Internet Systems Specialist Diploma

The Photoshop course is covered in 30 hours of class time with many hours of bonus material that can be covered at home. It will provide students with a solid foundation in the basics of the Adobe Photoshop application, one of the most popular software applications for working with digital graphics. Students will discuss digital graphics in general, learn to navigate the program interface, use the numerous tools, and save files for display on the Web.

This block of the ISSD program introduces the students to the basics of creating Web pages. This course is actually three courses in one. It starts with a week of Web Design Principles then follows with three weeks of working with XHTML and CSS to create a final project by hand. The course ends with a couple of days of Dreamweaver, showing the students how to increase their productivity with this application.

The Flash course will provide students with a solid foundation in the basics of the Flash application. Students will learn how to navigate the program interface, use the drawing and text tools, create animations, import sounds and graphics, optimize Flash movies, and publish the necessary files for display on the World Wide Web. The course includes information for both Windows and Macintosh users.

Databases are now the most common place to store organizational information and the internet is fast becoming the most popular way to access information. The combination of the two, with appropriate security, gives staff, management and clients instant access to the information they need no matter where they are in the world. This course covers all the steps required to communicate with a database via a web browser, including the fundamental principles of good database design, practical hands-on database development, the widely popular MySQL language that most databases use, and an introduction to the programming commands that are needed to communicate with databases from a web browser. Before taking this course, the student is expected to understand the basic operation of a computer and the internet, client-server concepts, basic UNIX commands and have the ability to create simple XHTML pages and forms. No previous database or programming experience is required. An internet web server will be provided. The following software will be used: Microsoft Access, MySQL, PHP, various HTML editors, UNIX and an Apache web server.

This course is a continuation of the programming training that began in the Online Databases course and project. It is designed to expose the student to a broader range of programming techniques and build general knowledge about the way procedural programs perform operations. The focus continues to be on web-based programs and on the standard methods employed by Common Gateway Interface (CGI) protocols. The following software will be used: Perl, various HTML editors, UNIX and an Apache web server.

A continuation of the introduction to Java with more basics in Java and some advanced Java language features including Multithreading, Data Access, File IO, Servlets and JSP.

This course will teach students to the fundamentals of developing dynamic content web sites using Active Server Pages .NET. The course focuses on using ASP.NET in conjunction with Visual Basic.NET language.

Building on the foundation of Intro to Networking, this course delves deeper into the inner workings of networks. Focusing on the TCP/IP suite of protocols (as used on the Internet, and related networks), students will learn all about both networking, as well as internetworking. Packet structure, subnetting, architecture, and routing form some of the major topics of discussion.

This 25 hour course is meant to be a continuation of the Introduction to Unix course.  Students will explore server side shell scripting, Linux installation, and the administration of the Ubuntu GUI (Graphical User Interface).

This course introduces the concepts behind security in the Information Age. Building on the principles learnt in Network Technologies 1 and 2, students will learn to build Threat Risk Assessments, Security Policy Documents, and Disaster Recovery Plans. Further to this, they will engage such topics as Privacy, Anonymity, and the many faces of 'hacking'. This course steers away from strictly technical issues, which will be tackled in Network Security 2. This course provides a strong foundation in security, and related / relevant topics in such. By approaching non-technically specific topics first, the theory learnt here can be applied forward through the remainder of the Network Security stream.

At this point in the ISSD program, students have an understanding of how to create web applications with their own code. In this 30 hour block, students will be introduced to frameworks and content management systems which will allow them to create robust web applications in a fraction of the time it would have taken them to write from scratch.

This course is the final one taken by the ISSD students. It combines many of the skills and lessons learned throughout the entirety of the course, but focusing specifically on the network / administration / security component. Students will be tasked with building, from the ground up, a fully functional Internet server. This includes assembly and configuration of the network, research, installation, and configuration of services, and full security assessment. As well, students will have to build a small web presence, simulating a commercial establishment online. Students will have to form groups, manage and delegate responsibilities, meet internal deadlines, and operate as a business should. In two weeks, an Internet server will be born, and it's services brought to fruition. It is designed to be a test of many skills, covering everything from networking to project management to web design, etc. Simulating a real-world environment, this will be the final test of the students skills and readiness for the industry.