Course Overview

1. Assorted Topics

• Fire alarms
  • Keep calm, leave swiftly, but leave no one behind
• IT Systems is a new module (2nd incarnation), successor to CSOS
  • CSOS students are very welcome, relevant is Learnweb course of 2023
• eLectures recordings
  • Available if no technical problems, but please use only in exceptional cases
• Exchange students?

2. Motivation

• What do you see?

  “Screenshot of knote web application” under CC0 1.0; from GitLab

• What might be happening?
  • From a systems’ perspective?
  • Abstractions?

2.1. Course Objectives and Goals

• Objectives
  • Discuss how hardware and software systems are built, using abstraction, and how they work together
  • What is happening underneath?
    • Cloud Infrastructure: Explain basic concepts, deploy simple containerized system
    • Operating System (OS): Explain how OSs do their job, use them, inspect what is happening
    • Computer Architecture: Build (simulated, yet realistic) computer by breaking task into simpler ones

• (Long-term) Goals
  • Inspect and control any computer, at any level of interest
  • Digital sovereignty, sustainability
    • Knowledge empowers to use/build better solutions that serve our interests
    • E.g., end-of-life for 240 million PCs with Windows 11, more millions when Apple ends support for Intel CPUs
      • Campaign End of 10 offers help with GNU/Linux

2.2. Course at a Glance (1/4)

• Method: Explore abstractions bottom-up

1. Computer Architecture
   • Build a complete, general-purpose, programmable computer system, called Hack, from ground up, starting with elementary logic gates
     • Simulated, Nand2Tetris
     • Sequence of projects
   • Play and experiment with this computer, at any level of interest
   • (Prerequisite: Binary numbers; tutorial with self-tests)

2.3. Course at a Glance (2/4)

• Method: Explore abstractions bottom-up

1. Computer Architecture
2. Experiment with OS concepts
   • Explain core OS management concepts, e.g., processes, threads, virtual memory

   • Use GNU/Linux command line and explore system

     “Tux, the Linux mascot” under CC0 1.0; from Wikimedia Commons

     • OS part starts with The Command Line Murders
   • Explore sample Java code
     • (Prerequisite: Java programming, compilation, execution)

2.4. Course at a Glance (3/4)

• Method: Explore abstractions bottom-up

1. Computer Architecture
2. Experiment with OS concepts
3. Explain virtualization, experiment with containerization
   • Explain core concepts

   • Understand images, run Docker containers

     “Docker logo” under Docker Brand Guidelines; from Docker

     • Build and run knote web application seen initially

2.5. Course at a Glance (4/4)

• Method: Explore abstractions bottom-up

1. Computer Architecture
2. Experiment with OS concepts
3. Experiment with containerization
4. Set up simple cloud application

   • Run Kubernetes cluster on local machine

     “Kubernetes logo” under Kubernetes Branding Guidelines; from GitHub

   • Deploy knote web application seen initially

3. Course Organization

3.1. Course Components

• Course with 6 CP, at least 8h per week
  • Joint sessions in class (no traditional lectures, details below)
    • Tuesday (10:15 a.m.): Recap of lecture material
    • Thursday (2:15 p.m.): Exercises
    • 2x90 minutes = 3h
  • Self-study, 5h per week
    • Flipped classroom (details below)
    • Including quizzes in Learnweb: Published as course progresses
      • Self-study quizzes to support your learning
      • Quizzes for study work (50% of total points required), deadlines on Thursdays (except public holidays, then Friday). Passed study work from earlier term remains valid.
• Final exam for 100% of final grade
  • You must pass both, study work and exam, for credits
    • Not recommended, but can be done in different terms/years

3.1.1. Registration at Examination Office

• Students are responsible for registering for all required components of their courses (e.g., study work, examination). Procedures vary by program. If you have questions, contact your student council or the Examinations Office well in advance.
• For the Information Systems (Wirtschaftsinformatik) program, the Examinations Office publishes key exam dates and registration/deregistration deadlines: https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/pam/en/examinations/schedule-examination-offer-examination-rooms

3.2. Course Material

• Everything provided in or linked from Learnweb
  • Material developed and published as OER on Gitlab
• Computer Architecture
  • (Nisan and Schocken 2005) The Elements of Computing Systems, MIT Press
    • Book chapters, project material at https://www.nand2tetris.org/course
      • (Book chapters hyperlinked from icon for reading person)
    • Gratis course at Coursera
• Operating Systems
  • (Hailperin 2019) Operating Systems and Middleware
• Cloud Infrastructures
  • Variety of papers and software documentation

3.2.1. OER on GitLab

• Presentations such as this one are maintained as Open Educational Resources (OER) on GitLab
  • Sources: https://gitlab.com/oer/oer-courses/it-systems
    • Please, contribute with bug reports (issues) or merge requests!
  • Presentations: https://oer.gitlab.io/oer-courses/it-systems/
    • Note: PDF formats
  • Usage hints: https://oer.gitlab.io/hints.html
    • Note: URL parameters
      • https://oer.gitlab.io/oer-courses/it-systems/03-Boolean-Logic-I.html?audio-advance=-1&audio-speed=1.5
  • Work in progress, presentations “ready” when link in Learnweb

