About

The unit has three different scheduled class types:

• Lecture. Lectures begin in week 1. Attendance is recommended but not compulsory. Lectures are generally available via the ECHO360 to livestream or to view at a later date not withstanding technical issues.

• SGTA (Practical). Small Group Teaching Activities will be held onsite over 12 meetings from week 2 to week 13. SGTAs are designed to provide students with examples related to lecture material, to relate the lecture material to the workshop exercises, and to act as scaffolding for the term project assessment. Each SGTA will include a preparatory task for the workshop.

• Workshop. Workshops will be held on-site over 12 meetings from week 2 to week 13.  Practical classes offer the opportunity for students to engage in hands-on activities to apply what has been learned from the readings, lecture materials, and SGTA exercises.

Note that while the practical material is structured to follow the lecture material, students need to keep in mind that there will not always be a one-to-one mapping between the lecture topics and the weekly SGTA and workshop exercises. This is because of a need for some practical sessions to introduce new tools and techniques before following on from the related concepts from the readings and lecture materials.

Project

The project will test your understanding of selected networking and cloud technologies and their usage within an organisation (or across organisations), including issues relating to security. Students will be required to perform some independent research as part of the project.

Release Dates

Project: The initial project specification will be released no later than 24 August (Sunday of Week 4).

Final Exam

Students will sit a final exam to assess their understanding of the unit material in an invigilated environment. The final exam is an iLearn-based quiz that assesses concepts covered in lectures, SGTAs, and workshops. There is only 1 attempt at the exam.

If you miss the final exam due to illness/misadventure, then a supplementary exam will only be arranged upon an approved special consideration application. Otherwise, a mark of 0 will be applied for the exam. For details of the exam schedule, refer to the eStudent site and to the COMP2270 unit information section in iLearn for updates and the scope of the examination. Details of the special considerations policy can be found here.

Lab Book

For each practical, you will undertake a mixture of in-class and/or pre-lab activities. Weekly record of Lab book is strongly recommended. This lab book must be submitted after the final practical.

Requirements to pass this unit

To pass the unit, you must achieve a final grade of 50 out of 100 or above. Each assessment contributes to a certain percentage of the final grade. These weightings are listed in the assessment tasks table in this unit guide.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern. For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration. For example, if the assignment is worth 8 marks (of the entire unit) and your submission is late by 19 hours (or 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds), 0.4 marks (5% of 8 marks) will be deducted. If your submission is late by 24 hours (or 47 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds), 0.8 marks (10% of 8 marks) will be deducted, and so on.

Assessments where Late Submissions will be accepted

• Project --- YES, Standard Late Penalty applies

• Lab Book --- YES, Standard Late Penalty applies

• Final exam --- NO, unless Special Consideration is Granted

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through http://connect.mq.edu.au/.

Supplementary Exam

If you receive Special Consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after the normal exam period, following the release of marks. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application.

Delivery Time

COMP2270 is structured to include Lectures, SGTA (practical), and workshop sessions. Lecture classes are conducted onsite every Thursday from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM (14SCO Mason Lecture Theatre). For SGTA and workshops, please look up your own session. This attendance policy underscores the interactive and real-time nature of the learning experience, encouraging students to actively participate in lectures and workshops for an optimal educational outcome.

Week 1 Classes

In week 1, only the lecture session will take place. SGTAs and Workshops will commence from week 2.

Lectures

Lectures are the primary introduction for content along with the prescribed readings (see below for details). The lecture is 2 hours each week. Students enrolled in the "live stream" class for the lecture are welcome to attend the lecture on campus. The lectures are recorded using the ECHO360 platform and recordings (assuming no technical difficulties occur) are made available through the unit iLearn page.

Small Group Teaching Activities (SGTAs) and Workshops

Each week, students are encouraged to attend two hours of lectures, a 1-hour SGTA (practical), and a 2-hour workshop (except in week 1 as noted above). For details of days, times and rooms consult eStudent.

Course Reading Material Information (Leganto)

The textbook for the unit is:

Fitzgerald, J. & Dennis, A, Business Data Communications and Networking, Fourteenth

Edition, Wiley, 2021

The university does have a *limited number* of 'seats' available for online access to this textbook (using your OneID to log in) through the Leganto block on iLearn. Any additional reading for the unit will be provided via links accessed via iLearn.

Technologies Used and Required

This unit will be using lab computers for the workshop activities, quizzes and exams must be completed on the lab computers. As all the software used in the unit is free of cost, for some activities students will be encouraged to bring their personal laptop computer to class.

Methods of Communication

All announcements about unit-related matters will be communicated through iLearn. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check iLearn announcements, forums, and FAQ sections regularly. Students are encouraged to use the iLearn forums for asking questions about unit content and concepts. Where questions are about specific details in an assessment submission, this may need to be sent via a private forum post in the first instance (details are provided in iLearn about how this is set up) so as not to be at risk of breaching the university academic integrity policy.

Students should use the appropriate iLearn forms for contacting staff. There may be occasions where unit staff will email a student directly to their @students.mq.edu.au email address. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check their official university email regularly for communications from the university staff. Ensure that you read the unit iLearn communications section carefully about where to best direct your query depending on the nature of the query.