Technology Fundamentals for IT Infrastructure
The goal of this collection of courses is to provide newcomers with the “first step”
they need to start a career in IT. After completing this series of courses, students
should be prepared to begin an entry-level IT job that provides additional hands-on,
on-the-job experiences. With some experience under their belt, they’ll be ready to
move into more formal certification programs, such as Microsoft’s MCSA collection
of certification titles.
As much as possible, these courses are intended to be vendor- and OS-netural.
However, where we inevitable need to show a specific product, we tend to focus on
Microsoft products as those form the largest base of products that an IT newcomers
is likely to encounter. Where possible, we also aim to provide equivalent learning
for Mac and Linux, the other major enterprise OS’s. There’s also room for a certain
amount of “BYOD Support” training for iOS, Android, etc.
A major element of all these courses will be connecting every concept to a real help
desk-level task. When we discuss user accounts, we talk about unlocking them and
enabling them, and why they get locked and enabled. Everything ties to a job task, or
it doesn’t get included. That tie-in happens immediately before or after introducing
the concept (as appropriate), not in a “case study” that’s put off until later.
The target audience is someone who has graduated high school, and is considering
secondary education that leads to an entry-level job in IT. This course collection is
meant to correlate with what a two-year career colleges offering “IT administration”
tracks (e.g., University of Phoenix, DeVry, ITT, etc. and also including many
community colleges) might offer. The intent is to put someone directly into an
entry-level IT administration job, such as a help desk position. This course collection
could also be used as useful supplemental education for someone already enrolled
in one of these two-year career tracks at a college.
Each “sub-collection” might break down into numerous short-length courses that
teaches the topic.
Emphasis: This is intended to prepare someone for just an entry level job in any
potential business or corporate environment. So it tries to be “generic” where
possible.
First Steps in IT Infrastructure
Courses in this sub-collection are designed to provide basic orientation to an IT
computing environment.

Introduction to Business Information Technology
This course provides an overview of business IT, focusing on the major
components, their roles within the organization, and their interconnections.
Major components include networking, directories, messaging, databases,
storage services, clients and servers, and so on. The idea is to provide a kind
of map of what a general IT environment contains, and how the pieces fit
together.
Essentials of IT Infrastructure
Courses in this sub-collection provide the basic building blocks for business IT
infrastructure, remaining as vendor-neutral as possible. Exam alignment is
mentioned when appropriate, but course content is not restricted to exam
objectives. In some cases, CompTIA training may provide some or all of these
elements; think of this list more as a “learning path” that gets built out with learning
content.
Where exams are mentioned below, the course (or small collection of courses)
should do a good job of prepping for that exam. However, exam prep should be
incidental to the course goals. E.g., if the course does a good job of teaching things
from a business perspective, the exam will fall into place naturally.

Networking Essentials
This course explains how modern business networks operate, including both
IPv4 and IPv6 concepts and examples. Topics including routing, name
resolution, protocols, and more. Aligns to MS 98-366 and CompTIA Network+.
o Possibly a part that focuses specifically on the Internet, digging
deeper into specific protocols, browsers, etc. This is such a big part of
the modern work environment. At the very least, use common
business scenarios that are comprehensible to a home user (e.g., Web
browsing) to illustrate concepts and functions.

Security Essentials
Explains the basic concepts and technologies of IT security, including
directories, authentication, authorization, auditing, and so on. Aligns to MS
98-367 and CompTIA Security+.

Technology Troubleshooting Essentials
Outlines the methodologies and approaches to IT troubleshooting, focusing
on repeatable, methodical process, and the need to fully understand a system
end-to-end before attempting to troubleshoot it. Also emphasizes the
importance of being able to reproduce and document a problem so that
higher tiers of support can work it. Stray into Microsoft-specific space for
things like the Event Log as an example of collecting evidence.

Help Desk Essentials
Focuses on both soft and hard skills needed to work a help desk, including
customer service, user interaction and communications, basic concepts of
change management, common help desk ticketing concepts, and so on. Also
includes basics for specialized use of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel that
would be applicable to a help desk worker. May end up being a small
collection of short courses. Ideally might include some recorded help desk
phone interactions with follow-up critique. Somewhat aligns to portions of
CompTIA A+.

Desktop Support Essentials
Covers the core concepts of computing hardware and very, very basic
Windows client support. Includes coverage of common remote support
approaches and techniques (if not specific technologies like RDP or VNC).
Aligns to CompTIA A+.
Fundamentals for Microsoft IT Infrastructure
Courses in this sub-collection move more into Microsoft- and Windows-specific
demonstrations and concepts. A parallel track of Linux content can probably be
assembled, as could equivalent Mac content. This content bridges the gap between
the more conceptual “Essentials” knowledge and the more professional-level MCSA
training materials.

Windows Operating System Fundamentals
Covers the very basics of how the Windows operating system works and is
administered and maintained. Ensure there’s Event Log coverage. Aligns
directly to MS 98-349; supports CompTIA A+.
o Install/Remove software
o Understand what Group/Local Policy does
o Install/Remove drivers; Device Mgr in general
o Install/Remove/Configure printers
o Common antivirus tasks
o Tour of what the system disk should look like (to spot what’s
different/wrong)
o Task Manager in general
o As much of these as possible from cmdline also

Windows Server Administration Fundamentals
Covers the basics of how Windows servers work, including file and print
services and other core components. Aligns directly to MS 98-365; should also
support CompTIA Server+.

Windows PowerShell Fundamentals
Includes the basics of working with Microsoft’s command-line administration
tool, up to and including moving repeatable commands into a simple script.

Microsoft Messaging Fundamentals
Covers the basics of daily administration for on-premises Microsoft
Exchange, and for Office 365. Not as advanced as the MCSA material; just
what a new help desk person would be expected to know. Basically an
Exchange/O365 version of 98-364. Also includes the client-side pieces (e.g.,
Outlook, OWA) from a support/troubleshooting perspective.
o When is it a server problem or a client problem?

Microsoft Database Fundamentals
Covers the basics of Microsoft SQL Server from a conceptual and
demonstration perspective. Aligns directly to MS 98-364.

Microsoft Collaboration Fundamentals
Includes very basics of SharePoint, from the perspective of a new help desk
person. They should know what a site is, what a site collection is, how
SharePoint authentication is set up, and so on. They should be able to verify
the functionality of a SharePoint site (e.g., check IIS), and so on.
Additional Directions

BYOD Basics: Configuring Mail, etc. in the 3-4 major mobile OS’s.

Following a flowchart (e.g., many organizations have ISO processes – be able
to follow them; also applies to ITIL processes)