paper prototype by ramon a. mosate€¦ · paper prototype by ramon a. mosate a paper submitted in...

Paper Prototype

By

Ramon A. Mosate

A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For Assignment # 2 in the

Spring-2014-EDCI-56900-002 Course

Graduate School of Education

Purdue University

2014

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Course Description

This course (Implementing Cisco Layer 2 Switched Networks in a Customized

Environment) is a standalone, self-paced e-learning designed with the goal of an organization’s

Information Technology (IT) department in mind. An IT department, today, is an important tool

for any organization and can help achieve goals while tracking progress (Bresnahan,

Brynjolfsson, & Hitt, 2002). Therefore, defining goals for IT is especially important when a

successful IT contribution is vital for reaching the overall goal of an organization. As the director

of IT for my current organization, I constantly witness the willingness and desire of my IT

department to make sure it has the resources to complete the work it agrees to do to help the

organization reach its goal. For this and other reasons, which are beyond the scope of this

project, IT departments set their own goals in order to avoid IT failure or delays that can prevent

the organization from reaching its overall goal. A common goal that most IT departments share,

Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991), noted, is to provide an effective computing environment while

keeping cost down in an attempt to help support the overall organization’s goal.

To reach this goal, an IT department needs to design various plans. The works to be done,

to reach the goal, need to be defined, and a timeline for completion should be established. This

type of work is often broken down into smaller components such as creating databases,

programming a user interface, or planning, configuring, and deploying a switched network

within the organization. These works, if handled internally by the organization’s IT staff, will

be cost-effective and will help increase the level of effectiveness of the computing environment.

For these reasons, IT departments have the need to design and deliver instruction in house to

help develop and maintain their intellectual property. As a consequence, the proposed topic for

this project is one of the many in-house instructions that organizations, today, feel the need to

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provide to employees for a competitive advantage in the information age; hence, justifying the

needs for this training.

All IT staff members in an organization in a position to engage in high level networking

engineering tasks will find this topic beneficial. This is because a Local Area Network (LAN) is

found mostly in all organizations (Kurose & Ross, 2012). A data switch sits at the heart of all

LANs. Furthermore, the knowledge and skills acquired form a topic, such as this one, can be

applied not only to the organization for which the topic was intended but to all organizations

with similar computing needs. These are clear justifications of the benefits and reason for this

topic. In addition, because the course is intended to be provided as a standalone, self-paced

course, the organization will not experience extended absences of staff members due to training.

As part of the IT department’s quest to keep the IT staff abreast with technological

advances and changes, develop and maintain its own intellectual property, reduce employee

absence due to training, and keep the cost of training down, this course will follow an online

format. The organization’s Blackboard learning system will be the main deliverable for the

actual course. However, in the interest of simplicity, and in order to fulfill the requirement of this

assignment, a model of this e-Learning will designed and delivered with coursesites.com. In

addition, technologies such as PowerPoint and un-configured Cisco switches will be employed.

These are technologies that the organization already owns or can be acquired free of charge.

Learner Analysis and Description

After analyzing all the IT staff members in the organization, it has been determined that a

course of this magnitude is not for everyone in the IT department. The analysis of the potential

learners for this course consisted of direct-observation employees’ aptitudes, attitudes toward

learning, self, and the job. In addition, the employees’ immediate supervisor’s recommendation,

https://rmosate.coursesites.com/s/_IT0527

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and the employees’ prior experience and educational background also played a factor in the

analysis process. After the analysis, it was concluded that some employees felt overwhelmed on

their current position, which makes it difficult to engage them in more challenging tasks. Others

did not have the current knowledge and requirements to engage in a course, such as this one.

However, a few of them (e.g. network engineers, experienced helpdesks) have the background

needed to succeed in this course. Therefore, although all the potential learners have the ability to

engage in an online instruction, for this course, only the network engineers and helpdesks with

five years of experience with networking technologies will be admitted.

