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NOVA COLLEGE-WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY ITE 115 - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER APPLICATIONS & CONCEPTS (3 CR.)

Course Description

Covers computer concepts and Internet skills and uses a software suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software to demonstrate skills. Lecture - 3 hours per week

Course Prerequisites/Co-requisites

Students must be able to read and write at the college level.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Identify and discuss the four main functions of computer hardware: input, processing, output, and storage.

Identify and describe major hardware components. Identify, describe and use communications and networking terminology and technology to include

Internet operations and its uses. Describe the major operating system functions and demonstrate usage of operating system services

to include: disk management, file management, and memory management. Identify and discuss computer ethics and security issues. Demonstrate searching, validation, and evaluation of information found online and in library

databases. Identify, discuss and use important categories of application software: word processing, spreadsheet,

database management, and presentation graphics. Identify and discuss software development processes and programming languages. Create a Web site with xhtml tags and post to a Web server Identify and discuss Decision Support Systems, Artificial Intelligence, agents, and emerging

technology. (optional)

Course Content

Computer Hardware Communications Technology Operating Systems Ethics and Security Information Literacy Productivity Tools

Word Processing Spreadsheets Databases Presentation Graphics

Web Authoring and Publishing Software Development Specialized and Emerging Technologies (optional)

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Computer Hardware

Input/Output

Define the term hardware. Describe the different monitor and resolution types: Describe the use of the keyboard and other input devices. Describe various pointing devices (mouse, trackball, joystick, touchpad). Discuss different print technologies. Discuss the function of hardware ports (serial, parallel, USB, firewire).

Processing

Define the term CPU. Discuss the function of the motherboard. Define the term expansion slot. Discuss the processing speed/system clock. Discuss the function of the bus.

Storage

Differentiate between the different types of storage (primary and secondary). Describe types of storage (dynamic and persistent). List the data storage hierarchy (Bits, Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, and Terabytes).

Communications Technologies

Discuss essential Telephony principles. Describe telecommunication devices Describe LANS, WANS, the Internet

Define Wireless Define Intranets Define Client/Server and other architectures Define Topologies

Define the following terms and use the capabilities within the Internet - World Wide Web, Uniform Resource Locator, Domain Names, File Transfer, Telnet and other common protocols

Explain the operations of Web servers and browsers. Define the term Search Engine and use a search engine to identify relevant Web sites. Explain how to evaluate a Web site for relevancy, bias and credibility. Send and receive email with an attachment. Name and define the parts that make up a search engine. Discuss how Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and podcasting can be

used to communicate and collaborate.

Operating Systems

Define the term operating system and discuss major operating system functions Compare and contrast commonly used operating systems

Windows Unix/Linux Apple

Distinguish between system software and application software Distinguish between a command-based system and graphical user interface. Identify and describe the parts and use of a window in a GUI

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Distinguish between active window and background items Identify and be able to use common dialog box controls:

-Use (radio) buttons -Use check boxes -Use text box -Use list box -Identify command buttons.

Identify the various shapes and significance of the mouse pointer. Explain the concept of disk formatting Demonstrate desktop management skills

Use themes, screen savers, backgrounds Use Tiling, cascading Use Short-cuts and icons Use Task bar, Quick Launch, Desktop menus

Demonstrate file management skills Create and recognize valid file names and folders Use find, copy, move, rename, delete files and folders Explain the deletion process and recovery methods Navigation and selection via GUI tools

Use the operating system Help system to find answers to questions about operations and command usage

Ethics And Security

Distinguish among a computer virus, worm, Trojan horse, denial of service attack, back door and spoofing, and identify ways to safeguard against these attacks.

Discuss and explain the concepts of: Hacking and Cracking Authorization Attacks, Spam, Phishing, Malware

Discuss and explain intellectual property rights, piracy, and information theft. Discuss and explain plagiarism and issues associated with using the Web for research. Discuss and explain codes of conduct and privacy issues associated with computing. Discuss social, legal, and ethical issues including privacy, intellectual property, health

concerns, green computing, and accessibility.

Information Literacy

Identify types and purposes of resource formats (books, encyclopedias, DVDs, popular publications, scholarly publications, Internet websites, Wikipedia).

Construct a search strategy using appropriate commands for the information retrieval system selected (phrase, truncation, Boolean operators, and subject terms).

Explain how to evaluate information found online and in library databases for reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias.

Productivity Tools

Word Processing

Identify the significant components of the word processing interface. Use the Help system. Perform basic editing, text formatting, move, copy, and cut and paste functions. Use available view modes. Use essential save and backup options. Use print functions. Create headers and footers.

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Use document identification features such as embedded date, time and pagination in headers and/or footers

Use document style features such as font styles, sizes, colors, margins, alignment, and indentation

Use document context manipulation functions, such as find, search and replace, spell checker, and a grammarian.

Spreadsheets

Identify and explain the significant components of the spreadsheet interface. Note: emphasis should be on the CUI (common user interface) shared between most productivity tools.

Use the Help system. Perform basic editing, data entry, move, copy, and cut and paste functions. Perform basic insertion, deletion and modifications to at the sheet/workbook level. Create, and use formulas. Use basic, built-in spreadsheet functions Use various addressing and referencing schemes. Use essential formatting features, including data type, color, alignment, shading, and font

characteristics. Use print functions. Perform basic data representation using graphs and charts.

Databases

Distinguish among file, record, field and character Describe the purpose and uses of:

Tables Forms Reports Queries

Use various GUI based design tools for database creation and manipulation such as wizards or manual database design.

Use relational concepts such as primary and foreign keys, constraints, and referential integrity.

Create and use simple queries for searching and manipulating datasets. Create simple reports and forms using a GUI interface, including grouping and sorting

features.

Presentation Graphics

Describe use of presentations, including discussion on appropriate data display techniques. Create and manipulate simple slide shows with outlines and notes. Create slide presentation that includes text, graphics, animation, and transitions. Use design layouts and templates for presentations.

Web Authoring And Publishing

Create a Web page using the following xhtml tags: Basic tags (head, body, title) DTD or schema Insert a graphic using the img tag. Create a link using the a tag. Use table tags to create a table. (table, td, tr) Insert headings (h1...h6) Insert ordered and unordered lists (ul, ol, li)

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Create simple inline and embedded styles using CSS Publish a Web page on the Internet

Software Development

Define and discuss each step in the program development cycle. Define and discuss basic program design and methodologies

Algorithms Structured and Object-Oriented Programming Control Structures

Define and discuss essentials of program development. Planning and Analysis Coding Debugging and testing Maintenance

Optional Topics

Specialized And Emerging Technologies

Describe the types of Management Information Systems Executive Information Systems Decision and Group Decision Support Systems Knowledge-based and Expert Systems

Describe the principles in emerging information systems technologies Artificial Intelligence

Learning Systems Natural Language Processing Neural networks

Software agents Search engine technologies Robotics Bioinformatics