Cengage Lab Tips

 

Tips For Completing Cengage Labs With a Perfect Score

This applies specifically to Laurel Ridge Community College (and probably to all other VCCS schools) classes that use Cengage / MindTap labs.

1. Complete the questions at the end of the lab first, then 
2. go back and do the lab.

The  way the lab system is currently set up, it does not record your score until you hit the final 'submit' button. You can exit out without having it adversely affect you. If you get the answer wrong, it will show you what the correct answer should have been along with an explanation normally. The answers can also normally be found throughout the lab just by glancing over the explanations. 

Take a screenshot or write down notes so you'll understand what the correct answer is and why you got them wrong, then exit out of the lab. Relaunch the lab and when it asks you if you want to continue with your in-progress attempt, just click No. 

Once you know the answers, go back and redo the questions first. Then go back and run the lab step by step as you normally would for a perfect score.

Why do it this way? First, all my classes that use Cengage/ MindTap VM Labs allow unlimited attempts. Who wants to do the whole thing over again, w/ screenshots, just to get a good score?  The way these questions are weighted, missing 1 will often give you an 80% on your score. Avoid this time trap/ headache by going to the end and doing the questions first, then go back to the beginning and complete the lab like normal.

Information good as of Fall 2024.

ITN261 Review

 

Course Review - ITN261 Network Attacks, Computer Crime and Hacking 

This is my review of Laurel Ridge Community Colleges ITN 261 class. It's conducted by Professor Rebecca Smith-Terry. I made the mistake of taking this class in a 7-week timeframe. Don't do this. It's hard to take everything in and really get to know and understand the information that's presented. Especially with 3 other classes to boot. If this had been the only class I took and could have devoted my whole attention to it in the short time frame, I would have been fine. I feel like I'm struggling to get the assignments all done and I KNOW I'm not retaining the information well. 

My poor review of this class should not be a reflection on the professor or the material. I think both are good. It's the time-frame that's killing me. I signed up in ignorance. Don't make the mistake I did in taking a full 3-credit class in half the normal time - unless you're super smart and retain things that are presented to you at a rapid-fire pace well, or it's the only class you're taking.

This class has a TON of hands on labs and projects to do. If you have yet to get your hands on a Kali Linux machine and try out many of the tools it has you are going to love this class! But be aware, you do ALL the labs at home on your own time.

My main and biggest criticism of the class (other than don't take it if it's 7 weeks) is that it was an in-person class on campus in the computer lab and we DIDN'T use the computers IN the lab. 

The in-person instruction is a lecture by the professor going over the Power Point slides we all had access to. There was some minor question and answer, but to me I feel like my time was wasted being required to go into the classroom to have the professor give a power point lecture. I assume this was how the Professor was instructed to conduct the class, but it seems like a wasted opportunity to me. It felt like a handholding session for children whom the Community College wanted to make sure actually attended a class.

Coming into class and actually doing labs and discussing them in-progress would have been a much more productive use of the space we were given and my time. Without that, I felt like I lost 8 hours a week in productivity.

(9/21/2024 update: the professor switched things up a little during Midterm week and allowed us to use the time in class to do labs. I hope this trend continues. I personally would have preferred to do the whole class online but, if I HAVE TO COME IN for class, I'd rather be doing labs.)

In conclusion- 

Do Not: 

• take this class as a 7-week class
• take this class as an in person/ in classroom class

Do:

• Take Professor Terry

I liked Professor Terry. She is responsive to emails and grades assignments quickly so you have feedback on how you're doing. Professor Terry is a machine when it comes to grading all the work we have in such a short time. I don't know how she keeps up, but she does.

 

First Tip of the Day!

I was thinking about starting a new not-a-regular series and calling it “Tip of the Day”. Where I’d highlight something I found, that I thought was interesting.

 

Today’s Tip of the Day is: Humble Bundle.

