COS2626/102/2/2014

Tutorial letter 102/2/2014

Computer Networks
COS2626

Semester 2

School of Computing


IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This tutorial letter contains general information
about your module.


2

CONTENTS

Page
1 WELCOME TO COS2626 ............................................................................................................. 3
2 STUDY MATERIAL ...................................................................................................................... 3
3 HOW TO APPROACH YOUR STUDIES ...................................................................................... 3
4 AFRIKAANSE STUDENTE .......................................................................................................... 3
5 PRESCRIBED BOOK ................................................................................................................... 3
6 STUDY GUIDE ............................................................................................................................. 4
7 PODCASTS .................................................................................................................................. 4
8 SOFTWARE ................................................................................................................................. 4
9 myUNISA ..................................................................................................................................... 5
10 e-Tutors ....................................................................................................................................... 5
11 CONTACTING THE LECTURERS ............................................................................................... 5
12 COMPULSORY ASSIGNMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE FINAL MARK .......................... 6
13 EXTENSION TO ASSIGNMENTS ................................................................................................ 6
14 VERIFICATION OF ASSIGNMENTS SUBMITTED ...................................................................... 6
15 UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT NUMBERS ............................................................................................ 6
16 ASSIGNMENT RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 7
17 EXAMINATION ADMISSION ........................................................................................................ 7
18 SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT 02 ............................................................................................ 7

Please note / important note: COS2626 is a semester module. You need AT LEAST eight
hours per week for this module.

To gain admission to the examination you have to submit Assignment 1 in time. The due
date is 22
nd
August.


COS2626/102

3
1 WELCOME TO COS2626
Dear Student
It is a pleasure to welcome you as a student. We hope that you will find your studies stimulating,
meaningful and enriching.

At the onset of this course, we would like to address some very important issues.

2 STUDY MATERIAL
You should have received the following study material at this stage:

COS2626/101/3/2014
This letter can be downloaded from myUNISA
under the Official Study Materials link on the main
site cos262614-S2 as well as on your tutor site.
First tutorial letter contains important
information on how to study this module
online.
COS2626/102/2/2014
This letter can be downloaded from the Additional
resources link on your tutor site.
This letter: Second tutorial letter contains
important general information.

3 HOW TO APPROACH YOUR STUDIES
Please refer to tutorial letter COS2626/101/3/2014 which can be located under the Official
Study Materials link on myUNISA for an overview on how to study this module online. Please
note that all the study material for this module including the module overview, module-related
resources, student support services, the study programme, assessment information,
examination information and the assignments you have to submit are all available in the
Learning Units on myUNISA.

4 AFRIKAANSE STUDENTE
Voortaan sal die vakverwante (tegniese) inligting (werkopdragte en oplossings) vir studente wat
in Afrikaans geregistreer is, in Engels verskaf word. Algemene kommunikasie, soos hierdie
studiebrief sal ook in Engels wees.

5 PRESCRIBED BOOK
The prescribed book for this course is:

Title: Network+ Guide to Networks
Author: Tamara Dean
Publisher: Course Technology, Cengage Learning
Edition 6
th

Date of Publication: 2013
ISBN: 9 781133 608257


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You are expected to purchase your own copy of the prescribed book. We have been inundated
with queries from students regarding the usage of the previous edition of the prescribed book
(the FIFTH edition, which was prescribed in 2012). Students will be examined on the official
prescribed book which is the SIXTH edition. The exam and assignment solutions will be
structured to cover work that appears only in the SIXTH edition of the prescribed book.

We will NOT support students using any other books besides, the official prescribed book for
2014.

6 STUDY GUIDE
There is NO separate study guide for this module.

7 PODCASTS


We have uploaded a number of podcasts on myUNISA for supplementary information. Please
feel free to download these podcasts.

8 SOFTWARE
There is NO official prescribed software for this module as it is purely a theoretical module.
Please ignore any information regarding the purchasing of software for this module.

COS2626/102

5
9 myUNISA
myUNISA (https://my.unisa.ac.za) is a web-based system for academic collaboration and
study related interaction. This system has been developed to supplement and enhance
academic interaction and improve communication between UNISA and its students as well as
provide opportunity for engagement among students. You can submit assignments and access
the following:
administrative information,
library information,
academic and assignment records,
examination results and dates and
financial records.

10 e-Tutors
Each student will be allocated an eTutor tutor for this semester. Please interact with your e-
Tutor tutor as they have been appointed to enhance and facilitate your learning process.

