Overview

This course will guide you through fundamental concepts and skills to confidently navigate various aspects of IT and the digital world. You will be introduced to the vast field of IT, covering a wide range of topics to build your IT knowledge. You will delve into hardware, operating systems technology, software, programming, databases, networking, storage, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and support and operations. Designed to summarize the IT Fundamentals and Cloud specialization courses, this course is ideal for individuals seeking non-IT practitioner roles, such as project managers. It provides essential insights into the IT field, equipping you to collaborate effectively with IT teams and make informed decisions within your role. Each lesson contains materials such as hands-on labs and interactive activities to practice your newfound skills, glossaries to help you learn new vocabulary, as well as practice and graded quizzes to assess what you’ve learned. If you seek a non-technical role in the IT industry, this course provides you with a strong foundation so you can thrive in the ever-evolving IT landscape.

Syllabus

Introduction to Hardware and Operating Systems

This week you will learn about computer hardware and operating systems. Lesson one presents computing fundamentals such as types of devices, their benefits, their internal components, and peripheral devices. Other hardware you will learn about includes printers, display devices, and port types, along with their connectors. In lesson two, you will be introduced to operating systems for the devices you learned about in lesson one. You will learn how those operating systems implement files and folders and the basic operations you can perform on them.

Introduction to Software, Programming, and Databases

This module has three lessons that cover the basics of software, web browsers, programming languages, and database fundamentals. The first lesson addresses software applications, where you learn about the differences between open-source and commercial software, software versioning, file formats, and components of web browsers. In the second lesson, you will explore some basic programming concepts. In the third lesson, you investigate databases, where you compare and contrast different types of database storage and manipulation.

Introduction to Networking and Storage

In this two-lesson module, you learn about networking and storage. Lesson one focuses on networking, where you investigate concepts such as comparing and contrasting types of networks’ topologies, the cables used to connect devices to a network, and the common ports those cables use. You learn about network connections and how to adjust network settings in Windows. In lesson two, you are presented with types of local storage devices compared to hosted storage and sharing and how to troubleshoot storage issues.

Introduction to Cybersecurity Essentials

In the two instructional lessons in this module, you will be introduced to some fundamental concepts in cybersecurity. First, you hear about the confidentiality, integrity, and availability triad and then about intellectual property and confidential information. Then you will learn about types of threats, breaches, and attacks. You will explore password management, access control, authorization, and single-sign-on authentication. In lesson two, you will learn about safe browsing practices such as application ecosystem security, plug-ins, extensions, and toolbars. You will also learn about public browsing risks, safe browsing techniques, and virtual private networks.

Introduction to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the topic of this module. In lesson one, explore the characteristics, benefits, models, infrastructure, virtualization, and storage for cloud-native applications. In lesson two, you learn about cloud-computing emerging trends and practices. Some of those trends include the hybrid-multi-cloud, containerization, microservices architecture, serverless computing, and the development of applications specifically for the cloud, also known as cloud-native applications.

Final Assessment and (Bonus) IT Support and Operations

In the first lesson of this module, you will test your knowledge and the skills you’ve acquired in this course. This module contains a 20-question graded final examination focused on the content of this course. In lesson two, you may choose to learn about troubleshooting and ticketing systems. This is not a required lesson for this course, but the content will provide you with an overview of troubleshooting and ticketing systems, enhancing your knowledge of IT Fundamental concepts.