Please read this document Carefully! It contains information all students who have enrolled in the Cisco IT Essentials or Cisco Networking courses need to be successful at CAVI.

the following document attempts to summarize the locations of resources and the tasks which students must complete in order to pass their chosen courses.

This document is subject to change without notice and will contain inaccuracies which we will attempt to fix as soon as possible. If you notice an error please email cavi-instructors at ciscovision.org.

On course completion a certificate will be given to the student containing a list of tasks and skills the student should have attained as part of the course. No grades are included on the certificate. You either get a certificate if you pass, or you don't and you fail. You can retake a course if you fail, (at aditional charge if not in a country where fees have been waved.).

Each course runs for 1 semester.

As you proceed through your courses you will be graded on several components. You must pass every component. It is not sufficient to do really well in the chapter tests, and not submit any labs. Students who do not adequately complete all sections below will not pass, regardless of their marks in any one section. You will be given progress reports and warnings of potentially unsatisfactory work as you proceed and given the means to correct and resubmit it.

 The Basic mark breakdown for courses is as follows:

Labs and worksheets are worth 30% of your mark.
Module exams are worth 30% of your mark collectively.
Final exam or exams are worth 30%.
10% goes towards a practical task or our observations of you during your practical work.

Note The terms chapter and module are considered the same and are used interchangeably.

Resources:

You will need the following resources to complete your studies, and optional resources are listed. Where differences exist between courses they will be noted.

Cisco Netspace login
Cucat Wiki class page which includes the accessible labs and worksheets.
Audio lectures, recordings of past lectures given.
Instructional material for navigating courses and the site.

Netspace login:

All students enrolled in Cisco based courses must have a Cisco Netspace student login. It will allow them to log into The Cisco Academy

 This login is used to read curriculum for your course if desired, and is used to take and keep track of all your online chapter and final tests in the gradebook. It also keeps track of which courses you have completed, and gives you access to the Alumni area which is a free resource allowing graduates to retain access to the online curriculum after completion. Students who do not have a functional and accurate academy login cannot receive certificates for completing these courses.

cucat wiki:

Cucat.org

 contains accessible resources for your course, including modified curriculum notes where required, labs and worksheets collected together and instructional material.

This should be your first stop for accessible resources.

taking online exams:

There are various exams for chapters, and a final exam or exams at the end of a course. The courses have one exam per chapter for most chapters, and final exams. They also have a course feedback option that will tell you what sections you need to study in more depth when you grade your exams.

You should take a module exam once you complete a module. Students are allowed multiple attempts at a module exam. A mark >75% in a module exam is a pass for that module.

To take an exam, login to cisco Netspace select the class you are interested in from the table of classes you are enrolled in. Select the take assessment link.

Exams are not allways available for students to take, and must be activated by an instructor. Module exams can be active for a week at a time, before they need to be reactivated. Please check if your exams are active before asking an instructor to activate them for you. To have exams activated, email your instructor with the course to be activated. Please specify your class. Right now is not a reasonable or achievable activation time generally speaking.

We usually batch activate all module exams for a course in a particular class for a week.

A student has 2 hours to complete a module exam. If your vision precludes you from seeing pictures easily, you should open the exam diagram descriptions from the cucat website in a separate windo or tab before starting the exam.

Online research is not forbidden in a chapter exam but is highly discouraged. If a student runs out of time because they were busy researching material in an exam we will not have any sympathy for you. You should have learned your material from the curriculum, lecture or online research before sitting the chapter exam. Students get 3 attempts at a module exam, and your final attempt mark is placed in the gradebook. You must score over 75% to pass a module exam.

final exams:

There are final exams for the courses. A final exam usually takes 3 hours to complete and contains over 50 questions. Final exams can only be active for an 8 hour time window. Students should specify a future time at which they wish to take an exam, and it will be activated for them.

Diagram descriptions will be emailed to students before taking final exams and an instructor will be with you on Skype or Ventrilo.

checking your answers:

After a student has taken an exam, they may obtain access to audio answers if they exist. This is in adition to the exam feedback provided by Cisco. To obtain your exam feedback, select the link once you have graded your exam. You must grade an exam for the marks to appear in the gradebook. If you close out of an exam it will not show as complete on the system and you will be locked out of taking that particular exam until an instructor unlocks it for you. Remember that clicking the link for an exam on the take an assessment page starts an attempt of that exam. Try to avoid this situation if at all possible, as these situations can be incredibly difficult to sort out. If you fail an exam once, please let your instructor know before attempting it again so that they can assist you.

General Information

Time Zones

Anyone wishing to do their own timezone conversions should check out this excellent timezone calculator. If you own a device with world clock functionality you may wish to add Perth Western Australia to your list of cities to aid in conversion. The academy runs on Perth Time in Western Australia. Note that when daylight savings comes into affect you will have to ajust your start times accordingly for your location.

From the whole CAVI team, we look forward to working with you in the upcoming semester and beyond. Regards, Your CAVI Instructors

Important Information For Students - Cisco Courses