Intended Instruction

In this project, the intended instruction is to provide the means by which the target

learners will be capable of developing the knowledge and skills to implement Cisco access

switches in a complex, enterprise campus switched network. The instruction will introduce the

target learners with high level Cisco enterprise campus architecture technologies that are found

in today’s organizations’ complex enterprise switching campus environments. For these

organizations to compete in the today’s information age, their IT departments need IT

professionals with the knowledge and skills the intended instruction will be designed to provide.

Although, these knowledge and skills are outsourced by some organizations, the cost to own

intellectual property and to host the expertise in house is substantially less. For that reason,

instruction, such as this one, should be offered to all qualified IT staff in an organization in order

to help IT departments support the overall.

For instance, in planning the intended instruction, both the goal of the IT department and

the overall goal of the organization were analyzed. The overall goal of the organization can be

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found on the organization’s website, bulletin board, and employee handbooks. Both goals are

present on the organization’s website, and the IT department’s goal was developed by the

director of technology with cooperation from other coworkers. This made the analysis of these

goals simple. On that note, because the goal of the IT department is to provide an effective

computing environment while keeping cost down in an attempt to help support the overall

organization’s goal, this instruction was requested to help boost computing effectiveness and

reduce the cost of IT services in the organization.

In order for the instruction to meet its objectives and succeed, other variables, such as the

willingness of the IT staff to engage in the learning experience, their willingness to take time to

learn, and the director of technology’s ability to design a course of this magnitude, are required.

Furthermore, in order for the instruction to succeed, only learners with certain technology

backgrounds and experiences are allowed to participate. As described in the target learners

section, the potential learners will be the IT department’s network engineers and helpdesks with

five years of experience in networking. For that reason, the intended online course does not

require learners to have any prerequisites.

For the actual instruction, I will make use of my organization’s Blackboard Learning

Management System (BLMS), the Microsoft Office Suite, and a screen-shot recording tool to

provide an online training for the IT staff of Maize Unified School District to develop knowledge

and premium skills. Through this online course, students will be able to perform a variety of

complex, enterprise switching tasks in order to acquire the knowledge and skills required for

planning, designing, configuring, implementing, and managing a complex enterprise switching

environment.

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The course will include six lessons of instruction, which will provide the students with an

opportunity to apply critical thinking and problem solving to get familiarized with

internetworking technologies. In addition, each lesson will be designed to target one or more

learning objectives, which the students will demonstrate through reading assignments,

instructor’s examples, discussion forums, and extensive hands-on lab exercises. Although this

project is highly complex, all phases should be completed on time. The following outline

indicates the course of actions that will take place:

Lesson One: Analyzing Complex Campus Network Designs

Enterprise campus network architecture

Analyze the organization’s campus network architecture

Traffic planning on the organization’s network architecture

Purpose of different layers on the campus network design

Benefits of the organization’s campus network architecture

Lesson Two: Planning and Implementing VLANs in the Organization’s Campus Networks

Define the purpose & function of VLANs on Cisco switches

Define the purpose & function of IEEE 802.1Q trunking

Define the purpose & function of VTP on Cisco switches

List the steps required to configure VLANs that use VTP & 802.1Q trunking

Describe Methods used to create fast physical connections between switches for

redundancy

Lesson Three: Planning Interface-level Configuration Parameters

Planning interface speed for optimum performance

Planning interface duplex for optimum performance

Planning spanning tree to avoid broadcast storms

Planning interfaces for access switching

Lesson Four: Analyze Inter-VLAN Routing

Analyze inter-VLAN routing in a Layer 2 topology

Analyze routed ports on a multilayer switch

Determine effective inter-VLAN Routing in a campus Layer 2 network

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Lesson Five: Minimizing Service Loss and Data Theft in a Campus Network

Mitigate switch security issues

Switch and layer 2 security as a subset of an overall network security plan

How a MAC flooding attack overflows a CAM campus backbone layer table

Port security input blocked from devices based on Layer 2 restrictions

Configure port security on a Cisco access switches

Lesson Six: Planning Management Strategies for Access Switches

Assign management IP address on access switches

Analyze best practices for managing access switches

Planning for SNMP on access switches

To help promote learning in this learning environment, each lesson will include assigned

readings to obtain more details about concepts and terminologies needed to for mastering IOS

commands. A discussion forum where students can elaborate on the topic being addressed, as

well as to ask questions and receive feedback from the instructor, will also be included in each

lesson. Finally, at least one lab exercise will be present in each lesson. To assess whether the

student developed the knowledge predicted, each one will be required to take a quiz at the end of

each lesson. If students do not score a 90% or better on the quiz, they will be advised to retake

that lesson before they proceed to the next phase of the instruction.

