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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Advanced Networking Technology - SJT2

SUMMARY:
June 28th, 2016 - August 11th, 2016
Task 1: 23 pages including cover page and sources (none) and 1 network diagram

Total: 23 pages

July 7th, 2016
Holy wow, this class is not for a newbie! Prior networking experience is needed!  I've really had no issues understanding any of the classes until this one.  My experience aligns more with system administration then network administration, so this is going to be one tough class/task!  They provide a section to read if you need a refresher, but it's so minimal and pointless compared to what this class covers.

August 11th, 2016
This task is a monster!  Maybe that's because I'm more of a systems guy, not a network guy?  Thankfully my network admin at work was super helpful in looking at my design and giving me pointers, walking me through how our organization is setup and things I may want to think about when designing this one.  I went through 4 revisions of it before he approved it.  I spent an insane amount of time on this part.  I then spent a couple of days writing the paper, didn't seem bad.  My first submission was 13 pages long plus the network diagram submitted as a separate file.

I submitted Task 1 on August 7th and it was returned for revisions on August 9th.  I had to get a little more detailed on the last three parts of the paper, Technical Approach, Projector Requirements, and Network Performance.  Everything else was good.  I ended up writing another 10 pages to cover this....yeah, I got detailed, ha!  I submitted it on the 10th and expect it to be graded tomorrow morning.  I also expect that it will pass.

I've already moved on to Information Technology Management while waiting for the task to be reviewed.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Technical Writing - MCT2

SUMMARY:
June 1st, 2016 - July 28th, 20016
Task 1: 8 pages including cover/sources
Task 2: 8 pages including cover/sources. 4 page Usability Test Plan. 3 page revised instructions.
Task 3: 4 page TOC (including cover page), 4 sample pages, 8 slide presentation

Total: 31 pages + 8 slide power point.  All tasks accepted on the first attempt!

June 8th, 2016
Task 1 is completed, accepted on first attempt.  The task is fairly simple, not bad at all.  I chose a 6 page section out of the manual for my Netgear Nighthawk X4 router, focusing on FTP Storage Setup and accessing outside the local network.  Not having complete prior knowledge to the processing document helps as you view it from a different angle this way.

June 15th, 2016
Task 2 has been frustrating to get started.  I had to send the course mentor a few e-mails because I couldn't find an example of what the Usability Test Plan should look like.  Thankfully she was able to help and I completed that tonight and had a novice user test the horrible Google Sheet document they have you test with and then redesign.  Tomorrow I'm going to take the results of the test plan and redesign the technical document and write the paper.  Hopefully will submit tomorrow, Friday at the latest.  If all goes well (it never does), I'll have this class completed this weekend. It would be my fastest completed class at just 2.5 weeks.  Realistically, I could see someone completing this class in a week, easily, but I've been busy with other things. #life, ha.

June 19th, 2016
Submitted Task 2 on the 16th and got word this morning that it was accepted, first attempt!  Once I figured out how to make the Usability Test Plan, thanks to the course mentor, the task was cake, and fun!  I thought my revised document was great, toot toot.  Next up, Task 3 and this class is done.  Task 3 looks like a monster, but hoping to complete it by Tuesday night and have this class official done by the weekend!

June 27th, 2016
Received and exciting e-mail today from WGU.  I'm receiving Excellence Award for my work on Task 2.  I'm pretty stoked about this because I thought the task was done really well, my best work yet, and now this lets me know that I was right, yay!

June 28th, 2016
Submitted Task 3 on the 26th and just got word back that it passed, first attempt, woot!  The task wasn't even remotely as long or bad as I thought it would be.  It was broken into three sections, each submitted as separate documents, all submitted at the same time though.  The three files were my Table of Contents, my sample pages, and my presentation power point.  The Pearson text books give great examples of what you need to do for the TOB, and the sample pages you already know what to do as you did the same thing in Task 2.

My sample pages were "only" 4 pages long, BUT, I covered 5 sections.  The sections included step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots to guide the users.

That's a wrap, on to Advanced Networking Technology!

Update: Received an email stating that I receiving another Excellence Award, this time for my work on Task 3!  Apparently I'm pretty good at Technical Writing, haha!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Disaster Recovery Planning, Prevention and Response - FXT2

SUMMARY:
May 1st, 2016 - June 1st, 2016
Task 1: Power point with 19 slides.
Task 2: 11 pages including cover and sources
Task 3: 10 pages (using template)

Total: 22 pages + 19 slide PowerPoint


May 16th, 2016
Turned in Task 1, a power point and had it returned. I just had to add a bit more presenter notes to each slide, no biggie, accepted on 2nd attempt.  Fairly easy task. This course ties right into Risk Management, take the two back to back and get them out of the way. On to task 2! Goal is to complete task 2 this weekend and task 3 by the following weekend.  I'm about 2 weeks behind where I'd like to be to allow me to finish the program in two terms.  I expect to make up for this time during my next two classes though, Technical Writing and Advanced Networking!