3.3. Tentative Schedule

3.4. Prerequisites

• We suppose that you can convert between decimal, binary, and hexadecimal numbers
  • Tutorial with self-tests
• We suppose that you can program in Java
  • Including compilation and execution
    • Which requires installation of JDK
• Quickstart with Nand2Tetris software tomorrow (requires JRE)
  • Please install ahead of time and come with Laptop

3.5. Past Course Evaluations and Results

• IT Systems is a new module
  • First incarnation in 2024
    • Nominated for teaching award by student council
  • Successor to Computer Structures and Operating Systems (CSOS)
    • CSOS evaluation in 2023 highly positive

• Students usually report that our type of interaction and work is unknown to them

  “group discussion” by ProSymbols under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

  • Please trust me and overwhelming scientific evidence (alluded to next), and try this out

3.6. Q&A

4. On Learning and Teaching

4.1. Learning Objectives

• Later presentations contain Learning Objectives
  • What we want you to have learned (after lecture and exercises)

• Content + action verb

  “Bloom's Taxonomy” by Center for Teaching Vanderbilt University under CC BY 2.0; from flickr

  • Action verb specifies level of skill
    • Think of exam question!
  • Bloom’s taxonomy
• Examples
  • Apply algorithm X in sample scenario
  • Argue about relative strengths and weaknesses of Y and Z
  • Course Objectives on earlier slide

4.2. Learning (1/2)

• Learning

  • Requires active work

    “Brain training” by Shocho under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

    • To change protein structures in brains, just like muscles
    • E.g., deliberate practice, retrieval practice, spaced repetition
  • Getting information out of heads
    • Misconception: Learning = getting information in
    • Precondition for silent learning: Writing material
      • Preferably a laptop (for writing and experiments)
  • Suggestions to learn about learning
    • Learning Platform Information Systems (student-driven, in Learnweb, with videos)
    • See book Make it stick (student recommendation!)

4.3. Learning (2/2)

• Consequences
  • During (traditional) lectures, I learn, you do not (much)
    • (Physics Nobel laureate Carl Wieman compares lecturing in education to bloodletting in medicine; both are bad approaches that were popular once)
  • This course provides learning opportunities during our meetings
    • Where you can benefit from my presence
    • Which requires your preparation
    • Which requires active work on your part, instead of passive listening
    • (Which may not meet your expectations and may contradict your feeling of learning …)
• (My teaching statement justifies the above with scientific references.)

4.4. Flipping IT Systems

• CSOS has been flipped since 2017, IT Systems continues in that tradition
  • Since 2023 following (Kapur et al. 2022):

  • Improved learning outcomes based on productive failure, active learning, and instructor support: Fail, Flip, Fix, Feed

    “Conflict” by lastspark under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

    • Fail
      • You attempt to solve a task before being instructed
      • Possibly without success
      • You activate prior knowledge, diagnose own learning, stimulate (meta-) cognitive processes
    • Flip: You work on self-study material ahead of meeting
    • Fix, Feed
      • Class meetings are shaped by you: What are your goals?
      • We discuss and work on tasks (“failed” and new ones, exercises and previous exam tasks)
      • This is where I am around and we spend limited, valuable time

4.5. Course Rhythm

• On Thursdays
  • Publication of new course material and quiz for study work
    • Unlocked when you submit fail task
      • Unlocking suggested by students in 2023
    • New tasks on the “Completion Progress” in Learnweb

  • Session

    “experience” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

    • Conclude current topic, learn, work on tasks
      • Including Q&A on current study work
    • Outlook on new material, initial work on Fail task
• Flip
  • Learn on your own, with self-study tasks
• On Tuesdays
  • Revisit Fail task, Fix jointly if necessary, Feed: Learn

4.6. Session Goals

• My goal: Support your learning

  “training” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

• My major challenge: Heterogeneity regarding knowledge and preparation
  • In particular for flipped classrooms, not so much for lectures

• Your goals?

  “Society” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

  • Starting next week, I will ask you for your goals
    • Different students may work towards different goals
      • Individually or in small groups
      • See upcoming pads for suggestions; feel free to add own goals
    • I will be around to help

4.7. Your Thoughts

• Anonymous pads in Learnweb for our sessions

  “dialogue” by Template under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

  • For your input and notes as well as my session plans
• My questions
  • Why did you enrol in a presence university?
    • Why do you attend sessions? On Campus?
    • Why would you like to come to campus?
    • Is everything fine as it is?
      • Proposed rhythm?
    • What stresses you? What brings you joy?
  • How should learning at a presence university look like?
    • What are your and my roles?

Bibliography

License Information

Source files are available on GitLab (check out embedded submodules) under free licenses. Icons of custom controls are by @fontawesome, released under CC BY 4.0.