No abstract

In Computer Science/Information Technology (CS/IT), it is challenging to teach a networking class for freshmen students. On one hand, freshmen students have a very limited knowledge base, and the transition process from high school to college education patterns may take a long time (and vary on a individual basis). On the other hand, teaching networking requires the coverage of abstract networking theories and concepts and demands extensive hands-on practice. Consequently, a successful design of the freshmen networking class is vital to ensure the smooth transition and build a solid basis for advanced classes. In this paper, we present our design for teaching a freshmen networking class. Different from literature studies where the major focus is keeping the teaching up with the cutting-edge technologies, we embed the principle of simple, relevant, and interesting, with the aim to keep the interests of the freshmen students and to avoid the creation of frustration in their early studies. We also summarize our major design strategies and share feedback from the students and lessons that we learned. The presented design, although dedicated to teaching networks for CS/IT freshmen, can be applied to many other subjects of CS/IT as well as other majors.

Siemens established a company-wide role-based qualification and certification curriculum, focusing on the topic of "architecture". Architects play a central role in the product lifecycle of the complex systems that Siemens offers. Since the curriculum's start in 2006 with the "senior software architect" program, we have added programs for software, system, and test architects. This curriculum is meanwhile broadly established throughout Siemens and Siemens Healthineers and other associated Siemens companies. We meanwhile have almost 700 certified architects in almost 20 countries. This industrial experience report describes the curriculum briefly but will focus on how the "architecture" of the training program for architects enabled us to evolve and extend the curriculum over time. The evolution covers not only additional roles, but also keeps the technical content up to date and adapts to modern learning formats as we strive to achieve the most impact in the available time. Our experience may be a blueprint for other key role curricula.