Student Motivation in Computer Networking Courses

Abstract

As it turns out, all of these hands-on projects are very useful and applicable to the learners’ daily tasks and activities, and lead to a higher form of student motivation, namely, selfmotivation. Teaching theory with hands-on components is shown to be an effective way of conveying information to learners [1]. This is particularly true for teaching computer networking courses, since the use of communication applications such as email and Web browsers has become common for most in recent years. For teaching various computer networking courses, the author has several hands-on projects utilizing advanced computer technologies and freely available software. For example, Java applets can be used for live animation, Ethereal for monitoring packets in transmission, ZoneAlarm for creating personal firewalls, and Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer for analyzing the security settings of a computer. These technologies and software are evidence that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. As it turns out, all of these hands-on projects are very useful and applicable to the learners’ daily tasks and activities, and lead to a higher form of student motivation, namely, self-motivation. In each of the following sections, the technology and student motivation associated with each assigned project are described in detail. Thus, section 1 deals with Java applets, section 2 with Ethereal, and section 3 with computer network security software.