| Assignments |
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| Select any of the topics here for a detailed description of the assignment ---> |
Critical response essays | Markup assignments | Term project |
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You will be evaluated on the basis of a three brief writing assignments based on the class readings and four markup assignments that make use of the various languages we learn in class, all of which will be marked up and placed on the web. You will also be evaluated on the basis of your term project, which is to design a website for a client and write a three part project documentation report that will also be placed on the web. These assignments are described below, and will be discussed in greater detail in class.
NOTEThe first assignment will be marked very closely and all markup errors and stylistic problems will be highlighted to give you a sense of the expected level of competence to which you should aspire.For all subsequent assignments, you will be responsible for checking your markup to make sure that it is clean and in compliance, at a minimum, with the HTML 3.2 standard. The easiest way to check your markup is to use HTML or CSS validators, which are software programs on the web that check HTML and CSS markup for errors Validators can be found at:
Useful resources:
For the second and subsequent assignments, evaluation will focus more on information architecture and design and on content development. Pages will be run through a validator and serious markup errors will result in the loss of a letter grade. The W3C's tools are instructor's validators of preference, but if you use a different one, it is your responsibility to inform the instructor of your choice by providing the <URL> of the validator that you used for that assignment. Use this link to return to the course requirements page. |
Here are detailed descriptions of the assignments that you will do for this class:
| CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAYS |
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For this assignment, select an issue and write a critical response to the questions posed. Of course, you are not limited to these suggestions. If there is an issue you would like to address, you must discuss it with the instructor in advance of the issue description due date and receive approval.
Each issue is explored in readings that will be the basis of our class discussions throughout the term. When you have selected the issue that interests you, read the relevant articles and:
You will write three critical response essays over the course of the term and will use these documents as the basis for markup assignment #1, described below.
Each of the three documents must be marked up with valid HTML. This markup will include:
Essay #1 must validate with at least HTML 3.2.
Essay #2 must validate with at least HTML 4.01.
Essay #1 must validate as XHTML 1.0.
When you have completed each essay, place it in your <www> directory, and email the <URL> to the instructor. The first document will be posted as a stand-alone document. By the time the second commentary is due, this first and the remaing two documents will become part of a frameset used in markup assignment #1.
When you have decided which issues you wish to explore, send a brief email to the instructor indicating your choices according to the schedule below. In this case, "brief" means a sentence or two outlining the issue about which you will write.
| Essay description due | Essay due | |||
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| Essay #1 | January 15 | January 29 | ||
| Essay #2 | February 5 | February 19 | ||
| Essay #3 | February 26 | March 19 |
You will be evaluated for the content of your commentaries and questions as well as the markup. Each assignment will be worth 5% of the final grade for a total value of 15%. This assignment will be discussed in class on January 8 and the essay will be due according to the schedule above
| MARKUP ASSIGNMENTS |
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For this assignment you will design a frameset that will display your critical response essays. This will require that you create and markup at least seven files.
When you have completed this assignment, place it in your <www> directory, and email the <URL> to the instructor. The first version of the assignment will be due on February 13 with the first critical response essay used as one of the frames documents. As the semester progresses, you add the remaining critical response essays to the frameset by their due dates.
The final version of this assignment will be due on April 2 and will be worth 5% of the final grade. The frames and tables components of the assignment will be discussed in class on February 5.
For this assignment, you will create a new document that you will add to your frameset. This document will contain a form and make use of PHP for processing data entered into the form. The form will allow a reader to evaluate your critical response essays and submit comments to you.
This document will contain the following:
When you have prepared this document, place it in your <www> directory, add it to the frameset that you created for markup assignment #1, and email the <URL> to the instructor.
It is due on March 5 and will be worth 5% of the final grade. This assignment will be discussed in class on February 12.
For this assignment, you will redo your resume (which you should have done for L401) using CSS. If you do not have your resume in online form, you will create one for this assignment.
You will create a cascading style sheet that will be linked to at least three different and linked HTML documents. This means that you have to think about breaking up your resume into at least three pages. For example, you could have a cover page, one page for education and honors, and a third page for work experience, and references. How you do this is up to you.
