Subject: Survey on Continuing Education for Network Computing Professionals

From: [email-masked] (Network Education Center)
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 18:28:23 -0700

This survey is on behalf of an education center dedicated to the needs of network computing professionals. We are asking your input to help us create better education/training programs for you and your company. Your responses will be completely confidential.

If we receive your completed survey by Monday, August 12, 1996, we'll automatically enter you in a contest for a prize of $1,000; one winner will be chosen from among those who complete the survey.  Thank you in advance for your help. 

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To respond, create a reply e-mail message that contains the survey.  Some e-mail systems require you to manually copy and paste the survey into your reply.  Make sure the reply contains the *entire* authentication marker, including what looks like garbage.

To answer a question, type an x between the brackets, like this:  [ x ].  For fill-in-the-blanks, type between the brackets like this:  [ your response ].  Please make no other changes to this survey.

 1.  If for any reason you do NOT want to be contacted in the future via e-mail, please indicate after the first question by placing an "x" within the brackets. You will be omitted from future e-mail surveys.

   [  ]   a)  Please omit me from future e-mail surveys.

 2.  What is your company's PRIMARY industry or business?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Aerospace
   [  ]   b)  Communications carrier (telco, broadband, internet)
   [  ]   c)  Financial services
   [  ]   d)  Healthcare
   [  ]   e)  Manufacturing: computer/software
   [  ]   f)  Manufacturing: non-computer
   [  ]   g)  Government/military
   [  ]   h)  Publishing/media/advertising/public relations
   [  ]   i)  Transportation/utilities
   [  ]   j)  Wholesale/retail: non-computer
   [  ]   k)  Education
   [  ]   l)  Entertainment
   [  ]   m)  Computer reseller/retailer/VAR
   [  ]   n)  Systems integration/consulting
   [  ]   o)  Other, please specify... [    ]

 3.  What is your job function?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  IS/MIS/Data processing
   [  ]   b)  LAN/network systems
   [  ]   c)  Internet/Web
   [  ]   d)  Intranet (in-TRA-net)
   [  ]   e)  Data communications/telecommunications
   [  ]   f)  PC/microcomputer/information center
   [  ]   g)  Systems analyst/applications development
   [  ]   h)  Systems engineer/integration
   [  ]   i)  Other computer-related, please specify... [    ]
   [  ]   j)  Executive/corporate office
   [  ]   k)  Financial/accounting
   [  ]   l)  Engineering/R&D
   [  ]   m)  Sales/marketing
   [  ]   n)  Other administrative, please specify... [    ]
   [  ]   o)  Consulting (computer related)
   [  ]   p)  Training/education
   [  ]   q)  Other professional, please specify... [    ]

 4.  Please check the statements below that describe your involvement with networks.

   Choose all that apply:

   [  ]   a)  I manage networks.
   [  ]   b)  I design networks.
   [  ]   c)  I install networks.
   [  ]   d)  I troubleshoot/fix networks.
   [  ]   e)  I train or support network users.
   [  ]   f)  I initiate the evaluation of new network technologies.
   [  ]   g)  I evaluate or specify brands of network products.
   [  ]   h)  I ensure that networks meet specific business or organizational objectives.

 5.  What is the scope of your involvement with networking in your organization?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Entire organization or enterprise
   [  ]   b)  Entire work location
   [  ]   c)  Multiple departments at more than one location
   [  ]   d)  For a single department only
   [  ]   e)  Other

 6.  How many servers do you have installed in your organization?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Over 50
   [  ]   b)  10 to 49
   [  ]   c)  1 to 9
   [  ]   d)  None

 7.  How many LANS do you have installed in your organization?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Over 25
   [  ]   b)  5 to 24
   [  ]   c)  1 to 4
   [  ]   d)  None

 8.  How many microcomputers/workstations are connected to LANS in your organization?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  500 or more
   [  ]   b)  25 to 499
   [  ]   c)  1 to 24
   [  ]   d)  None

 9.  How many employees do you supervise?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Up to 3 people
   [  ]   b)  4 to 10 people
   [  ]   c)  More than 10 people
   [  ]   d)  None

 10.  Do you yourself have responsibility for networking education/training provided to employees in your company?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Yes
   [  ]   b)  No
   [  ]   c)  Don't know

 11.  What is the annual budget for education/training for yourself and those you supervise?

   Please enter the amount within the following brackets. [    ]

 12.  During the last 12 months, where did you or those you supervise receive education/training for networking?

   Choose all that apply:

   [  ]   a)  In-house
   [  ]   b)  University/college
   [  ]   c)  Seminars
   [  ]   d)  Internet
   [  ]   e)  Other
   [  ]   f)  No education/training on networking was received

NOW WE WANT YOUR OPINIONS ABOUT A POSSIBLE EDUCATION CURRICULUM ON NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES. For each of the following 10 course descriptions, please indicate your level of interest.

