B.2.7 Troubleshooting

Figure 1: Steps in the Problem-Solving Model

Troubleshooting is a form of educational inquiry that is necessary in most Academy courses, even if it is not formally taught.

There are literally over a hundred approaches to troubleshooting. Figure shows one approach. This is the preferred method for Cisco courses. Instructors may use their own preferred method.

Troubleshooting and debugging skills are necessary for students who seek further education and employment in the IT industry. Instructors will typically need to spend more time on lab preparation to teach students about troubleshooting. However, the overall benefit to the student is worth this investment. Troubleshooting is used to identify and correct hardware, software, and programming problems.

One instructional troubleshooting method involves deliberately introducing a finite number of problems, in a structured lab environment, that have been experienced previously by the students.

With practice, students will be able to diagnose and fix the problems in a finite amount of time. This method must be integrated with labs that do the following:

Expose students to a working system

Demonstrate the typical failure modes of that system

Allow students to experience first hand the symptoms of those failure modes

194 - 238 CCNA 2: Routers and Routing Basics v3.1 Instructor Guide – Appendix B

Copyright 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc.

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Cisco Systems CCNA 2 manual Troubleshooting, Steps in the Problem-Solving Model