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Cisco Academy Support Center and Distance Education Course

Authors:
Khondkar Islam
Louis D'Alessandro

Keywords: Cisco; Academy; networking; Mason; curriculum; education; support

Abstract:
Because of the enormous growth in Information Technology (IT) over the past 20 years, an abundance of job opportunity requirements for a variety of IT specialists in high technology corporations and the U. S. Federal Government is apparent and is continually growing. George Mason University (Mason), with over 33,000 students enrolled located in Northern Virginia, has become the focal point for educating IT professionals to fill this need. Recognizing this opportunity, in 2005, Mason became a Cisco Regional Academy not only because of prestige and recognition, but also to add value to the networking concentration of the undergraduate IT degree of the Department of Applied IT (AIT). Now, the Academy has 45 active Cisco Academies from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC areas. This year Cisco shared their upcoming Academy restructuring initiative with Mason, and asked whether the university is receptive to this transition in becoming a Cisco Academy Support Center (ASC) and Instructor Training Center (ITC). Mason has been successful in the role of a Regional Academy, and was positive toward Cisco’s offer. This year, Mason has officially become an ASC that will serve 55 Cisco Academies in the State of Virginia and is in the process of becoming an ITC in May 2013. In this paper, we give a background of our partnership with Cisco Networking Academy, describe how we became a successful partner by blending Academy courses with AIT undergraduate degree curriculum and mentoring Local Academies, the transition process involved in becoming an ASC, and the added coverage and challenges Mason faces in the future. We also discuss the role of distance education (DE) on two important data communications courses of the undergraduate IT degree curriculum, because most of the materials of Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) part I and II are taught in these courses.

Pages: 8 to 15

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2013

Publication date: March 24, 2013

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4006

ISBN: 978-1-61208-256-1

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from March 24, 2013 to March 29, 2013