Each student will have two tabs for this module when you login to myUNISA. Firstly, COS2626-
14-S2 which is the main module site for COS2626 of 14 (2014) for term S2 (Semester 2). The
primary lecturers will interact with students in this site. Secondly, COS2626-14-S2-1E (your tutor
is an e-tutor (e=electronic, via email, with no contact in a venue). Your e-tutor will interact with
you in this site.

11 CONTACTING THE LECTURERS
Personal Appointments. You are welcome to visit your lecturers in order to discuss
problems concerning the content of the module. You have to make an appointment with
the lecturer beforehand to ensure that someone will be available to help you.
Please refrain from using personal staff e-mail addresses, as we cannot guarantee the
turnaround time on these. Use the module specific e-mail COS2626-14-
S2@unisa.ac.za. Do NOT use this e-mail address to submit assignments; use myUNISA
to submit your assignments. Refer Learning Unit 5.10 on myUNISA for specific instructions
in this regard.

NO faxing please. Due to the high cost, our School has a policy of NOT faxing to students.
However, each lecturer has a telephone and e-mail facility on his/her desk. Please, if you
need to contact us, e-mail, telephone or snail mail us. Absolutely NO assignments are to
be faxed to the School.
As a first point of contact, we urge you to approach your tutors. You can obtain their details
from the home page. This will enable the tutors to identify issues to facilitate a greater
degree of meaningful interaction with the group.

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12 COMPULSORY ASSIGNMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE FINAL
MARK
The Department of National Education has taken a decision to introduce a compulsory
assignment to be submitted in all modules by set due dates. Submission of the compulsory
assignment by its due date will give a student admission to the examination in the particular
module. To be admitted to the examination, you must submit Assignment 01 before the due
date.

Please take note that it is YOUR responsibility to
check that your assignments are received by UNISA.
make sure of your examination venue and date if you have submitted a compulsory
assignment but have not received a letter from the Examination Department.
be acquainted with your examination date and venue.

Students require a final mark of 50% to pass a module. This final mark is calculated as follows:
(20% x mark obtained from the assignments) + (80% x mark obtained in the examination).
Please refer to Learning Unit 6.2 for a detailed explanation on the calculation of the semester
mark.

13 EXTENSION TO ASSIGNMENTS
Under no circumstances will an extension of time for the submission of your assignments be
granted. Any assignments that are received late will be returned unmarked. You are therefore
strongly advised to post your assignment approximately 14 days before the due date. The due
date is the date on which your assignment must reach UNISA, not the date on which you must
post it.

14 VERIFICATION OF ASSIGNMENTS SUBMITTED
Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that we have received your assignment. You
can easily verify this by checking on myUNISA or by contacting your lecturer or tutor. Students
often contact us claiming that they submitted their assignment but there is no record of this on
the system. Please note that we cannot assist you in this regard and failure to verify the
submission of your assignments may result in non-admission to the examination.

15 UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT NUMBERS
Please use the correct unique assignment numbers when submitting multiple-choice
assignments. If you use the unique number for assignment 02 when submitting assignment 01,
the assignment will be marked as assignment 02. This could severely impact on your semester
mark and may even jeopardize your admission to the examination. We therefore, urge you to be
very cautious with the unique numbers.

COS2626/102

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16 ASSIGNMENT RESULTS
It may take several weeks for your marks to be entered onto the student system. Only when the
assignment marks are available on the student system will they be published on myUNISA.
However, if you have a reason to believe that there is a problem, for example, you have already
received your marked assignment, but the marks are not showing up on myUNISA, we suggest
you contact the Assignments Department immediately. This Department is responsible for the
handling of more than a million assignments during the academic year, therefore we strongly
urge you NOT to contact them with trivial questions.

You will receive solutions to assignments for the semester you are registered for. Do not contact
us requesting the solutions of assignments to the semester for which you are not registered for.

17 EXAMINATION ADMISSION
You will be informed by the Examination Department regarding the date, time and venue of the
examination.

All students who have NOT submitted the compulsory assignment will NOT BE ADMITTED TO
THE EXAMINATION. We will NOT entertain any requests for special admission and we suggest
that you refrain from contacting the lecturers in this regard.

18 SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT 02
Please try and submit Assignment 02 via myUNISA as pdf files. Although word files are
accepted, to facilitate the marking process we urge you to submit your assignments as pdf files.
Best wishes for a successful year of study
The lecturers
COS2626


UNISA 2014