If you’re into cybersecurity and all things computer like me and you want to improve your personal library, go to humblebundle.com and look under their book bundles. They often have book bundles of 3 – 18 e-books for a donation (suggested donations I’ve seen at $18 or $25). They come in pdf or epub. I’ve seen bundles from PACKT, O’Reilly, and Sybex so far. Not just junk books, but books that are relevant to current certifications and issues.

Resist the urge for piracy and pay for your books (Next Tip article I'll do will be on how to become a book pirate! Arrrrr!). The second-best thing, besides the low price, is that humblebundle.com donates a portion of the proceeds from sales to charity. It’s like double karmic – you didn’t steal and you contributed to charity.

Don’t get taken to the cleaners when paying for books. Expand your personal library with humble bundle! (They should pay me for this paragraph, I sound like an advertisement.) I don't know what their schedule is for putting out new book bundles, so I usually hop over to the site a couple times a week to see if something new is up.

CompTIA Network+ Study Tips

 

How I Studied For and Passed the CompTIA Network+ 008 Certification Exam

This is a brief description of how I studied for and passed the CompTIA Network+ 008 on the first try. I took the exam and passed yesterday after about 2 and a half months of studying.

First I took and passed the CompTIA A+ certification exam(s). I think that they give you some foundational knowledge that helps with Network+.

I started prepping for Network+ specifically a week or so before completing my A+ exam. Here's a list of everything I did that I think helped me to pass.

• Print out and read the official exam objectives from CompTIA.

• Create Anki flash cards with all the acronyms on the exam. I copy and pasted the acronyms from the official exam objectives into ChatGPT and had it produce a list with definitions of each acronyms which I then put into Anki for daily review.

• Review the Anki flash cards EVERY day.

• Professor Messer videos. Over and over and over again. Watch the whole series once. Watch it again. Then watch it when your driving somewhere. Watch them when your working out. Go through his Network+ series repeatedly until you've taken your exam. He's got a new set of videos out for the 009 exam too.

• I took a bootcamp style class from Northern Virginia Community College. The class was 8 hours of lectures and labs for 4 days. It was instructor lead (Professor Nick Pierce) over Zoom and used Certmaster Learn. Make sure to do all the labs and PBQ's in Certmaster. When you get the PBQ's wrong, going back and figuring out the correct answers is a big help in learning to understand things.

• After the bootcamp I went back into Certmaster and re-read each chapter of the online textbook.

• Practice exams. I used the Sybex practice exams. Purchase the Sybex Network+ Study Guide and Practice Exam books and you get access to their online exam test bank. It's about 1200-1500 test questions. I did 20 exam questions everyday. Anything I got wrong, didn't understand, or needed help with I used ChatGPT to explain to me. I also had ChatGPT make additional Anki flashcards to help me with exam topics and concepts I missed.

• The final 2 things I did that I think really helped near the end of my studies were:
•  Jeremy's IT Lab. I got to day 30 of his series. I think that it really helped cement things I had been learning from all the other sources (Thankyou Dr. El Gbouri for pointing me to this resource).
• Professor Messer's Notes. They are an outline of everything and you should read through them for an overview and refresher on everything you've learned.

I didn't do all these things at once. I progressively went through my list above until exam day. Adding and completing things as I went along. Network+ can seem overwhelming. Take it all day-by-day and you will make it through it.

 

LRCC Professor Recommendations

This is just a quick post to either recommend taking or avoiding certain professors at Laurel Ridge Community College. As of my initial writing of this post I've only had 6 professors. I will update each semester as interactions warrant. I'm not going to write details about why to take or avoid the professor in this post (check for details in prior or future blog posts). Feel free to contact me via comments below if you have any questions.

Recommendation: Take 

Dr. Jose Nieves (Intro to Software Design & Programming)
Dr. El Gbouri, Abdessamad (Intro to Networking)
Professor Jamie Coleman (English 112)
Dr. Margaret Ross (Logic)

Dr. George Efi Agbor (Be aware that Dr. Agbor has an accent that can be hard at first for American English speakers to pick up on. Give him some time for your ears to become accustomed to the accent. He's a good professor.)(updated 12/6/2024)

Professor Rebecca Smith-Terry (updated 12/6/2024)

Recommendation: Undecided

Professor Fernando Seminario

Recommendation: Avoid

Dr. James Allen

Dr. Josephine Leach (updated 12/6/2024)

LRCC ITN100 Review

 

LRCC ITN 100 Introduction to Telecommunications Review

"Skynet will remind us: 'you should have written your papers word by word when you had a chance, but instead you helped my AI learn from your mistakes until it owned you[.]'" Dr. Sam.

