Network Services: A Spiral Teaching Curriculum (Part III)

Important: Translated automatically from Spanish by 🌐💬 Aphra 1.0.0

Having defined the objective of this curriculum design, classified the assessment criteria1, and established a general weekly plan, we’ll conclude this series by providing a detailed session-by-session breakdown of one of the units. Specifically, Unit 1: “Create your own hosting server”, corresponding to weeks 3-8 of the general plan, that is, a total of 42 sessions.

You have the complete proposal in the following table:

I have structured each week in the same way: four sessions with new content, an extra session for the slower ones to finish and for the more advanced ones to expand, an assessment session and another for reviewing it (ideally, these last two sessions would be consecutive in time).

Each session where new content is taught begins with a discussion prompt. A question is posed that highlights a problem², based on the students’ prior knowledge. During that hour, the tools to solve that problem the next time it arises will be provided. Afterward, a hands-on activity will be carried out so that they can somehow “touch” the proposed solution.

To prevent pending work from accumulating for students who need more time, a full hour will be dedicated to finishing it, clearing doubts, and ensuring they are prepared for an assessment. More advanced students can perform an additional challenge activity to improve their learning transfer³.

We arrive at the assessment session, where what they have learned will be put to the test. It is very important that the teacher is attentive to the different difficulties that students encounter.

And lastly, and most importantly, the week ends with the review session. It is probably the key session, as it allows us to apply quality formative assessment⁴. Students must be aware that it won’t be the last time they have to test that knowledge, so they pay enough attention. In this hour, the teacher will explain and clarify the difficulties detected in the previous session.

The last two weeks of the unit are a bit different from the rest. In the penultimate week, the most purely theoretical concepts are worked on. On many occasions, we start with the theoretical explanation before moving on to practice. I think that if we only teach the basic theory at the beginning, students will be much better prepared to understand complex concepts after performing several practical tests, as they will be able to create connections with previous knowledge more easily. The last week is devoted to a project that integrates all the content seen in the unit (and potentially in previous units). It is important that it is as applied as possible, trying to have a real utility. Thus, students will verify that what they have learned will serve them in their professional future and will feel more motivated to continue learning.

With this approach, we ensure that each learning outcome⁵ is addressed over an extended period, far more thoroughly than if covered in a single, isolated unit. It would be good to take advantage of any circumstance in subsequent units to use them again, thus achieving spaced review⁶. The only objective of those we proposed that is left a bit lacking is the one related to learning transfer. It would be ideal for them to put the contents into practice in more varied situations and in different operating systems, but it is difficult to achieve this with the time so tight to deliver the complete curriculum⁷. The times dedicated to challenge activities can be used for this purpose.

I hope you find it, at the very least, interesting. Perhaps the current circumstances are not ideal to put something like this into practice for the first time. We are starting a course full of uncertainties, in which we will likely have to modify our planning practically every day. If I manage to carry out a good strategy that can be replicated, you will be the first to know. I hope you also share it in that case.

Much encouragement and good luck.