Web Design One - Spring 2012

Course Information

MDAR-2810-81
Elmwood
Monday evenings 6:00–8:40
Instructor John W. Schwartz
E-mail: jschwar@tulane.edu
Blackboard: http://mytulane.blackboard.com
Course website (in addition to Blackboard) – assignments, notes, and resources:
http://mdar-281.ohioplaid.com/notes/ (username and password provided by instructor)

Course Description/Goals (top)

This course introduces students to standards-based website development with a concentration on creating content designed to attract and retain visitors. Students will use the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the authoring language of the Web, to structure information and improve page design capabilities. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the formatting language of the Web, will be applied to HTML elements to control appearance and enhance user experience. This course also explores how the Internet works, and what we can do with it. 

Writing Across the Curriculum

Web Design I is a writing designated course and is part of the SCS Writing Across the Curriculum Program or WAC. Students develop strong written content for Web pages through assignments meeting SCS Writing Across the Curriculum requirements (practicing a set amount of writing in this discipline, revision, and critical thinking). Expressing yourself adequately in different writing situations is essential in any college discipline. In the world of web design, accurate and effective presentation of your ideas through writing is as important as the graphic or visual layout of web information.

Assessment (top)

Web Design I is a hands-on, project-based course. A series of one-page assignments will introduce basic web page authoring concepts and techniques and provide opportunities to develop web-writing skills. Following short assignments covering web design fundamentals, students complete large-scale final projects that require planning, authoring, and publishing a five or more page website on a topic of their choice. Grading is based on completion of labs, single page assignments, and final projects. Assessment also includes quizzes on readings and core HTML elements, and a test on basic terms. Writing for the Writing Across the Curriculum program will be assessed separately and comprise 20% of your overall course grade.

Web Design I is an introductory course; you do NOT need prior HTML or CSS experience to successfully complete assignments.

Learning outcomes:

Skills developed:

• A small amount of hand coding and a large amount of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing of HTML and CSS documents. (Although not a technically oriented course, students complete two out of seven short hand-coded web pages while HTML is introduced. All other short assignments and the final project use the student’s web page editor of choice. Class demonstrations use BlueGriffon http://bluegriffon.org/, an open source web page editor.)
• Embedding maps, video, and Google Analytics in web pages.
• Blog set-up and editing.
• Content Management System set-up and management using Wordpress.
  
• Basic Search Engine Optimization techniques.
• Navigation of local and online file systems.
• Management of file formats used on the Internet and Web including File (local), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and SSH (Secure SHell) protocols.
• Effective procedures for planning and completing Web projects.

Readings (top)

Student Performance (top)

Students are expected to read all assignments prior to class and actively participate in class discussions.

Attendance (top)

Students are expected to attend every class.

Late work (top)

Assignments must be turned in on the date that they are due. Unless a student can show substantial reason for not having the work to turn in on time, the grade on late assignments will be dropped one half-letter grade per week.

Make Up Work (top)

If a student has missed an assignment due to an excused absence, he/she must present the assignment at the next class. A missed project is recorded as a zero.

Disability Services (top)

Students requesting accommodations should contact the Center for Educational Resources & Counseling (ERC). http://erc.tulane.edu/

Plagiarism Policy (top)

All students are expected to produce their own work. Only copyright-free content is allowed in course in-class and homework assignments, including images or other media. Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated; students are expected to be familiar with the Code of Academic Conduct (Honor Code) and its provisions: http://college.tulane.edu/code.htm

Grading Scale (top)

A=100-96 A-=90-95 B+=89-87
B=86-84 B-=83-80 C+=79-77
C=76-74 C-=73-70 D+=69-67
D=66-64 D-=63-60 F=59-0

Grading (top)

Labs 5%
Quizzes and tests 10%
Single page assignments 30%
Web site project 35%
Writing Across the Curriculum component 20%
TOTAL 100%

Outline/Calendar