I love the class and think the instructor is great. As of the initial publishing date I don't have a lot of time to do this review: I'm doing a 'bootcamp' style CompTIA Network+ class this week from Northern Virginia Community College (I will have an upcoming review of professor Nick Pierce and the NOVA CompTIA bootcamps - It's 4 days, 8+ hours a day) so I don't have time to flesh out my ITN 100 review. On top of this, mid-term exams are next week for the 2 classes I'm taking this summer at LRCC and I need to study for those.

This is a review of ITN100 Intro To Networking at Laurel Ridge Community College. The professor is Dr. Abdessamad EL Gbouri ("or Just Dr. Sam)." The quote at the top of the blog from Dr. EL Gbouri typifies the great nature of the professor and the class. It was in the first Module for this weeks lessons where Dr. EL Gbouri was discouraging folks from using AI to write their essays. When I saw it, I knew it needed to headline my review of the class.

Pros:

• Professor is very engaging; often creating multiple videos each week discussing the state of the class and providing a lecture of the material covered that week.

• Plenty of projects and essays that allow you to put concepts into your own words which, in my opinion, helps to learn a subject.

• Multiple attempts on quizzes. I like this. I think it gives you a chance to go find the correct answer to something you got wrong. It encourages seeking out knowledge.

• Multiple videos from other content creators that help explain concepts.

Cons:

• In my opinion, the professor is too easy on grading. I know some people think this should be in the Pro's section.

Tips for studying:

• Print the quizzes out for study later. You can print the quizzes out once you complete them. They make great study material for the exams.

• You are allowed multiple attempts for each quiz. This gives you an excellent opportunity to: 1) see what you've retained, and 2) learn what you missed. At the end of each chapter in the textbook is an index of subjects. You can often use the index to quickly look up the answers choices in each quiz question to find the answer.

• Each week there is a Power Point presentation. The slides can be downloaded. Download the slides. The downloaded slides are great for reviewing the Chapter at a future date.

Criticism

If I could offer 1 criticism for improvement to Dr. El Gbouri, it would be to stop recording his video lectures late at night. He often records his videos after 12 a.m. midnight and he is difficult to hear sometimes.  It sounds like he's talking in a manner to not wake up people who are sleeping. I have to turn the sound up on my computer to 'full' and lord help my ears if some notification comes through with my sound all the way up. That's the only real complaint I have with the class.

Summary

In summary ITN100 is a required and fundamental course for several IT degrees. It can be difficult for someone who has no prior experience with networking/ telecommunications. If that's you, you should find an instructor that is going to effectively teach students new to these concepts well. Professor El Gbouri fits that bill. The professor provides a ton of supplemental material and projects to help students grasp fundamentals. I like the way Dr. El Gbouri engages with the class. At this point I would 100% take another class Dr. El Gbouri teaches.

LRCC ITN260 Review

Updated 8/5/2024

LRCC ITN260 Network Security Basics Review

This blog post provides a review of my experience in the ITN260 Network Security class at Laurel Ridge Community College during the summer of 2024. The course, taught by Dr. James Allen, has had a mix of pros and cons. On the positive side, the assignments are self-paced, the zyBooks material is user-friendly, and Dr. Allen is knowledgeable and personable in live lectures. However, the class has been marred by scheduling errors, poor communication, and mistakes in the midterm exam content. Despite these issues, the class has improved over time, with recent meetings running smoothly. While Dr. Allen has considerable expertise, his course management and communication have significant drawbacks. For me these problems are a big enough turn-off that I want to avoid his classes in the future. Others may find the problems tolerable, or overcome-able, due to Dr. Allen's experience and expertise in the field.

