COURSE OUTLINE -- IST 129 -- WEB PAGE DESIGN I

 

FALL SEMESTER 2001

GERMANNA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

 

 

COURSE INFORMATION

 

Course Number and Title:  IST 129 – Web Page Design I, section 21B

Course Hours:  1:00-3:45pm, Saturdays

Course Location:  FAC, rm. 217

 

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

 

Instructor:  Dan Austin

Office:  FAC Adjunct Faculty Office, rm. 320 (if not there, I will be in rm. 217)

Office Hours:  Saturday 12:15-1:00pm, 3:45-4:00pm

Phone:  710-2058 (leave message if no answer)

e-mail:  dan@iamdanaustin.com (please use “IST 129” as the subject header)

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

Provides a working knowledge of web page design and construction using headings, lists, links, images, image maps, tables, forms, and frames.

 

TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER REQUIRED RESOURCES

 

Netscape Composer, Creating Web Pages.  Shelly, Cashman, and Repede, Course Technology, 1998.
Creating Web Sites – Illustrated Projects.  Cram and Hirschl, Course Technology, 1998.

 

Each student should have a 3.5" floppy or ZIP disk.


I will be maintaining a web site to provide up to date information on the course, such as important files, tentative course outline, resources, etc. at the following location:

 

http://www.iamdanaustin.com/gcc/

 

I strongly encourage you to refer to this page on a regular basis.  I will post the latest revision of the course outline on this page.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

·Design web pages

·Understand HTML and other web page technologies

·Design web pages using web page authoring tools


TOPIC OUTLINE

 

By the end of the course, you will be confident in writing all the basic tags of HTML and will be able to design simple and medium-complexity websites using both a text editor and Netscape Composer.

 


Basic HTML Skills

How HTML works

Web Browsers

Creating an HTML File

Headings, Paragraphs and Line Breaks

Horizontal Rules

Formatting Text

Font Size and Face

Text Alignment and Comments

Creating Lists

Background and Text Color

 

Hyperlinks

Creating Hyperlinks

Anchors and Hyperlink Colors

 

Images

Adding Images to Webpages

Aligning Images and Resizing Images

Image Links and Image Spacing

 

Meta Tags

Adding Meta Tags

 

Publishing Your Site

Netscape Composer

Checking Site Content

Testing and Publishing Your Site

 

Tables

Creating a Table

Table Spacing

Aligning Text in Tables

Table Headings and Merging Cells

Using a Table for Page Layout

 

Frames

Creating a Site Using Frames

Advanced Frameset Structures

 

Forms

Creating a Basic Form

Scrolling Text Boxes and Drop Down Menus

Form Buttons and Check Boxes

 

Styles

Internal Styles

External Styles

Class Selectors

 
Intro to Advanced Features

Javascript

Java Applets

PERL/CGI Scripting


 

IMPORTANT DATES

 

25 Aug - First day of class

05 Sep - Last day to drop with refund

24 Oct - Last day to drop without academic penalty

24 Nov - NO CLASS - Thanksgiving holiday

15 Dec - Last day of class

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Please provide me your contact information as soon as possible.  Please send me an email message that contains your name, address, and phone number(s).  I can get the email address from the return address field.  Please include your name in the subject line so I can find it efficiently if I need to talk to you.


COURSE WITHDRAWAL POLICY

 

Withdrawal from a course without academic penalty may be made within the first 60% of the course. The student will receive a grade of "W" for withdrawal.  After that time, the student will receive a grade of "F."  In case of mitigating circumstances documented by the instructor, a grade of "W" may be awarded after the last withdrawal date. The last day to withdraw from a course without academic penalty is October 24, 2001.

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY

 

Students will follow the college-wide standard found in the student handbook, which states that a student may not miss more than 20% of the class meetings and receive a passing grade.  For this course, this means that a student may not miss more than 3 classes.  The student is responsible for arranging to make up any missed work. The student is expected to notify me in advance where possible.  If you have an emergency and expect to miss one or more classes, please contact me as soon possible.

 

Since attendance will be part of your grade for the course, it is very important that you attend as much as possible.  All absences will be considered unexcused unless you bring a doctor’s note.  Those with emergency situations that cause them to miss one or more classes should discuss their situation with me.  (For example, a car accident which lands you in the hospital will probably be considered excused while a tearful breakup with your girlfriend probably won’t.)

