LRCC ITE221 Review

 

ITE 221 PC Hardware and Operating Systems/ Dr. Leach Review

Edited December 10, 2024.

This Fall 2024, I enrolled in ITE 221 PC Hardware and Operating Systems at Laurel Ridge Community College, taught by Dr. Josephine Leach. This post reflects my personal experience with the class.

Outdated Course Material

The course relies on a textbook that, while comprehensive in its time, is now over eight years old. Originally copyrighted in the 1990s, some of its content no longer reflects current systems or trends in IT. While certain fundamentals remain relevant, a more updated resource would better prepare students for the rapidly evolving field of technology.

Course Management Issues

Several administrative issues impacted the overall experience:

• Midterm Exam Error: The midterm exam provided was intended for a different class. Correcting this mistake required multiple student emails, as the professor initially insisted there was no error.
• Final Exam Posting Delay: The final exam was not posted until late in the final week of the course, leaving students with limited time to prepare.
• Confusing Instructions: The professor described the final as “open” without clarifying whether this meant open-book. Additionally, the exam was gated behind Respondus Lockdown Browser, making it impossible to use the e-book provided with the course. Edit 12/8/24: Dr. Leach, through an email reply, has indicated that the final is open book/ open notes, but could not explain how we are to use the eBook behind the LockDown browser. She indicated the LockDown browser is to keep people from using Google to get the answers.
• No Study Guide: The absence of a study guide for the final exam was particularly frustrating. Instructors often provide such resources to help students focus their review and perform well. Without a study guide, students were left guessing which topics were most relevant to the exam. Edit 12/8/24: Dr. Leach has indicated through an email reply that the Final Exam is on the chapters only that came after the midterm exam. She also indicated that all exam questions are pooled from the quizzes from each chapter. This is certainly helpful information but, as of writing these edits, Dr. Leach has not posted this information to the class. It was only obtained in a reply to emails.

Exam Retake Policies

The course permits two attempts for both the midterm and final exams. However, while the first midterm’s answers were accessible for review, this does not appear to be the case for the final exam. 

Restricting access to first-attempt answers behind the LockDown Browser prevents students from understanding their mistakes and improving their performance—a frustrating barrier to learning. While the instructions suggest students can “view your quiz results,” it’s unclear whether this includes detailed feedback on the questions or just the overall score. If it’s the latter, the lack of transparency significantly limits the value of having a second attempt. Edit 12/9/2024: I took the exam yesterday and you could not review the questions/answers after the exam. I went back and checked on the Canvas Exam page this morning and there is now a note saying you CAN view the results 'immediately after submission', one (1) time. Day late and a dollar short for me. There were 2 essay questions at the end of the exam that I had to guess at. Overall, I did not see any value in going back and taking the exam for a 2nd 'take'. 

In the end, how the exam is given is the professor's prerogative, but some consistency and clarity would be nice instead of the last minute snafu that happened for the final. 

Pedagogical Approach

A major concern with the course is its focus on memorization over research skills in its midterm and final exams. In IT, the ability to "look it up" is essential due to the field's vast and ever-changing nature. Courses that emphasize problem-solving and resourcefulness better equip students for real-world technical challenges. Unfortunately, this class lacked that forward-thinking approach.

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Conclusion

While I appreciate the opportunity to expand my knowledge, I found both the class and its management lacking. Updating the course material and adopting a more student-centered teaching philosophy could significantly improve the experience for future students.

You may have no choice, due to your degree program, but to take this course. If so, make it a little better on yourself by trying to do it with a different professor than Dr. Josephine Leach. It's my understanding that this is Dr. Leach's first year teaching. I hope, if she were to read this, that it's taken as constructive criticism. As a first time teacher I understand it can be tough. Hopefully, with time and communication from students, she will improve. As an elective, I would look elsewhere than this course to fulfill any credit requirements.

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.