 13.  A Network Technologies course covering circuits and fibers; modulation and modems; LANs; WANs; frames; cell switching; wireless; satellites; connection-oriented and connectionless service; characteristics of each technology; addressing; media access; comparisons.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 14.  A Network Interconnection and Internetworking course covering interconnection technologies; repeaters, bridges, and routers; internet addressing; address binding; datagram forwarding; techniques to accomodate heterogeneity (e.g. encapsulation and fragmentation).

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 15.  A Network Protocols and Protocol Design course covering protocol layering; problems protocols solve; loss, reordering, corruption, congestion, duplication, and replay; techniques such as framing, checksumming, sliding window, and retransmission; focus on the transport layer, but cover other layers.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 16.  A Routing and Routing Protocols course covering packet forwarding; route propagation; vector-distance and link-state algorithms; spanning tree.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 17.  A Distributed Programming and Applications course covering client-server paradigm; socket API; middleware (e.g. RPC and CORBA); building a server; multithread server execution; protection and authorization; example applications.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 18.  A Network and Protocol Performance Evaluation course covering throughput and delay; measuring and tuning protocols; instrumentation of protocol stacks; traffic analysis; self-similar behavior.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 19.  A Networking and Protocol Support for Multimedia Applications course covering high-speed networks; resource allocation and performance guarantees; protocols for audio and video; techniques such as compression and delayed playback.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 20.  An Advanced Server Design and Implementation course covering implementation of concurrent, parallel servers; large-scale designs; proxy servers (e.g., SLIRP); techniques such as buffering, replication, caching, and application gateways.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 21.  An Advanced Routing course covering policy-based routing; multicast; mobility; inter- and intra-layer encapsulation; longest prefix forwarding table lookup algorithms; virtual LANS.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 22.  An Advanced Network Applications course covering EDI; electronic commerce; advanced Web techniques (e.g. Java).

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

 23.  What would your level of interest be in taking a group of these courses as a coordinated curriculum?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very interesting
   [  ]   b)  Moderately interesting
   [  ]   c)  Somewhat interesting
   [  ]   d)  Not at all interesting

THINKING ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS AND BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS that could be made available for networking technologies, please indicate which of the following would be important to you.

 24.  A course curriculum leads to an advanced college degree.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 25.  Each course generates a document of professional certification.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 26.  Course curriculum leads to an overall certification.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 27.  Course is available at your place of work.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 28.  Course is available at a local university or college campus.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 29.  Courses available at an industry event you already attend.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 30.  Courses conducted by an advanced educational institute staffed by networking experts.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 31.  A core curriculum of a specified number of courses that would follow a building educational sequence.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 32.  A concentrated face-to-face education program conducted over consecutive days.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 33.  Ability to take class lessons, labs and tests over the Internet from your desktop.

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Very important
   [  ]   b)  Somewhat important
   [  ]   c)  Not very important
   [  ]   d)  Not at all important
   [  ]   e)  No opinion

 34.  What other thoughts do you have concerning what could be done to improve educational or training programs on networking technologies?

   Please write within the brackets. [    ]

 35.  How many years have you been professionally involved in computing?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Less than 2 years
   [  ]   b)  2 to 4 years
   [  ]   c)  5 to 10 years
   [  ]   d)  More than 10 years

 36.  Which of the following ranges includes your age?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  18 to 34
   [  ]   b)  35 to 44
   [  ]   c)  45 to 54
   [  ]   d)  55 and older

 37.  Which of the following represents your highest level of education?

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Attended high school
   [  ]   b)  Graduated high school
   [  ]   c)  Attended college
   [  ]   d)  Bachelor's degree
   [  ]   e)  Master's degree
   [  ]   f)  Doctorate degree

 38.  What do you estimate your total household income was last year? (Please estimate total income for everyone in your household, including salaries, wages,  bonuses, interest, dividends, etc.)

   Choose one:

   [  ]   a)  Less than $15,000
   [  ]   b)  $15,000 to $24,999
   [  ]   c)  $25,000 to $34,999
   [  ]   d)  $35,000 to $49,999
   [  ]   e)  $50,000 to $74,999
   [  ]   f)  $75,000 to $99,999
   [  ]   g)  $100,000 to $149,999
   [  ]   h)  $150,000 or more
   [  ]   i)  Don't know

Thank you for participating in this survey.