CIS 268 • Software Support

Jefferson State Community College • Shelby-Hoover Campus • Fall 2014

Course Information
CRN Date and Time Location
15373 MW 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. HSB 447
Read this syllabus carefully! Students enrolled in this section are subject to the terms of this syllabus and Mr. Battles's syllabus addendum, which includes college statements regarding attendance, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and discrimination / harassment.
Instructor Information: Tommy Battles
Office Health Sciences Building Room 427
Office Hours See Weekly Schedule
E-mail tbattles (at mark) @jeffstateonline.com

Catalog Course Description This course provides students with hands-on practical experience in installing computer software, operating systems, and troubleshooting.

Prerequisite Basic computer skills (CIS 130 or equivalent background). You should be familiar with fundamental computer concepts such as accessing the Internet, opening files, saving files to a specific storage device or folder, and printing the contents of a file. You do not have to complete CIS 146 prior to taking this course.

Textbook You are advised to bring your textbook to each class meeting, as your instructor may refer to material in the textbook during lectures.

CompTIA A+ Guide to Software: Managing, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting, sixth edition, by Jean Andrews. Bundled with LabConnection Online Printed Access Card for A+ Guide to Software, sixth edition. ISBN-10: 1-2859-3722-8; ISBN-13: 978-1-2859-3722-9. Note: earlier editions of the textbook are not compatible with the course; only the sixth edition covers CompTIA's A+ 2012 examinations.

This textbook may be available in different bindings and / or with different ISBNs. Please consult with your instructor should you wish to buy such a variation on the textbook.

Software Students enrolled in CIS courses at Jefferson State may obtain some Microsoft software titles free-of-charge through DreamSpark; be looking for an e-mail message in your Pipeline account with your login information. Among the software titles provided are Virtual PC and recent versions of Windows, enabling you to create virtual machines with which to practice the troubleshooting techniques covered in the textbook.

The LabConnection website requires a browser capable of displaying pages with Flash content.

Course Content In this course students will become familiar with using, installing, and troubleshooting various aspects of the Windows operating system, applications, networks, security, and mobile devices. The majority of class time will be dedicated to lectures on the course material; any remaining time at the end of a lecture will be available for work on laboratory assignments designed to reinforce the material for that chapter.

Grades Refer to the following table for the contribution of each course item to your grade.

Item Number / Points Total Pts.
Quizzes 11 @ 15 pts. each (1 bonus) 150
Labs 31 @ 10 pts. each (6 bonus) 250
Exams 1 & 2 2 @ 180 pts. each (3 chapters) 360
Exams 3 & 4 2 @ 120 pts. each (2 chapters) 240
Total Points 1000

LabConnection Assignments The LabConnection website contains at least one laboratory assignment for each chapter. These assignments present a virtual environment that will walk you through the process of installing, configuring, or troubleshooting some aspect of software. At the end of each exercise, you will be presented with a series of questions based on the task you completed. Your performance of the task and your answers to the questions will be equally weighted in your score on each assignment; in your overall grade for the semester, each score will be scaled to ten points. You have up to three attempts on each laboratory assignment; the website will keep your highest score.

The class code for this section of CIS 268 is 268-15373-14F. You will not be able to access these assignments without purchasing a LabConnection code, either bundled with the textbook or by itself.

No late assignment submissions are accepted; however, there are six extra laboratory assignments that will allow you to recover points missed on earlier assignments.

Quizzes For each chapter, you will complete a quiz on Blackboard consisting of fifteen questions that range from using correct terminology to applying software support techniques to solve specific problems. These quizzes will be timed; you must submit your responses within a certain time of starting the quiz. There are no opportunities to make up missed quizzes; however, there will be one extra quiz for a chapter containing a substantial amount of material.

Examinations After roughly every two to three chapters, you will be given an examination that tests your knowledge of software support vocabulary as well as your ability to apply troubleshooting techniques to specific problems. The questions on these examinations will be similar to those from the quizzes, but their contents may not be identical.

In the event of an excused absence, you may make up one exam provided that the make-up occurs within one week of the scheduled exam date. If logistics prevent the scheduling of a make-up within one week, your instructor may choose to substitute your final exam grade (scaled to the number of points for that examination) in place of that exam grade. If you miss more than one examination, you must contact your instructor to determine if, and how, you will be able to recover the points for the other missed examination(s).

Grade Availability Quiz scores are available immediately upon completion. Assignment grades should be available immediately in the LabConnection website but are only periodically migrated to Blackboard. Examination scores are available at the deadline to complete each examination. If you have completed a quiz, assignment, or examination for which the grade should be visible, but the grade appears blank in the My Grades tool or on the LabConnection website, contact your instructor immediately; do not wait until the end of the semester.

Academic Honesty Students are expected to complete their own work regardless of circumstances. All quizzes and assignments are individual exercises, not group work. Do not share your assignment-related files or work with any other student, and do not obtain or look at any other student's files, whether on campus, on a home computer, or via electronic means! This includes time during class when you are able to work on assignments. Peer assistance (whether from current students, former students, or those otherwise knowledgeable of the course material) should be limited to the concepts discussed in class and should never include the specifics of a quiz or an assignment; contact your instructor if there is a question as to how much assistance can be offered.

Under no circumstances should you post the details of any quiz or assignment on a public discussion board, forum, or newsgroup. Likewise, you should not post any portion of your solution to any quiz or assignment, even in progress, on such a public resource. Making such information available on the Internet will be considered academic misconduct.

During an examination, all hats, caps, and visors must be removed unless required for ADA accommodations; additionally, no portable electronic devices (cell phones, media players, etc.) may be used unless required for ADA accommodations.

Your instructor will follow the procedures outlined in the Academic Honesty Code section of the Catalog and Student Handbook should he perceive a violation of the Code. Unless there is evidence that the violation was not due to any action on the part of a specific student, each student involved in the violation will be penalized.