Dave Asprey's Bio

Teaching

I love to teach because teaching is the best way to really learn something.

About 5 years ago, I started teaching at the University of California at Santa Cruz Extension. UC Extension caters to working professionals, 90% of whom have advanced degrees. Soon after I started teaching, I took over management of the Web & Internet Systems Engineering Program and it grew dramatically. I created and managed the E-commerce Engineering program too. The two programs were based on a single idea: in order to be good at any one part of technology, you have to understand the whole. The Web Systems program was primarily a networking, hardware, and OS program, while the E-commerce Engineering program was primarily above the OS in the application layers. Both programs succeeded because students were required to know about "the other half."

In addition to recruiting and mentoring instructors, I created four new classes, and taught each of them many times. I estimate I've had more than 1,500 students in five years. Each course was 32 hours in length, and I taught 1-4 classes per semester on evenings and weekends in addition to working full time.

Web Systems Architectures and Protocols (1998 - current)
A view of everything that happens from a browser to a back-end web-enabled database, and back - load balancers, routers, firewalls, VPN, SSL, web servers, app servers, databases, etc.
E-business Technology Survey (2001 - current)
An application level view of E-business, covering long-running transactions, CRM, ERP, web-enablement, information sharing, payment processing, storefronts, etc.
Business Class Internet (1998-2001)
A look into the future (from 1998) of complex protocols, including multicast, MPLS, IP QoS, Mobile IP, WAP, etc.
ASP (Application Service Provider) Architectures (2000, 2001)
A 2-day view into how to create an ASP
Hands-on Web Site Systems Administration (1998-1999)
A class for beginner web systems admins, using IIS and Apache

UCSC Extension has had such a drop in enrollment that I no longer teach regularly, although I do sometimes still teach. I've done specialized versions of these classes for corporations, including Prentice Hall. I've always earned more than 4.5 out of 5 on my student evaluations, and I'm an excellent teacher. If you could use my skills here, please do contact me.