May 25th, 2016
Took a couple of attempts, but thanks to guidance of the graders and the course mentor on one area, I was able to complete Task 2 pretty quick.  Task 3 is submitted as well as of last night and I'm hoping that it gets graded by tomorrow and that I pass, if so, this class is a wrap!

June 1st, 2016
After one revision to task 3, the document was resubmitted and passed.

This class ties heavily into Risk Management. I suggest taking Risk Management first, then this class.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Risk Management - JIT2

SUMMARY:
March 2nd, 2016 - April 6th, 2016
Task 1 Part A: 10 pages including cover page and sources page (none)
Task 1 Part B: 9 pages including cover page and sources page (none)
Task 1 Part C: 3 pages including cover page and sources page (none)
Total: 22 pages, accepted on first attempt!


March 2nd, 2016
Here we go! While waiting for my final paper to be accepted for Cyberlaw, I'm getting a jump start on Risk Management.  Today I spent a couple of hours on the course.  The pacing guide sets you up to complete the course in 4 weeks.  The course mentor is putting on events and stating that with her cohort, it can be completed in about 10 days.  That being said, I'm honestly hoping to knock this class out in 14 days.  I have the rubric outline of the paper created and ready to go.  Looking through the course material, should be able to complete 60% of the class this weekend.  The longest part, besides the task, is going to be reading a bunch of chapters.  Speaking of the task...there's only 1, however, it's a big one! I guess it's three huge sections to complete, oh joy!

April 6th, 2016
The cohort helped a little with defining what you should include in the task, but wasn't as helpful as I thought it might be.  I suppose that's because you have to remember that at WGU, it's 99% all self taught, so the cohort gives some guidance but don't expect clear answers and explanations of content. You may get that by contacting course mentors directly though.  While the schedule they give you is completely obtainable if you're an avid reader....I'm not so I took my sweet time.

There is only a single task for JIT2 and it's actually not that bad!  It is however long.  The task is split into 3 sections, A, B, and C.  I made a separate document for each section but submitted them all at the same time.  It was accepted on my first attempt.

Term 1 is completed 4 weeks early and I'm already starting on FXT2, Disaster Recovery! Yay!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Degree Plan

With any luck, this is my degree plan. This will allow me to finish my master degree in just two terms. The first number is the number of weeks I hope it takes me. First two courses are now complete at the time of this posting. Clearly I have to step up my game and stop procrastinating to meet these goals.

TERM 1
Current and Emerging Technology 11/01 - 12/18
Cyberlaw 12/18 - 3/07
2- Risk Management - 3/06 - 3/20

TERM 2

5- Disaster Recovery - 4/6 - 5/22  
4- Tech Writing- 5/22 - 6/5   
5- Advanced Networking- 6/5 - 7/3
4- IT Management- 7/3  -  7/21
4- Power and Influence- 7/21 - 8/14
4- Tech Globalization- 8/15 - 9/4
4- Capstone Written- 9/5 - 10/2
3- Capstone Oral- 10/3- 10/20

Cyberlaw, Regulations, and Compliance - TFT2

SUMMARY:
Course date: December 20th, 2015 - March 9th, 2016
Task 1: 5 pages including cover and citation page. Accepted on 1st submission.
Task 2: 5 pages including cover and citation page. Accepted on 1st submission.
Task 3: 7 pages including cover and citation page. Accepted on 5th submission.
Task 4: 12 pages including cover and citation page. Accepted on 3rd submission.

December 20th, 2015
After a couple days off, I've started TFT2.  This is going to be a harder one because of the amount of reading material. Did I mention I hate reading? Oh joy!

After reading a little bit, I decided to skip ahead and take a look at Task 1. After seeing it, I felt pretty confident I could knock it the task out and continue reading while it is in for review.  I usually am around 100 in line on TaskStream, 47 this time, woot! Should get word back tomorrow, I hope.

December 21th, 2015
Task 1 accepted on first submission!

December 22nd, 2015
Task 2 submitted. Number 77. I don't expect to get word back until the 24th.
I found this task much more difficult than Task 1.  You really think about what would prevent the breach and then look through a lot of documents to find standards and recommendations to keep it from happening in the future.  Figuring out how to cite the ISO documents....well, I'll find out IF I figured it out when the review is done, haha.

December 22nd, 2015
Task 2 accepted on first submission!

March 2nd, 2016
Yeah...that's right, over 2 months later, ha! After Task 2, I got off course and took a month and a half break.  Finally I started working on Task 3 and it kicked my butt for a month! After 5 revisions, the paper was finally accepted on 2/20/2016...almost two months since Task 2! Yikes!  Finally getting that paper completed gave me the boost I needed to keep going.  Yesterday I submitted Task 4, the final task for the class.  I'm hoping to hear back tomorrow or the following day for sure.  Until then, I've already started on my third class, Risk Management.

