[Techtalk] student final project ideas

[Leslie Vincent]

I'd love to get some ideas for some student group final projects for an 
Intro to Linux course. These students are NOT advanced in Linux - 
there's only a certain amount that you can cover in just 10 weeks, and 
so they are not highly skilled administrators or anything.

They will have 4.5 weeks to complete this project, which gives an 
in-class total of 22.5 hours working together in class in groups of 3. 
I can realistically expect that each person might need to do up to 8 
hours of work outside of the classroom (researching, writing, etc.) but 
I can't expect the team to meet face to face outside of the class or 
have access to Linux outside of class.

In that time they need to:
plan out and schedule the steps of what needs to be done
assign those steps and appropriate deadlines to the 3 team members
complete the projects, including documenting problems that they encountered
create professional-level "how-to" type documentation and prepare a 
presentation related to this project (we have related professional 
communications skills, including teamwork, writing, and presentation 
skills, as a significant subgoal of this class)

What I'd like is something that they can find out how to do from 
googling for instructions from potentially several sources. The first 
time I taught this class, some of the students in it happened to have a 
little bit of Linux experience, so they were able to come up with 
topics on their own (using a linux box as a firewall, setting up a 
Linux box as a VOIP and game server, and creating a multi-boot system 
(XP/Linux) with shared files.  I'd like to create a list of ideas they 
can pick from or that might inspire ideas of their own. Sites that have 
linux projects that could be done by someone with this skill level in 
this time frame are also appreciated. Even some standard Linux 
administration tasks that simply wasn't part of this class might be 
good, if it's something they'd need to do regularly in the "real world."

Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have.


Leslie Vincent
CIS Instructor
Delaware Tech
Georgetown, DE 19947
302-856-5400 x2040