The style sheet will include rules and declarations for:
At a minimum, the following elements must be somewhere in your document set:
Remember that your goal should be to remove as much presentation markup from your content pages as you can.
You will make the markup on your external .css style sheet available as an HTML web page linked to the first page of your essay.
When you have completed the assignment, you will place the CSS document set in your <www> directory and email the <URLs> of the first page and the external style sheet to the instructor.
This assignment will be discussed in class on February 26. This assignment will be due on March 26 and will be worth 10% of the final grade.
Dynamic HTML or DHTML is a type of web site development that combines javascript (or other scripting languages), XHTML, and CSS. For this assignment, you will use DHTML to mark up the three critical response essays in your frameset.
For this assignment, you:
Using XHTML, these pages will:
It is due on April 16 and is worth 5% of the final grade. This assignment will be discussed in class on March 26.
| TERM PROJECT |
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Because we do not know in advance who your client will be, there are no apriori requirements for specific forms of markup to be used in the project, except for the stipulation that the site will validate as at least HTML 4.01. You select the type of markup, design, architecture, and content that is appropriate for your project. You will be expected to demonstrate what you have learned in the course in the site that you design. The web site that you create should be useful, usable, well-designed, cleanly marked up, contain significant content, and be targeted at a specific audience.
There is also no specific length requirement. The site is a term project and should represent a significant amount of work and effort. The instructor will meet with you early in the term to discuss your project with you so that there can be an agreement on reasonable project parameters. If you have concerns about the size of the site as you get deeper into its design, meet with the instructor to discuss your concerns.
This project has three main requirements.
As we have discussed in class, it is important to do some research prior to starting the design phase of a website development project. During January, you should be asking your client questions about:
Using these questions as a guide, write a summary of your research. This section of the report should be about 500 words. This report is due on February 12 and is worth 5% of the final grade. It will be discussed in class on January 8
For example, to facilitate the navigation, you may have included a navigation bar that appears on every page of the website. Perhaps you color-coded web pages by categories, to help users understand where they are within the website. You should keep track of your design and IA decisions as you are developing the site so that you can summarize them in the report.
If you created prototypes or versions of the site structure, keep them and include them in an appendix that is linked to the report's table of contents.
Your design rationale should be about 500 words. This report is due on March 5 and is worth 5% of the final grade. It will be discussed in class on January 22
You will conduct a simple usability test based on task analysis. The nature of these tasks cannot be determined in advance because it will depend on the structure and content of the site you are developing. If, for example, you were testing the SLIS site, you might ask people three questions:
When you have a working prototype of your site, you will develop three tasks that a typical visitor to the site might carry out. You will then ask three people to participate in your test. Each person will be given the three tasks and you will observe them as they attempt to complete the tasks. You will collect data on:
You will then describe the results of your tests. This description will include the tasks that you developed and the results of your observations (some of which may be presented using tables). If the tests cause you to make changes in the site, report that as well.
Your usability results should be about 500 words. This report is due on April 16 and is worth 5% of the final grade. It will be discussed in class on April 2
The complete report will have a cover page with a table of contents and separate content sections for each of the three main sections. Each of these sections may be a single page, but the structure of the report is up to you. You will also have an appendix where you place early versions of pages that you created for the site.
As you complete each section of the project documentation report, mark it up using XHTML and place it in your <www> directory. You complete the assignment by sending the instructor the <URL> for the essay.
The completed report will be due on April 23 and is worth 5% of the final grade. It will be turned in along with the final project. This assignment will be discussed in class on January 8.
You will spend the semester developing the web site for your client. You will incorporate what you have learned in class where appropriate and produce a site that is cleanly marked up to standard using at least XHTML, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to use.
There are no prescribed topics for this project; you must clear your topic with the instructor.
The completed project web site is due on April 23 and is worth 30% of the final grade. The project will be discussed in class on January 8.Once the project URLs have been submitted, the term projects will then be accessible on an L571 student projects page.
You will distill the information in your project report into a 10 minute presentation that you will give in class on April 16 or April 23. Presentation times will be assigned on April 2. In your presentation, you will describe the research that you did to prepare for the development of the site, discuss the challenges that you faced and explain how you overcame them, and show the site that you created.
This assignment will be worth 5% of final grade.