This summer, 2024, I am currently enrolled at Laurel Ridge Community College's ITN260 Network Security Class. Events in the first 2 weeks of class had me wanting to write a poor review. I'm re-writing it as a tepid review of the professor - Dr. James Allen - as of the above posted updated date.

Class instruction is done weekly on Mondays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. via Zoom.

In short here are the pros and cons of my class experience so far:

Pros:

• Assignments are self-paced. They do have a due date, but we can proceed ahead of schedule as much as we are able to.
• The zyBooks material is easy to use.
• The professor, in person via Zoom, is a likeable fellow and seems quite knowledgeable on the subject matter.
• Dr. Allen uses the internet proficiently to add supplemental material to class lectures.

Cons:

• Scheduling Errors: Incorrectly scheduled Zoom meetings, leading to missed classes and unfair grades. Don't expect grading mistakes to be corrected with any type of urgency. He did not correct my attendance grade until the last day of class (I guess it's better than not correcting it at all, but it just seems like bad management to wait that long).

• Poor Communication: Slow response times, or no responses to emails, exacerbating confusion and frustration.
• Midterm Mistakes: Inclusion of questions from chapters not yet covered, demonstrating a lack of attention to course structure.
• Points assigned to completion objectives in a chapter of the book that does NOT exist (Chapter 20). At the end of class he changed it to a Chapter of LABS that were provided at the end of the book

• He appears to have difficulty navigating and controlling Canvas and the eBook for the class (not able to operate the grading system effectively nor assign dates to assignments properly). He's also not as proficient at operating Zoom as other instructors I've had.

• Despite the ease of use of ZyBooks, it is filled with errors. Some remedial, some significant. Overall I found the errors to be annoying. The errors I did find made me question the overall competency of the material. I caught errors that were somewhat obvious. Because of the nature of the subject matter, to which I am not an expert or adept at, I assume there are more. Errors I found were incorrect links to web pages, questions to material not covered. Questions to material that had yet to be covered. Mixing/ conflating vocabulary/ vernacular terms. 

I'm not going to go into too much detail (as I did in the original version of this blog post) but, as mentioned in the bullets, there was a scheduling snafu with the Zoom meetings. They were incorrectly scheduled for 12 p.m. Mondays instead of 7 - 9 p.m.  Mondays on the second week (despite the college course catalog AND the Professor's syllabus listing the correct dates and times). The professor has since 'owned it' as a 'mistake' and corrected it so that Zoom meetings are being held at the proper time. Personally, I would have claimed it was done on purpose if I were him. The alternative, which apparently is reality, to me implies incompetence (how does a professor NOT know when his class is to be held?).

I've reviewed my blog post with Google's Gemini. It believes my chief complaint with the professor is his pedagogical, or course management, performance; which I believe is accurate. For me it was enough of a turn-off to the learning experience that I would still avoid Professor Allen despite his experience in the field. Someone else may feel this is not a significant hurdle, or may value his experience over whatever administrative issues he may have. Go for it if that's you.

At the bottom of this Post is an example of one of the midterm exam questions from a chapter of the book we had not covered yet. There were many like that. 

The final exam was a mind numbing 200 questions long. It was open book. It took me over 4 hours to complete. I felt the book had inadequately prepared me for many of the questions on the exam. Many of the questions I ended up answering only after eliminating as many wrong answers as I could. There were many questions where you could not find a direct, correlatingly correct answer in the textbook and the best you could do was select the correct (hopefully) answer after eliminating incorrect ones. It was tedious work. Many of the questions required far more comprehensive understanding of topics that were only briefly touched on in the textbook. I got a B on the exam (I got a B on the midterm too). Without knowing how the exam questions are selected/ created it's hard to ascribe the problems with the exam to the professor, or to the course material/ content.

I apologize for the differences in perspective throughout the blog. I originally wrote it in the 2nd/ 3rd week of class and updated it over time. At the end of class I tried to come back and tidy it up and summarize my experience, while leaving some of my original thoughts in place.