Understanding IT Hardware and System Components

• In this course, you will learn to:
• Define the basic principles of computer hardware, including the functions and roles of key components like the CPU, memory, storage devices, motherboard, and peripherals.
• Identify different hardware interfaces and connection standards, such as USB, HDMI, SATA, PCIe, and Ethernet, and understand their purposes in connecting various hardware devices.
• Describe the process of installing and assembling computer hardware components, including CPUs, memory modules, storage drives, expansion cards, and peripherals, while adhering to best practices for hardware installation and safety precautions.
• Explain how to configure hardware settings and parameters in the BIOS/UEFI firmware interface, covering aspects like boot order, CPU settings, memory timings, and peripheral configurations.
• Recognize different types of storage devices and technologies, such as hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), optical drives, and RAID configurations, along with their respective advantages, disadvantages, and use cases.

• At the end of this course, learners will be able to:
• Analyze the function of various hardware components, including the CPU, motherboard, memory modules, storage devices (HDDs, SSDs), expansion cards, power supply unit (PSU), and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.), to understand their roles in a computer system.
• Evaluate the process of assembling and disassembling computer systems, installing and configuring hardware components, and troubleshooting hardware compatibility issues to optimize system performance and functionality.
• Create maintenance plans for computer systems, including routine tasks such as cleaning, cooling system maintenance, firmware updates, and hardware upgrades, to ensure optimal performance and longevity of hardware components.
• Design installation and configuration procedures for printers on different operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux), encompassing tasks such as connecting printers to networks, configuring printer settings, and installing device drivers, to facilitate efficient printing functionality across various platforms.
• Develop setup and configuration protocols for various hardware gadgets, including connecting them to networks, installing software/firmware updates, configuring settings, and troubleshooting connectivity issues, to ensure seamless integration and operation within network environments.

The academic approach of the course focuses on ‘work-centric’ education. With this hands-on approach, derive knowledge from and while working to make it more wholesome, delightful and useful. The ultimate objective is to empower learners to also engage in socially useful and productive work. It aims at bringing learners closer to their rewarding careers as well as to the development of the community.

• Step 1: Learners are given an overview of the course and its connection to life and work
• Step 2: Learners are exposed to the specific tool(s) used in the course through the various real-life applications of the tool(s).
• Step 3: Learners are acquainted with the careers and the hierarchy of roles they can perform at workplaces after attaining increasing levels of mastery over the tool(s).
• Step 4: Learners are acquainted with the architecture of the tool or tool map so as to appreciate various parts of the tool, their functions, utility and inter-relations.
• Step 5: Learners are exposed to simple application development methodology by using the tool at the beginner’s level.
• Step 6: Learners perform the differential skills related to the use of the tool to improve the given ready-made industry-standard outputs.
• Step 7: Learners are engaged in appreciation of real-life case studies developed by the experts.
• Step 8: Learners are encouraged to proceed from appreciation to imitation of the experts.
• Step 9: After the imitation experience, they are required to improve the expert’s outputs so that they proceed from mere imitation to emulation.
• Step 10: Emulation is taken a level further from working with differential skills towards the visualization and creation of a complete output according to the requirements provided. (Long Assignments)
• Step 11: Understanding the requirements, communicating one’s own thoughts and presenting are important skills required in facing an interview for securing a work order/job. For instilling these skills, learners are presented with various subject-specific technical as well as HR-oriented questions and encouraged to answer them.
• Step 12: Finally, they develop the integral skills involving optimal methods and best practices to produce useful outputs right from scratch, publish them in their ePortfolio and thereby proceed from emulation to self-expression, from self-expression to self-confidence and from self-confidence to self-reliance and self-esteem!