing the pre-built activities, but also to become an author, explorer, and experimenter.

The online course materials have embedded Packet Tracer activities that will launch on computers running Windows® operating systems, if Packet Tracer is installed. This integration may also work on other operating systems using Windows emulation.
Explore the world of networking
This version of the course includes a special tool called Packet Tracer 4.1. Packet Tracer is a networking learning tool that supports a wide range of physical and logical simulations. It also provides visualization tools to help you to understand the internal workings of a network.

The pre-made Packet Tracer activities consist of network simulations, games, activities, and challenges that provide a broad range of learning experiences.

Create your own worlds
You can also use Packet Tracer to create your own experiments and networking scenarios. We hope that, over time, you consider using Packet Tracer – not only for experiencing the pre-built activities, but also to become an author, explorer, and experimenter.

The online course materials have embedded Packet Tracer activities that will launch on computers running Windows® operating systems, if Packet Tracer is installed. This integration may also work on other operating systems using Windows emulation.

Course Overview Continued

Chapter 6 - In Chapter 6, you will focus on network addressing in detail and learn how to use the address mask, or prefix length, to determine the number of subnetworks and hosts in a network. You will also be introduced to ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) tools, such as ping and trace.

Chapter 7 – Chapter 7 discusses the services provided by Data Link layer. An emphasis is placed on the encapsulation processes that occur as data travels across the LAN and the WAN.

Chapter 8 – Chapter 8 introduces the Physical layer. You will discover how data sends signals and is encoded for travel across the network. You’ll learn about bandwidth and also about the types of media and their associated connectors.

Chapter 9 – In Chapter 9, you will examine the technologies and operation of Ethernet. You will use Wireshark®, Packet Tracer activities, and lab exercises to explore Ethernet.

Chapter 10 – Chapter 10 focuses on designing and cabling a network. You will apply the knowledge and skills developed in the previous chapters to determine the appropriate cables to use, how to connect devices, and develop an addressing and testing scheme.

Chapter 11 –In Chapter 11, you will connect and configure a small network using basic Cisco IOS commands for routers and switches. Upon completion of this final chapter, you will be prepared you to go on to either CCNA Exploration Routing or CCNA Exploration Switching courses.