Here is an example of the format and structure of the lab exercises found after each lesson or

module:

1. Lab 1: Analyzing Complex Campus Network Designs

Prepare a terminal console connection to a Cisco switch

Explore the remote lab device connections

Use Telnet to Logon to an access switch

Explore campus network switch architecture configurations

2. Lab 2: Implement VLANs, Trunks, and EtherChannel Configuration Template

Create a Layer 2 implementation strategy

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Implement a Layer 2 solution including VLANs, trunks, pruning, VTP, and EtherChannel

3. Lab 3: Interface Configuration Parameters

Configure interface speed for optimum performance

Configure interface duplex for optimum performance

Configure spanning tree to avoid broadcast storms

Configure interfaces for access switching

4. Lab 4: Explore Inter-VLAN Routing Configuration Parameters

Review VLAN interface command syntax

Review routing statement

5. Lab 5: Securing Campus Network Access Switches

Configure different levels of passwords on access switches

Configure security on an access switch ports

6. Access Switch Configuration Templates and Management

Prepare basic configuration templates for access switches with management parameters

Deploy configuration templates on access switches

Verify configurations on an access switch

In addition, upon successful completion of each lesson and lab assignments, the student will be

required to take a final exam, which will be used to measure areas that are indicative of

memorizations, rather than learning. The final exam will also provide the students with

opportunities to acknowledge their areas of deficiencies, so they can go back to the lesson in

question for review.

Learning Environment and Proposed Delivery Method

This course will be delivered online, both within and outside the organization’s Local

Area Network (LAN). However, modules that address key terms, IOS command syntax, and

scenarios will be available both inside and outside the organizations, whereas modules that

address practice scenarios and lab experiences will only be online, inside the organization. This

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is because learners will need access to a Cisco virtual switch, which is only hosted inside the

organization. Because all staff members have access to the organization’s Blackboard learning

management system, this course will employ a combination of technologies, such as the

Microsoft suite and Camtasia for a deliverable over Blackboard (coursesites.com in the context

of this assignment).

Once designed, the target learners will need to take the course in their spare time (e.g.

during lunch time, or at home). They can take one lesson at a time, or they might choose to take

the entire course at once if they are taking it within the organization. They will be informed that

the lab portion of each module needs to be taken inside the organization, and they will be

encouraged to successfully complete a lesson or module before they move to the next one. In

order to consider a lesson or module successfully completed, learners need to score a 90% or

better on the quiz found at the end of each lesson. They also need to do the lab assignment for

that lesson. For that reason, if they take the course at home, they will only be able to do one

module at a time since they will not be able to do the lab assignments outside the organization.

Knowing that, to access the course, all that the learners will need to do is to log into the

organization’s Blackboard where they will see the title of the course. Once they click on the title,

it will be a matter following directions.

Learning Objectives

As Horton (2011) repeatedly explains, the first step in quick instructional design is to

clarify the goal of the project by nailing down what matters to the organization, and then by

describing how the project or instruction will contribute directly to the organizational goal. Both

of these approaches are clearly stated in the previous sections. As described previously, the goal


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of the IT department sponsoring the development of this learning is to develop and maintain

intellectual property for providing an effective computing environment while reducing

outsourcing and cutting down on the cost of IT implementation. After breaking down this goal, it

was determined that a more immediate goal of developing in-house expertise to analyze,

configure, and deploy complex enterprise campus access switching solutions to connect end

users computing devices was a step in the right direction in helping support the overall

organizational goal. Knowing the organizational goals, this section will follow Horton’s

approach for developing and stating objectives in specific, measurable fashion to list seven

objectives that will serve as the foundation of this e-learning course.

