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Course Description

From the Oberlin catalog course description:

A hands-on course in Internet web site development. Primary emphasis is on each person building a complex web site focused on some area of academic interest and competence using

1. the HTML mark-up language,
2. programs supportive of web site construction (e.g. PhotoShop, Dreamweaver), and
3. the Javascript scripting language, with strong emphasis on the latter.

About one-half the course deals with Javascript.

Goals and course objectives

My goals and objectives for students taking this course are as follows:

1. Understand how the WWW works and the role that the Internet plays
2. Be able to understand and use HTML
3. Be able to create websites using
   1. HTML
   2. images and links
   3. tables
   4. frames
4. Be able to write and use CSS to modify the way a page is displayed
5. Have experience with some of the tools commonly used in website design (Dreamweaver, GIMP, Photoshop, Flash)
6. Understand JavaScript and be able to use it for web pages
7. Design and create a substantial website for an outside client
8. Be able to critically analyze web page design, and develop an aesthetic sense of both good and bad practices in web design

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Text and Useful Links

We'll be using a number of texts for this course as well as some online resources:

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML by Freeman and Freeman. JavaScript & AJAX by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith The Web Wizard's Guide to Web Site Design by James G. Lengel.

The Web Wizard's Guide to HTML by Wendy Lehnert. [out of print] The Web Wizard's Guide to JavaScript by Steven G. Estrella.

1. Accompanying website for Head First at http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfhtml/
2. Accompanying website for JavaScript & AJAX at http://www.javascriptworld.com/
3. The rest of these books are from Addison Wesley's Web Wizard Series with accompanying website: http://wps.aw.com/aw_webwizard/

There is quite a bit of useful information on HTML and webpage design available online. If you find something interesting, let me know and I'll add it here.

Web Design

• http://webref.info/ - documents most web layout/formatting technologies
• http://www.w3schools.com/ - collection of free web building tools
• http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ - learn what not to do
• http://www.ratz.com/features.html - Good and bad designs

HTML References

• http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/ - the official HTML standard
• http://werbach.com/barebones/ - a useful concise reference of standard HTML
• http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp - reference table of special characters

XHTML References

• http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1 - latest XHTML specification

Javascript References

CSS References

• http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1 - official standard for CSSv1
• http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/ - official standard for CSSv2
• http://www.w3schools.com/css/ - tutorial and interactive examples
• http://www.oswd.org/ - open source web design
• http://www.csszengarden.com/ - CSS Zen Garden - one page with many layouts

Validators

• http://www.cs.oberlin.edu/validator/ - HTML Validator (locally hosted, should be faster)
• http://validator.w3.org/ - HTML validator
• http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ - CSS Validator
• http://validator.w3.org/checklink - hyperlink checker

Text/HTML editors

• TextWrangler2 [Mac]
• jEdit - [all platforms]

Tools for graphics

• Photoshop - available in some computer labs
• GIMP - open source clone of photoshop

Homework and Course Policy

Attendance

Regular class attendance and participation is expected. Please talk to me if regular class attendance is going to be a problem.

Homework Assignments

There will be a number of assignments made in this class. I expect every student to attempt each assignment and turn in the results. You are encouraged to complete every assignment as this is one of the most effective ways to learn the material.

If you know that for some reason you will not be able to submit the assignment before the deadline, you should contact me in advance of the deadline. Extensions are only granted in exceptional circumstances, but need to be done in advance.

Late assignments will be penalized 10% per day. Extra credit will not be accepted after the initial deadline.

Accommodations for students with disabilities

If you have a disability that might impact your performance in this course, or requires special accommodation, please contact me as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Support is available through Student Academic Services, specifically Jane Boomer. You will need to contact them to get your disability documented before accommodations can be made.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

I have very low tolerance for academic dishonesty, and will vigorously pursue available remedies for any incidents. All work in this class is to be performed according to the Oberlin Honor Code. Specifically I expect that:

1. Quizzes will be closed book, closed notes, and no communication between students. This includes discussing the same to students who are taking the quiz at another time.
2. Discussion of assignments is expected and encouraged, however all work and code on assignments should be your own without outside assistance.
3. Sources should be cited including the textbook and other web sites when you use them in your work.