 

ACADEMIC HONESTY

 

At GCC, we expect the highest standards of academic honesty. Violations of academic honesty include the following:

 

· Cheating: This includes seeking or giving unauthorized help on examinations, papers, and other academic assignments.  Cheating will not be tolerated in this class.

 

· Plagiarism: This is defined as using another's words or ideas and representing them as one's own either knowingly or unknowingly. In other words, by not documenting ideas or putting quotations around exact phrasing and documenting the source, one is committing plagiarism.

 

Misconduct in the area of academic honesty is subject to disciplinary action, which can include failure for the assignment, or even failure of the course, depending on the circumstances.

 

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES

 

This course will include lectures, labs, tutorials, and demonstrations.  Projects, labs and class participation will be used to evaluate your performance. Homework assignments must be completed by their due date. Late assignments will have at least a 10% reduction in grade (determined by the instructor).  Late assignments will only be accepted with prior approval.

 

Students may help one another in the lab only by answering specific questions or giving one another small hints.  Copying of assignments will not make me happy. If two or more very similar files or documents are turned in, I will probably take adverse action (to be determined based on the situation).  I have the final say in how similar two documents/files are and whether they violate this policy.  Repeated violations of this policy will result in the grade of an “F” for the course. In other words – PLEASE DO YOUR OWN WORK!

Both texts for this class are project books.  They contain step-by-step instructions for completing a variety of web page design techniques.  Follow the instructions in each book, complete the assigned projects, publish them on the student web server, and I will grade them.  There is also a final project for the course, which is your opportunity to design and create a web site.  These projects will be graded on completeness (i.e. all required elements are included).  The final project will also be graded on how well design principles were applied.  Because of the size of the final project you may not want to wait until the last week to start working on it.

COMPUTER LAB POLICY

 

No food or drink is normally allowed in the lab. I will permit small beverages with a lid as long as they sit on the floor and do not come near the computer hardware (no soda cans).  If you have a medical condition that requires you to be able to eat during class please bring a doctor’s note, and I will make reasonable accommodations for you.

 

Under NO circumstances are students to install software or hardware devices on PCs in the lab without the instructor’s specific direction.  This includes games, shareware, instant messaging tool, file sharing programs, etc.  Violation of this policy will not be tolerated and may result in dismissal from the class.

 

Using the school’s computers for inappropriate activity will not be tolerated.  Examples include web browsing of pornographic or hate/racism-related web sites, downloading MP3 files, etc.  Again, violation of this policy will not be tolerated and will almost certainly result in your dismissal from the class.

 

If you discover inappropriate files (games, MP3s, pornographic images, etc.), or web site bookmarks, please inform me ASAP, so that they can be removed from the computer.

 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

 

If you are a student with a disability and will need accommodations while enrolled in this course, please contact the Coordinator of Disability Services in the Counseling Center, (Room 201).  If you have a letter detailing your required accommodations, please present it to me ASAP.

 

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Click here for the most current schedule for IST 129.

The schedule is very flexible and will adjust to the needs of the class and how fast we cover the material. As the schedule changes, modifications will be posted to the course website.


GRADING POLICY

 

The standard grading scale below will be used for this course:

 

A = 90-100

B = 80-89

C = 70-79

D = 60-69

F = below 60

 

The weighting of various portions of this course will be:

 

20% - Class Participation/Attendance

30% - Out-of-class Assignments

10% - Final Project (pre-critique)

20% - Critique of class web pages

20% - Final Project (post-critique)

 

GRADE DISCLOSURE POLICY

 

Federal Law prohibits me from disclosing your grades to anyone but you.  This includes your spouse, your girlfriend, your parents (even if you are a minor), etc. If you would like for someone to have access to your grades besides yourself, please provide me with a note signed by you that authorizes the desired person to have access to your grades.

 

COURSE FEEDBACK

 

If you have any comments or suggestions on how I can improve this course, or concerns about anything related to the course or my teaching style, please let me know!  I will try and set up a “virtual suggestion box” on the IST 129 website which will allow you to make comments.  I hope you enjoy the class!