In a nutshell, the objective development in this course will follow Horton’s simple

objectives form. For example, teach a subject to a group of people who know certain things

already. However, this will be done always with the organizational goals in mind. As a result,

based on the organizational goals, the overall objective, and Horton’s recommendations, the

following seven objectives will serve as the underlying foundation for this e-learning. That is,

upon successful completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

1. Identify various methods to connect and configure a Layer 2 switch

2. Analyze complex campus network designs as they apply to organizational needs

3. Display Knowledge for Implementing VLANs in a network campus layer 2 switch

environments

4. Master the skills to Configure switch access interfaces to provide connectivity to end users

5. Display Abilities to Implement inter-VLAN routing effectively in a campus Layer 2

network

6. Design a complete access switch configuration template for basic switch deployments

These objectives are developed to provide a bridge connecting the high-priority goals of the IT

department and the learning objectives in a way that all stakeholders involved will be able to see

the value the e-learning to the organization.

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Storyboard

In detail, the course site consists of the following components: Announcement,

Introduction, Agenda, Overview, Labs, Discussions, Readings, Lesson 01, Lesson 02, Lesson 03,

Lesson 04, Lesson 05, Lesson 06, and Completion. The proposed delivery methods are the

organization’s Blackboard for the actual course and coursesites.com for the purpose of this

assignment. The storyboard includes templates for the various screens used in course site. Note,

these are partial screens because the project is not 100% done yet.

Main Course site Template. This template is used as a main menu page, which contains

the structure and content of the entire course. We may call it the Homepage. Each template that

makes up the course can be found the left navigation pane. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Main Course Template.


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Announcement Template. This template is used as a central repository for all

announcements created in the course. From here, announcements that are specific to a specific

lesson will be linked to that lesson. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Announcement Template.

Introduction Template. This template is used to provide an introduction of overall course

to the students. This is not intended to be an introduction of each lesson. See Figure 3.

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Figure 3. Introduction Template.

Agenda Template. This template is used to provide an agenda of what is about to come in

the course. See Figure 4.

Figure 4. Agenda Template.

Overview Template. This template is used to provide an overview of the course (how the

topics will be outlined to meet the learning objectives). See Figure 5.

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Figure 5. Overview Template.

Labs Template. This template is used as a repository for the labs that will be present in

each lesson. See Figure 6.

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Figure 6. Labs Template.

Discussions Template. This template is used as a central repository for all the discussion

forums that will supplement each lesson. See Figure 7.

Figure 7. Discussion Board Template.

Readings Template. This template is used as a central repository for all the required readings

that that correspond to each lesson. See Figure 8.

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Figure 8. Readings Template.

Lesson 01 Template. This template is used to display the instruction and content of

lesson 01 (Analyzing Complex Campus Network Designs). See Figure 9.

Figure 9. Lesson 01 Template.


lesson 02 (Planning and Implementing VLANs in the Organization’s Campus Networks). See

Figure 10.


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lesson 03 (Planning Interface-level Configuration Parameters). See Figure 11.



lesson 04 (Analyze Inter-VLAN Routing). See Figure 12.



lesson 05 (Minimizing Service Loss and Data Theft in a Campus Network). See Figure 13.

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lesson 06 (Planning Management Strategies for Access Switches). See Figure 14.


Completion Template. This template is used to provide the Final Exam and any

congratulatory message to the students. See Figure 15.

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Figure 15. Completion Template.

Navigation Map

Announcement Introduction

Agenda Overview

Lessons

• Topics

• Topic Readings

• Instructor Examples

•Discussions/Feedback

• Labs

•Quiz

End of Course

• Final Exam

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Assessment

Assessment questions are being developed in in Blackboard or coursesites.com to be

placed under the Quiz link of each module. A total of ten questions will be created per lesson in

order to assess the learning objective each lesson is designed to address. Although each quiz will

appear under its intended lesson, the Final Exam will only appear on the main navigation pane.

The following are examples of the format of the assessments:

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In addition, the assessments are being developed to provide feedback to the students for both

correct and incorrect answers.

Merrill’s 5 Star Instructional Design Rating Evaluation

Type of Instruction:

Stage Criteria Explanation

Rating for Problem Stage:

Is the courseware

presented in the context

of real world problems?

