Best Practices*

Ideas to help you when
implementing Best Practices in the
Cisco Network Academy Program Best Practices Introduction

Best Practices have always been an important component in the CNAP. Short
explanations were included in the old Teachers’ Guide 1.50 and are now
included in the preface for each semester. The following quote comes from the
preface of Semester 1 version 2.1:

A list of Academy Best Teaching Practices has been compiled. It is
imperative that you use a wide variety of these Best Practices to present

applying the Best Practices. The handout has three components.

The first component has a short explanation of Bloom’s Taxonomy as it is applied
to CNAP.

The second component is a chart that demonstrates the main and secondary
purposes of each Best Practice as well as the class structure generally used
during implementation.

The third component is an expanded explanation of most of the Best Practices.
Each explanation has a description, a brief statement of research, some
implementation ideas and a rubric for assessing the quality of the trainee/student
work.

• The following Best Practices are included:
• Challenges
• Graphic Organizers
• Group Work
• Journals
• Kinesthetic Activities
• Lab Exams/Activities
• Mini-Lecture
• Portfolios
• PowerPoint Presentations
• Presentations
• Reflection
• Rubrics

The six levels beginning with the lowest level of thinking are as follows:
• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

Definitions are included for each level with examples from the networking
curriculum.

Level 1 Knowledge

Knowledge allows students to define, describe, list, identify, label, outline, select
and state facts regarding content. The objective is to have students know
common terms, specific facts, methods and procedures, basic concepts and
principles.
Examples:
• List the full names for the acronyms-ARP, RARP, IOS, RIP, IGRP, ACL,
ISDN, etc.
• Identify how many bits comprise an IP address. (Sem 1)

Level 2 Comprehension
Comprehension allows students to paraphrase, defend, estimate, explain,
distinguish, give examples, infer, predict, or summarize. It requires the ability to
grasp the meaning of material, understand facts and principles, interpret verbal
material, and justify methods and procedures.
Examples:
• Distinguish between standard and extended Access Control Lists (Sem 3)
• Give examples of IOS commands useful for examining different router

Level 5 Synthesis
Synthesis allows students to combine, devise, compose, organize, plan,
reorganize, revise, rewrite, and generate. It involves the ability to put parts
together to form a whole item; write a well-organized essay; write creatively;
integrate learning from different areas in to a plan for solving a problem or form a
new scheme for classifying ideas and events.
Examples:
• Generate a design for an elementary school LAN. (Sem 3) Generate a design
for a School District WAN. (Sem 4)
• Plan a school-wide structured cabling installation for Net Day. (Sem 1)
• Compose a subnetted IP address scheme for a class C network (192.18.9.0)
which leads to

Level 6 Evaluation
Evaluation requires students to appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, support,
conclude, or interpret. It’s the ability to judge the value of material for a given
purpose and to evaluate logical consistency of written material and the adequacy
of conclusions. Judgements should be based on specific criteria given by the
instructor of determined by the students.
Examples:
• Your compnay has decided to use Category 6 UTP (instead of CAT 5, 5e, or
7) – support their decision.
• Interpret the following result of a “show ip interface command: Serial 0 is
administratively down; line protocol is down”.
• Contrast the metrics used by RIP with the metrics used by IGRP (Sem 2).
• Use a rubric to compare the TCS LAN and WAN solutions designed by the
class groups. (Sem 3 and Sem 4)
• Compare the following two LAN technologies for use in a high school
environment on a limited budget: 10BASE-T Ethernet and 100BASE-TX Fast
Ethernet (Smes 1 and 3).
Best Practices

Challenges

Description:
Challenges are problem-based labs or projects, advocated by AAAS Project
2061 (a science education reform project). These exercises are the opposite of
cookbook, or step-by-step, labs. Instead, they encourage students to work on
their own to develop solutions to various problems or challenges.

The challenges vary in content and duration (from fifty minutes to three weeks),
and are comprised of two basic parts. First, the lab asks students to solve a
given problem. Second, it asks the students to create a product. For example, a
simple 50-minute challenge lab for the first semester might be titled “Make a
Patch Cable that Works Successfully”. A three-week challenge that could teach
more complex tasks might be called “Wire the School Computer Lab”. Research:
While little research deals with challenges per se, many of the components that
make up a “challenge” have been thoroughly studied and have consistently
shown possible results. Research shows that the most effective learning

challenges in their journals. Periodically, have the students review their journals
for comments regarding challenges. Have them look for evidence of growth in
solving them, improved strategies, and general increase in content knowledge.

