My Home HMLS 408 6380 Infrastructure in Homeland security

The scope and direction of this course is described in detail within the Course at a Glance (CAAG) and the Class Announcement. I hope by now you have read these and have a good overview of how we will proceed. This course will teach you about infrastructure at all levels of our national life, and by the end of the course you too may become an advocate and will use your knowledge to teach others. Use the week 1 readings in the CAAG and the topics in Module 1 to assist you with the discussion for the week.

This week’s discussion is very broad and is designed to help accelerate your understanding of the topic. Very generally, spend this first week discussing critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR). What are they, why are they so important to our lives and our national security, and what is your personal experience and interest in infrastructure? My objective for you is that you very quickly become familiar with the readings and the other course materials, and by the end of the week each of you will have begun to develop an understanding and familiarity with the subject. This will allow us to move quickly and easily through the remaining weeks of this very comprehensive and fast paced course. I will be somewhat active in these discussions, but only to help keep us focused and to answer questions as they arise. We will be learning from one another.

Do not lose sight of the cumulative effect on your final course grade of these discussions. Considering they represent such a big part of the course (40%), you should deduce that they are very important. You must be in the discussions a minimum of two times each week, but you would be well served to do more. It is a requirement that you post new material or respond qualitatively to at least five of your colleagues’ posts each week You should also read carefully the information related to these discussions in the CAAG weekly readings and the modules. In the first week or so, if you are confused or not clear about these discussions, please contact me so together we can get more clarity. This is the key learning component of the course because it reinforces the theory you get from the reading and allows you to then apply it in the discussions. At the end of this week you will have some familiarity with the subject and will be more at ease as we move into week 2.