Instructor: Todd Dole
Semester: Spring 2026
Course Type:In Person with Additional Online Content
Meeting Times: M 1:00-2:15 PM
First Day of Class:January 12
Location: AH 204
Holidays / Breaks:January 19 (MLK Day), March 9-13 (Spring Break), April 3 (Easter)
Contact: todd.dole@hsutx.edu, Phone 325-670-1502, Office AH100
Coming Soon!
Monday: 2:15-4:15
Tuesday: 9:00-12:00
Wednesday: 2:00-4:00
Thursday: 9:00-12:00
Other times by appointment.
Students will obtain a comprehensive view of how computers are connected and how they achieve communication. Topics include wireless netowrks, physical connections, local area networks, and the protocols that enable the Internet. Students will also learn networking terminology and will study a variety of networking applications.
This year, the course will be a combination of in person lecture and online, asynchronous video content, of roughly equal lengths (1.15 hrs in person, 1.15 hrs online).
Note that the course will target most portions of the the CompTIA Network+ certification exam. We will also cover a light introduction to Network Programming
Required Textbook:CompTIA Network+ Guide to Networks by Jill West, available on Cowboy Access
This course will heavily utilize this textbook. Students will be expected to thoroughly read all material. We will cover some of the book material in lectures, but not all. You will be responsible to know all information from the book.
We will also use Cengage's MindTap platform (available free through Cowboy Access, subscription required for students who have opted out of Cowboy Access.)
| Week | Date | Topic | Reading/Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Week of January 12 | Introduction to the Course. Introduction to Cengage Mindtap. | Begin reading Chapter 1. |
| 2 | Week of January 19 | Introduction to Networking | No Class Monday. Read Chapter 1. Complete Chapter 1 exercises. |
| 3 | Week of January 26 | Infrastructure and Documentation. Network Programming I | Read Chapter 2. |
| 4 | Week of February 2 | Addressing | Read Chapter 3. Complete Chapter 3 exercises. |
| 5 | Week of February 9 | Protocols | Read Chapter 4. Complete Chapter 4 exercises. |
| 6 | Week of February 16 | Cabling. Network Programming II | Read Chapter 5. |
| 7 | Week of February 23 | Wireless Networking | Read Chapter 6. Complete Chapter 6 exercises. |
| 8 | Week of March 2 | Midterm Exam. Review and Catch Up Week. | No new readings |
| 9 | Week of March 16 | Network Architecture | Read Chapter 7. Complete Chapter 7 exercises. |
| 10 | Week of March 23 | Network Segmentation | Read Chapter 8. Complete Chapter 8 exercises |
| 11 | Week of March 30 | Wide Area Networking | Read Chapter 9. Complete Chapter 9 exercises. |
| 12 | Week of April 6 | Risk Management. Network Programming III | Read Chapter 10. Complete Chapter 10 exercises. |
| 13 | Week of April 13 | Access Control | Read Chapter 11. Complete Chapter 11 exercises. |
| 14 | Week of April 20 | Network Programming IV | |
| 15 | Week of April 28 | Performance and Recovery | Read Chapter 12. |
| 16 | May 5-8 | Final Exams |
Your grade in the course will be earned / calculated as follows:
A: 90-100
B: 80-89
C: 70-79
D: 60-69
F: 0-59
All exams are comprehensive. The final exam will take place at the scheduled time during finals week. Exams will never be collaborative in nature, so receiving any form of assistance from anyone other than the instructor is a violation of the academic integrity policy. You may only use study aids during the exam if they are expressly allowed by the instructor for that particular exam.
An individual with a disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a “person who has a physical or maaental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” Any student with a documented disability may choose to seek accommodations. Eligible students seeking accommodation should contact the Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities as soon as possible in the academic term (preferably during the first two weeks of a long semester) for which they are seeking accommodations. The director will prepare letters to appropriate faculty members concerning specific, reasonable academic adjustments for the student. The student is responsible for delivering accommodation letters and conferring with faculty members. Please refer to the most recent version of the Undergraduate Catalog for the complete policy. (Carol Krueger, Director of Undergraduate Advising and Disabilities, Office: Sandefer Memorial, 1st floor Academic Advising Center, Phone: 670-5867, Email: disabilityservices@hsutx.edu)
Peer-to-peer academic support (tutoring) is available for all undergraduate HSU students. The Academic Center for Enrichment (ACE) is open for virtual tutoring sessions via Zoom. To access instructions or make an appointment, open the ACE course on your Canvas dashboard. For additional information regarding academic support, contact the Advising Center at 325-670-1480 or tutoring@hsutx.edu.
In addition, all full or part-time students are eligible to receive free, confidential, and voluntary counseling services at HSU. Services include consultation, evaluation, counseling, and crisis support services for students facing issues impacting their overall well-being. To obtain any of these services, students may call The Office of Counseling Services at (325) 671-2272, email counseling@hsutx.edu, or begin the intake process by completing our online forms at https://www.hsutx.edu/intake.
Violations of academic integrity have been described to some degree in other sections of this syllabus. Cases of suspected academic dishonesty will be handled in accordance with university policies outlined in the Undergraduate Catalog and in the Student Handbook. The current catalog prescribes that “no student who has violated the Academic Integrity Policy will be allowed to graduate from Hardin-Simmons University with honors.” Penalties will be assigned at the discretion of the instructor and typically range from failure on the assignment to failure of the course. A general rule-of-thumb is that a first offense (if not too major) will result in a zero on the assignment and a second offense will result in an F for the course. The current catalog states that an F earned in this way cannot be replaced by retaking the course.
There is an acceptable time and place to use large language models such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. These tools may be used to help you learn, to answer questions you have about the algorithms or data structures we will cover, or to give you very broad help on lab assignments. However, students are discouraged from using LLM's for homework for this course. This course is foundational to a career in the world of computer science. The goal of all lab assignments is for you to learn the material and skill necessary to succeed in the field. These are skills that in many cases you may have to demonstrate from memory in job interviews. Do not cut take shortcuts by having AI do the work for you. If AI is used, students are required to cite the tool used in a code comment at the start of the file. Students deemed to have turned in work generated by AI without proper citation will be in violation of the Academic Integrity provisions listed above, with the same penalties.
The instructor may occasionally use email to communicate with the class as a whole or with individuals. When contacting you for this course the instructor will use your HSU email account. You are expected to check your HSU email account at least once per day and you will be held responsible for any content distributed in this way.
Regarding class attendance, the Undergraduate Catalog states:
Accordingly, absence from more than 25 percent of class meetings and/or laboratory sessions scheduled for a course (including absences because of athletic participation) is regarded as excessive, and a grade of F may be assigned as deemed appropriate by the professor.