Some students may wish to include their challenges in their portfolios. Rubric:
A quality challenge solution will meet the following criteria:
• Use a problem solving format
• Use a logical process
• Solve the challenge correctly
• Demonstrate the thinking process
• Show evidence of critical thinking including analysis, comparison, synthesis
and evaluation
• Show thorough understanding of content
• Use references effectively (web research or instructional manual)


symbols. These graphic organizers are discussed in detail in the Instructors'
Guide. Research:
Research indicates that the use of organizers benefits all learners in all content
areas. In addition, specific testing was completed to study visually/spatially
talented and visually/spatially challenged student learners to determine who
benefited most as a result of using visual tools. It was found that both groups
benefited. A secondary outcome was a more positive outlook toward the subject
matter with greater gains by the challenged learners. Instructors have indicated
in studies that their instruction was improved through the use of graphic
organizers Implementation:
Each type of organizer has its unique purposes and uses. These are described
for ten of the organizers in an in-depth explanation in the instructors' guide. One
main guide is that the graphical organizer chosen should be congruent with the
instructors' purpose and enhance the concepts of the topic being discussed.

Organizers can be copied and given to each learner or presented electronically
for them to sketch. Some instructors complete the organizer on a chart,
whiteboard or poster while explaining the information. This provides a visual
model for learners to copy and should be used when first using organizers or
when presenting exceptionally complex concepts.

Learners can use the graphical organizers to review with a partner or group
before a project or a test. These could be placed in their journal or portfolio.


Bests Practices

Groupwork

Description:
Groupwork refers to using a variety of trainee/student groups to enhance
learning. Learners can be grouped for reviewing, questioning, learning content,
doing performance labs, designing projects, assessing their learning and other
suitable tasks. Within cooperative teams, individuals seek outcomes that are
beneficial to themselves and other members of the group. Working together,
students and trainees are able to maximize their own and each other's learning.

Groups can be pairs or partners, small groups of 3-5 or larger, teams or
competitive teams, large groups of 9 to 15, and whole class groups. Research:
Numerous research studies have been conducted on ways to improve learner

presenting, producing, can be established with specific criteria for the
presentation or product that provides evidence of the individual learning. Rubrics:
Group Effort
• Utilizes individual strengths to enhance the process
• Reaches consensus through negotiation and compromise
• Collaborates effectively and efficiently
• Utilizes resources and materials to maximum advantage
• Keeps within timelines and meets all set deadlines
• Reflects on progress, process and product

Individual Effort
• Performs multiple roles and responsibilities within the group
• Respects other members feelings, abilities, opinions, contributions
• Contributes equitably within the group
• Enhances the strength of the group
• Utilizes resources and materials effectively and efficiently
• Meets set deadlines
• Reflects on progress, process and product

(Rubrics are also available for group planning and group problem solving.)


thoughts, overtime, allow the learner to analyze and chart his/her progress in
understanding the topic. The journal will include events that failed as well as
those that succeeded.

The types of journal entries most applicable for Networking Academies’ students
include:
• daily reflections
• troubleshooting details
• lab procedures and observations
• equipment logs
• hardware and software notes
• router configurations
• contacts & resources
• questions
• designs
While the journal becomes much more important as the students do more
network design and installation work, good habits can be developed by starting
with a journal the first day of the first semester. Research:
Journals were "reinvented" within the last few decades not for the value of the
content, but for the value to the author as a response to the prevailing attitudes of
learners that were reported by researchers. Learners felt that the success or
failure of their learning program was outside of their control. Assessments were
done "on them"--their role was passive rather than as an active learner.

Students were found to lack a sense of ownership, were not self-directed, lacked
the ability to self-reflect and exhibited low expectations of themselves. Where
these attitudes were most prevalent, it was noted that students were excluded

• Show independent thinking by providing own solutions; synthesizing major
concepts; and demonstrating connections between major concepts and
content
• Use sketches, diagrams, analogies and notes to clarify meaning
• Include important content
• Can be used to solve problems and as a resource for further learning
• Include reflections and evidence of self-analysis
• Cross-references with other problems, solutions, and ideas in the journal