Illustrative examples:

1. Confirming that we had and exam is OK, telling another student in the class who has not taken it that it was easy/hard, what topics, etc. is NOT OK.
2. Discussing what needs to be done and how it can be done is OK, having a student (other than a TA) go over your code is NOT OK, discussing what might be wrong and how to tell is OK (and encouraged).
3. Basing a design off of the appearance of another site is OK, using the code of such a site as a starting point is OK with attribution, but is NOT OK without attribution.

All assignments must include the following signed statement:

"I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment."

Electronic submissions should include the honor statement in either the README or comments and must include your name.

Assignments

Weekly projects

Initially, there will be a series of weekly projects requiring you to create and modify some web pages (linked in the schedule above). These assignments will be assigned on Thursday and will usually be due at the start of class the following Thursday. They should give you experience using the material we discussed in class that week.

• XHTML template
• HTML 4.01 Strict template

Handin

• cd www/csci100    # go to where the directory you uploaded was
• handin -c cs100 -a X hw0X    # class, assign no., directory to submit

Semester Project

You will also be creating a website for an outside organization. We will discuss this project in class and this description may be updated with additional details.

You should think of this in terms of a final paper for a course. You will need to select a topic, do background research, create an outline, do a rough draft, and create a final draft based on feedback from the draft.

Scope:

Here is what I anticipate for the scope of your project.

• Not just a personal "vanity" site. Ideally this is going to be for an outside organization or a larger project upon which you are working. For an organization, it can be for internal use. For non-organizations, it must be for external viewing. Examples of non-group things that would be acceptable include web-comics, e-zines, and conference promotions.
• It should require at least 3 templates of pages and cover at least 5-10 actual pages.
• It should be something that actually can use a menu to assist in navigation.
• It can be a redesign or re-styling of an existing site, but it shouldn't be just updating the information in it. You need to be using your HTML and CSS tools.
• All pages should be written in valid HTML, XHTML, and CSS.

Report

As part of your final project you will need to submit a typed report containing the following information:

1. Organization and description: What is the organization. What are the goals, mission, and/or purposes of the group?
2. Website description: What are the organizations goals for the website? What are their objectives for the same?
3. Target audience: Who is the website directed towards? What characteristics or interests do you expect them to have? (Keep in mind there may be multiple target groups)
4. Previous state: Describe the state of the organizations website before you started working on it. Did they have one? What sort of HTML/CSS was being used? What pages were there? Etc.
5. Description of your design: Discuss the overall design that you came up with. Include samples of the various layouts you decided to use. What JavaScript functionality did you use? What graphics did you create and which graphics did you incorporate from their previous design?
6. Layout: Include a flow-chart of the layout of pages on the site. (Can be abbreviated for larger sites)
7. Validation: Include a section discussing the validation of the pages and CSS. If there are any portions that fail the validator or warnings that are generated, you need to address them. Is it something that just can't be fixed? Is it required by sponsor? etc.

Sample pages and template pages

Inside your www/csci100 directory, I'd like you to create a folder called final in which you put some of your sample pages. Create an index.html file that links to those pages with a brief explanation of what they contain.

Submit that folder using the handin program.

• cd www/csci100    # go to where the directory you uploaded was
• handin -c cs100 -a final final

In-class presentation

You will be giving a brief 2-minute presentation of the site to the class during the final exam time period in lieu of a final exam.

You need to get me the link to the site by the day before so that I can set up a pre-set list of links.

I recommend that you have a copy of the site (or at least some sample pages) hosted in you CS web space as that is less likely to have problems during class.