A338/A538
Network Technologies
and System Administration.

[Formerly A247/A547 - Network Technologies and Administration.]

"To boldly go where no man has gone before!"

September 8, 1966

Instructor: Jeff Whitmer

• My Office: Luddy Hall 2050 (IF2050).
  
• Office Hours:
  
  
  • Luddy Hall 2050 (IF2050) Monday/Wednesday: 12:30 - 2:30pm. Appointments also available.
    
    
• Office Hour Special NOTES:
  • Any changes to my office hours will be posted here.
    
    
    • Monday, August 21, 2023: First Day of Class.
      
      
• Luddy Hall 2050 (IF2050) Office Phone: 855-3974.
  
• E-mail: jwhitmer@indiana.edu.
  

Meeting Times: (Fall Semester 2023)

• Monday/Wednesday: 9:45am - 11:00am (sections 3342 and 3344) Francis Morgan Swain Student Building 131 (SB 131)

"Lab" Times: (Fall Semester 2023)

• F: 9:10 - 10:00am in Luddy Hall 0006 (IF0006) (section 3343 and 3345)

Important Updates for All Students
enrolled in Fall Semester 2023

[LAST UPDATED: 12/6/2023]

• CAT 9 scores posted and CAT Averages on Canvas confirmed correct: Just a quick note to let everyone know I have posted the CAT 9 scores and confirmed the CAT averages on Canvas match my records. The CAT average is based on 9 CAT exercises totally 108 points. The class average was in the 60s, which is one of the lower averages I have seen on the CATs overall, but within expectations. This is all the detail I can share publically with the small class size. Good work.
  
  
• TEAM FINAL PROJECT SELF and TEAMMATE ASSESSMENT FORM is now available via the Homework page. It is in the "Final Team Project Resources" section, near the top of the page. The assessments are due for each TEAM MEMBER (including YOURSELF) to your Canvas "TEAM FINAL PROJECT Self and Teammate Assessments" assignment in the "TEAM-based Final Project Assessment and Review" group AFTER 12:00PM (Noon) on Saturday, December 9, 2023 and BY 11:59:00.00PM (SHARP) on Sunday, December 10, 2023. EARLY and LATE submissions will not be possible as the assignment will only be available during the stated time period. BE SURE to properly name each file you submit. Additional IMPORTANT details and reminders are available with the link on the Homework Page. You are strongly encouraged to confirm you can access the file and save it with changes. As with TEAM Homework 4, I am requiring a separate file submission for each teammate, including yourself. Please read over it at your earliest convenience and notify me as soon as possible if you have questions or concerns. ALL QUESTIONS about this form must be answered before the end of class on 12/6/23. While this is basically the same form and process you used for the TEAM Homework 4 Assessments, this is a different form. Be sure you download and use ONLY this new form. Only assessments using this new form will be accepted for credit. PLEASE take note of the proper assignment submission location. The Canvas assignments for both the Final Project Report and the Final Project Assessments have been created and will "unlock" and "lock" at the designated times.
  
  
• CAT 8 scores and preferred answers posted. CAT 9 was our third and final "quiz" format CAT. Overall, this another good performance, on par with CAT 4 and CAT 6. This was intended to be a challenging exercise and, for most of you, it was. You can find links to the preferred answers for CAT 9 in the "In-Class CAT Solutions" section of the Homework Assignments page. We will review the preferred answers in class on Monday, 12/4/23.
  
  
• MINI 7 and JIT 7 scores posted and emails on the way. MINI/JIT averages on Canvas available and correct. MINI 7 and JIT 7 scores are posted on Canvas and each of you should receive an email on your individual MINI submission by the end of the day. Overall, this was a set of very good submissions and a great way to finish the MINIs for the class. For those who submitted, the combined A338/A538 average was 13/15 or 86.67%. MINI 7 was worth 15 points. Questions from JIT 7 have been added to the compiled list posted on the Homework Assignments page. This was another superb set of questions. You strongly encouraged to look at the JIT 7 entries to see what all your classmates asked.
  
  The MINI/JIT averages posted by Canvas are also confirmed as correct. Overall, this was a very good performance for the class as a whole, with an good overall average of 82.75%. This is a bit lower than usual, but was impacted in part by some missing MINI and JIT submissions over the course of the semester. As before, Federal Privacy guidelines keep me from posting more detailed information publically. Again, a very good result for the class as a whole. Well done!
  
  
• Team-based Homework Assignment 4 and Team Homework Assignment 4 Assessment scores are posted and Team Homework Assignment 4 Assessment forms emailed, Overall Homework Averages on Canvas confirmed accurate. REMEMBER, Homework 4 is worth 100 points. This Team Homework Assignment 4 was another good submission with a score in the 60s. While there were some good sections, there were also problems and confusions. There were too many places where the explanatory sections would have benefited from far greater thoroughness and detail, thereby provide stronger justification for the evaluations. In addition, the "P" word appeared far too many times for this late point in this course. In addition, the entire document refers to "wireless" when it accounts for only a small part of global network traffic. The wired infrastructure is never mentioned, even though it is the true backbone of the global network. This was all very confusing. So, as always, there are places for further improvement as you begin the final assembly of your Final Project report. I will have additional comments to share in class tomorrow. I will return the graded paper at the end of class, as with previous homework submission.
  
