BIT RATE, BANDWIDTH, AND BAUD
Philip Doty and R. E. Wyllys

Assignment Title: Defining Bit Rate, Bandwidth, and Baud Using Web-Based Search Techniques

Participation: Individual, plus group discussion of search engines.

Format: Formal essay, 3-4 pages in length, in APA final manuscript format.

Submission Method: Email to the course emailbox with the essay attached as a Microsoft Word document.

Maximum points: 5

Introduction: Often information professionals are asked questions that require quicker response than is normally possible using traditional reference sources. This assignment provides you with experience in using Web-based sources to define three terms used in information technology.

Goals: The goals of this assignment are:

• To acquaint you with the meaning of important technical terms in computer networking, as well as to acquaint you with some of the confusion and misunderstanding often associated with the terms.
  
  
• To provide you experience in assessing the authoritativeness of various resources.
  
  
• To provide you experience in using and evaluating Web-based resources and in noting and evaluating the performance of the particular Web engines that you use.
  
  
• To provide you experience in learning from your fellow students through the use of the Discussion Board.
  

Tasks: For this assignment, you are to write a paper of three or four double-spaced pages in Microsoft Word that addresses the following concerns. Submission requirements are specified below.

1. Choose at least two different Web search engines and use them to identify sources that provide definitions of the three networking terms "bit rate," "bandwidth," and "baud." These terms, especially "bandwidth" and "baud," are often used carelessly and/or incorrectly, so you should expect to find some differences among the definitions offered for them by various sources.
   
   
2. On the Discussion Board, discuss the merits of various search engines.
   
   
3. Write an essay about the definitions you have found and your experience in using them. Your essay should address:
   
   • What the three IT terms mean.
     
   • How they are similar, and how they are different.
     
   • What confusion surrounds their definitions.
     
   • Why you chose the resources you did.
   • What makes one resource more authoritative than another.
   • Why you chose the search engines you did.
     
   • What the strengths and weakness of each of the engines are.
     
   
   
4. Send the essay as an attachment to an email addressed to the course emailbox.