Does the courseware show

Learners the task they will be

able to do or the problem they

will be able to solve as a result

of completing a module or

course?

Yes. The course is designed for

network engineers who want to learn

the knowledge and skills taught in

the course to address specific tasks

in their organization.

The Lab exercises and discussion

forums allow the Learners to engage

at the program and task levels.

The course presents various example

scenarios designed to meet the goal

developing intellectual property.

Are students engaged at the

problem or task level not just the

operation or action levels?

Does the courseware involve a

progression of problems rather

than a single problem?

Rating for Activation Stage:

Does the courseware

attempt to activate

relevant prior knowledge

or experience?

Do the courseware direct

Learners to recall, relate,

describe, or apply knowledge

from relevant, past experience

that can be used as a

foundation for new

knowledge?

Yes. The course would not be

successful without that approach.

Yes, the course provides skills and

experience that can be applied

immediately.

Yes, they are able to demonstrate that

during the labs..

Does the courseware provide

relevant experience that can be

used as a foundation for the

new knowledge?

If Learners already know some

of the content, are they given

an opportunity to demonstrate

their previously acquired

knowledge or skill?

Rating for Demonstration Stage:

Are the demonstrations

(examples) consistent

Are the demonstrations

(examples) consistent with the

content being taught?

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with the content being

taught?

• Examples and non-examples

for concepts?

• Demonstrations for

procedures?

• Visualizations for processes?

• Modeling for behavior?

Yes, the course includes labs, video,

audio, and graphics.

Yes. Learners are provided additional

reading resources in each lesson.

Are at least some of the

following Learner guidance

techniques employed?

• Learners are directed to

relevant information?

• Multiple representations are

used for the demonstrations?

• Multiple demonstrations are

explicitly compared?

Is media relevant to the

content and used to enhance

learning?

Yes. Instructor’s videos and graphics

are all used for various examples to

enhance learning.

Rating for Application Stage:

Are the application

(practice) and the

posttest consistent with

the stated or implied

objectives?

Are the application (practice)

and the posttest consistent

with the stated or implied

objectives?

• Information-about practice

requires Learners to recall or

recognize information.

• Parts-of practice requires the

Learners to locate, name,

and/or describe each part.

• Kinds-of practice requires

Learners to identify new

examples of each kind.

• How-to practice requires

Learners to do the procedure.

• What-happens practice

requires Learners to predict a

consequence of a process

given conditions, or to find

faulted conditions given an

unexpected consequence.

To a limited capacity only.

Due to the online nature of the class,

practices can only be done in house

only. However, the ability to return

and share/collaborate is provided via

the discussion forum.

Yes, the labs are designed make use of

existing and new knowledge and skills.

Does the courseware require

Learners to use new

knowledge or skill to solve a

varied sequence of problems

and do Learners receive

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corrective feedback on their

performance?

Rating for Integration Stage:

Does the courseware

provide techniques that

encourage Learners to

integrate (transfer) the

new knowledge or skill

into their everyday life?


an opportunity for Learners to

publicly demonstrate their new

knowledge or skill?

Yes, this is exactly the purpose of the

course.

Learners have access to the open

discussion forum to discuss their new

knowledge and skills.

Yes, again, the discussion forum, plus

their on-the-job assignments provide a

path for that.



reflect-on, discuss, and defend

their new knowledge or skill?



create, invent, or explore new

and personal ways to use their

new knowledge or skill?

Note: This table was borrowed from a previous student’s work and modified according to my

project data.

References

Bresnahan, T. F., Brynjolfsson, E., & Hitt, L. M. (2002). Information technology, workplace

organization, and the demand for skilled labor: Firm-level evidence. The Quarterly

Journal of Economics, 117(1), 339-376.

Horton, W. (2011). E-learning by design (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Kurose, J. F., & Ross, K. W. (2012). Computer networking: Pearson Education.

Orlikowski, W. J., & Baroudi, J. J. (1991). Studying information technology in organizations:

Research approaches and assumptions. Information systems research, 2(1), 1-28.

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