March 6th, 2016
Task 4 was sent back for some revisions. Knocked the revisions out in a couple of hours and resubmitted.

March 9th, 2016
Task was sent back because I lacked a few key words in my long explanation of two sections. Added, submitted, passed! TFT2 is complete and now time to focus on JIT2.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Current and Emerging Technology - LYT2

SUMMARY:
Time to complete course: November 1st - December 18th
Task 1: 7 pages, 3rd attempt
Task 2: 12 pages, 2nd attempt
Task 3:  14 pages, 1st attempt

TIPS: Can not stress enough to read the scenario and course mentor tips CAREFULLY!  Doing this will help allow you not to have to do any revisions.

November 8th, 2015
I originally started out with the Risk Management course but the school suggests a specific order to take the courses in, so I followed their recommendation. Instead I'm now in my first class, Current and Emerging Technology (LYT2). I started the class a week ago and I've already completed 47% of the class! I must say though, the first chapter out of a book that they have you read, I thought I may have to quit, that I was in over my head. It was very dry and hard to follow, reading instructions on how to set the time on a VCR would have been better. However, after I finished the chapter and moved on, chapters from other books and articles have been pleasant to read. One issue I ran into is that I have my first task done (Friday), a paper that's a response to an RFP, however, I can't submit it as there's an issue with my TaskStream account. I'm hoping that this issue is resolved so I can submit it tomorrow (Monday). The nice thing is that this isn't holding me up at all as I just went ahead and continued diving deeper into the course material.

November 10th, 2015
Finally gained access to TaskStream yesterday but I'm just now submitting my paper tonight.  After a few reviews, I realized that my paper was lacking content. I ended up adding 3.5 more pages, with graphical examples of my solutions to the RFP.  I just uploaded it and sent in to TurnItIn. I'm hoping to have it reviewed by TII in the next hour (I'll check after tonight's episode of The Flash...). After that, I'll hit the fancy submit button and see if I can pass the task on the first try! Fingers crossed!

Oh, and I'm now 58% complete with the course. My goal is to complete the course by the 23rd...13 days left...well..12 pretty much!

November 12th, 2015
Now 74% complete with the course. I could have been done with the reading and on to the last two tasks, but I haven't done too much the last two days as I've been under the weather.  My first task got returned today, after almost 48hrs since I submitted it. I had to revise 1 out of 6 objectives, which wasn't bad. I wrote an additional page and half, better explaining the decisions and submitted it again. Not expecting to find out the status for another two days. I really like that they show you the position of your paper in the line to get reviewed. The first submission, I was #90, new submission was #101.

My second weekly call with the mentor was tonight. It lasted almost 20 minutes because I had a couple of questions. I expect future calls to be about 5 minutes.

I should have all reading done for the course by Saturday and take all of next week to complete the last two tasks.  I originally wanted to complete the class in two weeks, but there is a lot more reading than I thought there would be....and I hate reading....so three weeks is the new goal which half the time the expect you to complete it in.

November 27th, 2015
I took a couple week break from WGU as I got discouraged from Task 1 being sent back twice.  After the break, I took a deeper look into the task area that I was messing up on and finally figured out where I was going wrong. I started from scratch on the one area, finished and resent it in. Two days later I woke up to an e-mail saying that all area goals were met and Task 1 is now finally complete.  My original goal was to complete the course in 2-3 weeks, but now I'm looking at 5 weeks. I've finished all the reading and just have to sit down and work on Task 2 and Task 3. I'm hoping to complete them both over the next week and move on to the next course.

Task 1: 7 pages long. Accepted on 3rd attempt

December 9th, 2015
I'm disappointed to say that I'm further behind that I wanted to be. I wanted to have this class completed several weeks ago, but I'm a huge procrastinator, haha.   I just submitted Task 2 tonight and don't expect to hear back for about 48hrs as usual.

December 12th, 2015
Task 2 sent back for revisions for just one section. Wrote an additional page and half to add more information and clarify my previous response.  Task 2 resubmitted and now on to Task 3.

December 13th, 2015
Task 2 Accepted!
Task 2: 14 pages long counting a cover page and 2 pages of citations. Accepted on 2nd attempt.


December 15th, 2015
Task 3 submitted. Fingers crossed.

December 18th, 2015
Came out from seeing Star Wars (awesome), to see I have a new e-mail....Task 3 passed with no revisions needed! Wow, I'm honestly surprised! haha. I hated this task because I felt it lacked a wealth of information about the servers that would help better write the paper (help to figure out actual visualization requirements). In the end, it didn't matter, I just did what was asked by making up some BS here and there and they dug it.
Task 3: 14 pages long counting a cover page and 1 page of citations. Accepted on 1st attempt.

COURSE COMPLETED!!!!