While in search of a new MOOC to take on Coursera, I came across this course “Introduction to Networking” offered by NVIDIA. There were three draw factors for me about this course:
- It was short — only 4 videos and expected time to complete was 1 hour.
- The syllabus was described as suitable for beginners without any requirement for prerequisite knowledge in this area.
- I wanted basic training on network components, solutions, technology and data centres without being overly technical or in-depth.
Now, to set your expectations right, I would say that the “time to complete” a MOOC as indicated in the course catalog should be understood as the minimum time needed for you to finish watching the videos in one go with no pauses and replays along the way. As such, this is probably not a very accurate reflection of the actual time investment for each individual taking the MOOC because that would vary depending on factors such as whether you are taking any notes while going through the videos, the number of quizzes and/or assignments to complete and whether you need to do any additional research to understand concepts newly introduced or going through the mandatory or recommended reading materials in the module.
In my case, I definitely took more than an hour (in fact close to eight hours over 2 days) because I was taking down notes by hand (it helps me better with retention and understanding since I could rehash the content in a way which suits me), I went back to rewatch videos 3 and 4 and I only passed the assessment after multiple tries. More on these later.
Videos
Other than the first video which was less than 10 minutes long, the other three videos ranged from 11 to 18 minutes each. They should be viewed sequentially because the concepts build up gradually and lead to the final topic about data centres design considerations.
Prior to this course, I would rate my understanding of this topic as somewhat between beginner and intermediate — I already knew some of the technical terms and technologies mentioned in the syllabus. What I really liked about this was how it pieced together these fragmented pieces of knowledge I had, filled in the missing blanks and allowed me to have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of this topic at the end but still did not leave me feeling overwhelmed. That being said, for a total beginner who has no exposure and prior knowledge on this topic, it will probably take a bit of time just for you to understand what the technical terms mean and you may need to do some research along the way just to find the definitions of the acronyms and jargon which are not always given in the course. Maybe the trainer or course designer expected the learners to have some basic knowledge in this regard?
In terms of the video content, the pace of the narration was just right for me and there are subtitles and transcripts to help you follow the videos’ narration. However, I found that the audio was somewhat muffled and unclear at times even though I raised the volume quite high and was using an external speaker. Do note that the slides shown can be quite wordy so you may need to spend some time reading through them especially since some parts are not mentioned in the narration or the transcript. There were also diagrams and flowcharts showing the network and data centre system models which should help in understanding the content better.
Quiz
Unlike some MOOCs where the quiz or final assessment can be quite easy to pass as long as you understand what was taught or the questions are very straightforward, the same can’t be said for this course’s quiz. Of course, there are some easier questions which are theory-based and direct but the challenge is towards the end where you have to understand the concepts taught and show your understanding through the application questions. Those were what tripped me up repeatedly as I struggled to pass in the first few attempts by a narrow margin. Upon reviewing my answers, I found that I was repeatedly stuck on the same few questions and they all pertained to the third and fourth topics i.e. Ethernet Fundamentals and Data Centre Design Considerations. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise because they are the more technical and difficult topics in the entire module.
The good thing is, you can try repeatedly until you meet the passing mark of 80%. It will be best to review the syllabus first before doing the re-test though so that you don’t do this more times than needed.
Once you pass the test, you will be able to get your digital certificate from NVIDIA and Coursera which you can share on your LinkedIn or other online platforms. One improvement I’ve noted from Coursera is that this process is more convenient now with just one click and all the details are filled in on your LinkedIn page before you review and post on your account. It used to be quite a pain having to copy the certificate ID and URL over to LinkedIn for every certification I earned on Coursera so this is definitely a welcome change for me.
Conclusion
In all, I think that this course did fulfill my requirements although I would say that the content turned out a tad more difficult and challenging than I imagined or expected based on the syllabus. The delivery method might need a bit of fine-tuning as the information overload can be quite intense for the second half of the course and audio quality can be improved. For those who are already knowledgeable in this field, this might be too elementary for you so you might want to give this a miss.
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