Hands-on Activities for Learning Computer Networks and Information Security in CS0 Course

This paper reports the lesson design of theory and technology of computer networks and information security, designed for the informatics course for non-CS major university students. The lesson unit consists of two lessons applied by flipped learning style, in which students first watch on-demand video lectures to acquire basic knowledge of network theory and technology, then they do hands-on activities using some web tools that we developed to consolidate the knowledge. The questionnaire results after the CS0 course where the lesson design was applied suggested that the hands-on activity was effective in improving the understanding of network and security.

I. Introduction

Hands-on learning, such as simulation and experimentation, is important for learning computer science courses to understand the basic theory and technologies of computers, which are used in real systems, not only book knowledge. However, learning computer networks is known to be challenging to conduct hands-on learning due to the need to prepare the learning environment [1]. In addition, the lecture time of introductory computer science (CS) courses is limited time to learn each topic, so networking and security lessons in basic CS courses tends to be internet ethics or vague theoretical discussions.