The pathway below represents an efficient and effective course taking sequence for this program. Individual circumstances might require some changes to this pathway. It is always recommended that you meet with an academic counselor to develop a personalized educational plan.
The courses have been intentionally placed and should be prioritized in
the order
in which they appear. If you are unable to take all the courses in
a semester, you
should prioritize enrolling in the courses in the order below.
Some courses have
been noted as “Appropriate for Intersession” 
. Should you need (or want) to take
classes
in the summer and/or winter intersessions,
the program recommends these courses as appropriate for the condensed
schedule of
the intersessions.
Some pathways combine a “Certificate of Achievement” and an “Associate
Degree”. If
you are pursuing only the Certificate of Achievement, you are only
required to take
the courses marked “Program Requirement” 
.
All pathways include at least one “Gateway Course” 
which introduces you to the program and/or field of study and helps you
decide if you want to continue with this Academic and Career Path.
Most Associate degrees (though not Associate Degrees for Transfer)
require satisfying the SMC Global Citizenship requirement. If the Program
Requirements do not include a “Global Citizenship course” 
, be sure to select a General Education course that also satisfies Global Citizenship.
The IT world is integrated by networks of connected devices, each secured and properly configured. Success in IT disciplines like database, website, or e-commerce development demands a supporting grasp of the network environment. Major technologies are the networks themselves, their fit within the operating platforms they connect to, specific network applications, and measures to achieve networks security. System administrators and other qualified IT specialists must understand the various protocols, programs' interfaces, how networks are presented and managed on Unix and Windows platforms, specific server programs and their clients, and what the inherent risks are.
Upon completion of the program, students will:
- Design and implement computer and information networks, such as local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), intranets, extranets, and other data communications networks. Perform network modeling, analysis, and planning; design network security measures; research and recommend network and data communications hardware and software.
Icon Key
-
Gateway Course
-
Program Requirement
-
General Education -
Appropriate for
Intersession
-
Available Online -
Global Citizenship
Semester 1
9 Units
This is a beginning course intended for students who plan to take additional computer science courses. The course covers an introduction to programming concepts such as designing, coding and testing. Other concepts such as computer hardware, operating systems, compilers and databases are also discussed. The Internet and an introduction to cybersecurity and cloud computing are also included.
Recommended to be taken in the intersession prior to CS 50
This course will include a review of the concepts of structured programming, error checking, sorting, searching, data types, advanced array handling methods, pointers, and data structures. Applications in business, mathematics, and science will be discussed.
- Skills Advisory: CS 3
- Area IV-B: Language and Rationality (Group B) Option 2
This course is the first of a three course series that aims to prepare students for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, students will be introduced to different facets of Information Technology. Topics covered include computer hardware and software, the Internet, computer networking, modern networking technologies, protocols, and troubleshooting. Students will learn the Five Layer Network Model consisting of Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, and Application and how network devices communicate.
Semester 2
6 Units
This course covers the fundamentals of Project Management theory, implementation, and best practices. It is aimed at students who work mostly in the Technology sectors covering software and website development, and other areas of computer science or information systems. Students will learn the theory, as well as the use of Project Management software to plan, track and manage project resources. Topics covered include project life cycles, tasks, schedules, resources, and costs.
- Skills Advisory: CS 3 or
- Skills Advisory: CIS 1
This course offers a broad introduction to networking concepts and analyzes different network architectures. Introductory topics include network topologies, media and signaling, protocols, addressing, and distributed networks. The varied ways to connect computers are explored as are the resulting architectures. The course explores subnetting, both physical and virtual and internetworks are constructed in the lab. Server programs are introduced to demonstrate their signature socket-API structure. Specific real-world services such as the apache web server, BIND name server, NFS and Samba file system servers, DHCP address server, and others are discussed.
- Skills Advisory: One programming course.
Semester 3
5-6 Units
This is a foundation course in the Linux operating. Booting a Linux machine is dissected, from BIOS firmware to authenticated user shell. Use of shell commands, editors, programming tools, and GUIs are emphasized. Students learn to write shell script programs and install applications using the open source software distribution model. Unix process creation is detailed and a 20-line tutorial shell is developed. Local administration tasks are covered, including user account management, backup, task scheduling, logging, and clock time synchronization. As time allows recompilation of the kernel from source code will be performed.
- Skills Advisory: CS 50
This course provides students with the knowledge necessary to understand and identify the tasks involved in supporting Microsoft Windows Networking Operating Systems. It covers topics such as installing and configuring Windows Servers to create File, Print, Web, and Terminal servers, and manage and support a network infrastructure that uses the Microsoft Windows Server products. The course also focuses on Windows Active Directory services, implementing Group Policy and performing the Group Policy related tasks that are required to centrally manage users and computers.
- Skills Advisory: CS 70
This course is the second in a three course series that aims to prepare students for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, students will learn the main components of an operating system via hands-on labs in Linux and Windows that practice critical administrative tasks to manage software, organize user accounts and configure hardware devices. Students will learn about the infrastructure services that keep all organizations, big and small, up and running. Students will be introduced to the typical cloud infrastructure that manages cloud resources and learn various tools and techniques that can help to recover an organization’s IT infrastructure in the event of a failure or disaster.
- Prerequisite: CS 84A
This course introduces major protocols and their roles in protocol suites with emphasis on TCP/IP. Detailed coverage is given to at least one protocol at each layer, the main application level protocols and at least one security protocol. Analytic programs such as ping, traceroute, and packet capture are studied and applied as tools to protocol analysis. The Wireshark packet capture and protocol decoder program is centrally utilized.
- Skills Advisory: CS 70
In this course students will study network service administration. This course covers physical BIOS and bootloader security, password strength and cracking, file system permissions, authentication mechanisms, remote backup and logging, and installation strategies as machine-level security considerations. A variety of particular service applications like Apache (web service) and BIND (name service) are then studied, emphasizing their strengths, weaknesses, and how to configure them for security through wrappers, file system access jails, and other mechanisms.
- Skills Advisory: CS 70
This course is the third course in a three course series that aims to prepare students for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, students learn a wide variety of IT security concepts, tools, and best practices. Common threats and attacks are described along with methods for reducing potential vulnerabilities. Encryption algorithms are discussed along with how they can be used to safeguard data. Students also learn network security solutions, ranging from firewalls to Wi-Fi encryption options and how to integrate a culture of security into an organization.
- Prerequisite: CS 84B