  For the Self and Teammate Assessments, all of you appear to hold your teammates in very high regard and most of you were also able to offer some very good, constructive feedback. NOTE: Your email attachment shows all the feedback AND your score is posted on Canvas. BE SURE you read the email you received very carefully to understand how your score was determined. The average for the Assessments was 76.20%, with scores in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. As with all our other work, the goal is to learn from this experience so you are better prepared to complete the Final Project Self and Teammate Assessments.
  
  It seems your team may be having some general issues of both timing and communication. REMEMBER: This is something your team has to work out for itself in the time left to complete the Final Project Report. Again, details on how these scores were calculated was included in the email I sent every one of you with your attached Assessment Form.
  
  Two things to consider after looking over your feedback and your score. Your goal should be both to improve as a teammate based on the feedback you received AND to provide better feedback to your teammate on the Final Project assessment. Almost everyone on your team offered very thoughtful and informed feedback, so you have other examples to gain insight from. Please keep in mind your Final Project assessment is worth 10% of your Final Grade. If you fail to allow for the time needed to thoughtfully, thoroughly, and professionally assess yourself and your teammates, particularly with your qualitative feedback, you may well be insuring you get a lower grade in the course. What you do with all this feedback is up to you, but disregarding it and my comments could also have significant consequences when it comes time for me to consider your "Active Course Engagement" score (another 10% of your Final Grade) as well as assigning Final Grades.
  
  Your Homework average is the average of HW 1-4 + HW 4 Assessment, which totaled 350 points. AGAIN, I think you did well as a class with the understanding that some did better than others. The overall HW average was 59.81% which is at the middle or somewhat lower end for the class-wide performance in this course I have seen in the past. All averages were in the 50s or 60s. I realize you may still be concerned about your Homework Average as being "low," as I have stated many times, these averages will be accounted for by me in an adjustment of the final grading scale, if I think such an adjustment is warranted. PLEASE NOTE: I have confirmed that the Homework Averages that appear on Canvas are accurate and match my calculations exactly.
  
  
• FINAL Version of Final Project Description posted. The "FINAL Version" of the Final Project description is now available in the "Final Team Project Resources" Section at the top of the Homework Page of the website. Because it includes all the things that were in the "Introduction" version, I have removed that link to avoid confusion. This is as early as I have posted this, so we will see if it makes a difference. Notice there are several deadlines for various components. While some of those may not make any sense now, they will before you are required to complete them. Read this carefully, when you have the time, and let me know if you find any typos or other things you believe to be "errors." We will discuss topics directly related to one of these intermediate submissions in our Friday meeting on 11/3/23, and other topics in greater detail in later meetings.
  
  
• IEEE article, ACM article, and "sample" outline posted There is now a link on the Homework Page right after the link to the JIT Questions to the IEEE journal article about wireless on airplanes I mentioned on Friday. Keep in mind this is a referred article in a professional journal, so the authors have assumed a good deal of background knowledge of their target group of professional readers. You cannot make that assumption for the "lay reader" your Homework Assignment 1 paper is intended for. You could already have enough knowledge to make sense of some of this material, but by the middle or end of next week, you should be even better prepared to read and understand substantial parts of it. Notice how the authors actually provide an outline of their journal article on the 5th page. Also notice the "Introduction" to this paper is nearly 4 pages long. Keep in mind, this is an example to let you gain experience on what a professional, referred journal article presents to its readers and how it is organized. To further reinforce these strategies, I have linked a second article from the Communications of the ACM on High Performance Computing. While this is somewhat less technical (which is why I'm sharing it), you could recognize more or all of the strategies that we discussed in our workshop.
  
  Just remember, you have different goals for your first paper, but you can gain a good deal by looking at both articles and seeing how things are organized at the level of the article as a whole, at the level of the sections, at the level of the sub-sections, and even at the level of the paragraphs. I have also published the "sample" outline I displayed and briefly discussed at the end of today's workshop.
  
  Here is the the contact information for both WTS and for Mary Helen:
  
  wts.indiana.edu
  mtruglia@indiana.edu
  
  I hope you find them useful.
  
  
• A338/A538 TEAM membership has been posted along with Final Project Introductory Description with topics: There is now a link on the Homework Page in the Final Team Project Resources section (near the top) showing all the team membership assignment. As already noted, everyone enrolled in A338/A538 is a member of Team 1. You are strongly encouraged to make contact with your teammates as promptly as possible, and begin to sit as group in class on Monday, August 28. I will leave it to you to figure out what communication method (Slack, Discord, Skype, Zoom, Duo, ??) works best for your team.
  
  I have also posted, in the same section of the Homework Page, the introductory version of the Team Final Project that includes, at the end, all the topics we brain-stormed together in class on Friday, August 25 along with a few additional topics I have added at the end and that appear as bold text.