Contact information
Catalog description
Goals
Platforms
Assumptions
Readings
Class Web page and listserv discussion list
Students with disabilities
Assignments and basis for grading
Classroom: Center for Science and Technology 4-211
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Email: klarson@wells.edu
Office Hours: M/W 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the IST Instructional Lab or the classroom
Wells Phone: 364-3305 (with voice mail)
T.A.: Joe Hernick
T.A.'s Email: jhernick@mailbox.syr.edu
Introduction to accessing and building Internet/World Wide Web information resources. Practice with searching tools and markup languages. Review of UNIX commands and file structure. Network information resources management issues are considered.
The course has two simultaneous goals: 1) to consider management issues in designing and operating an Internet or intranet Web site and 2) to provide practical experience in creating and organizing content for the Web. The practical portion of the course involving creating Web pages is not intended primarily as a skill for its own sake. Rather, the practical component is intended to support understanding of design and management considerations. In managing Internet/intranet resources it is important to know what goes into preparing hypertext and multimedia materials, if only to understand that the process is neither harder nor easier than it really is. Current tools and current HTML will change quickly, but working concretely on a site will provide an opportunity to deal with issues that will continue to affect design and management of Internet and intranet resources: identification of organizational goals, understanding of audience, and recognition of the means to organize information effectively.
As part of the practical aspect of the course most of us will be working with both IBM-compatible PCs and Macintoshes. Even if you are religiously committed to one platform or another, it is important to feel comfortable with both, and to know that you can move your work from one to the other. You will also do basic Unix account and file management (which I will explain in class).
Some familiarity with the Internet and the World Wide Web is assumed. You will need to have an email account and an account on which you can mount Web pages (both are provided by SU to all students). You will need to access the Web on a regular basis throughout the course, either from a cluster at SU or from your home or office. If you have a computer at home it will be highly desirable to arrange to access the Internet from there. See Computing Services for details.
The course text is John Desborough's Intranet Web Development (Indianapolis: New Riders, 1996). It is available at the Orange Bookstore.
You may also want to buy a book on HTML and other concrete aspects of Web page creation. There are many such books available at all local bookstores. One that I especially like is: Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy, HTML: The Definitive Guide (Sebastopol CA: O'Reilly and Associates, 1996); the second edition (spring, 1997) should be available about the time our course begins.
In nearly every class we will also discuss self-selected articles from online sources or from print periodicals. Some sources of news about the Internet on the Web include netday.iworld.com, www.webweek.com, www.zdnet.com/intweek, and www.news.com. You may also want to subscribe to email news sources such as Edupage (send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe edupage). Some good print sources on current Internet developments include Internet World, Web Week, Inter@ctive Week, and Web Developer.
We can communicate with each other through our class Web page and our email discussion list. Our Web page will be located at http://istweb.syr.edu/~ist553su and will function as a mini-intranet for the class. It will not only include the up-to-date class schedule and description of assignments but also links to the IST553 course pages of all class members, allowing us to exchange ideas with other participants and to learn from each other. It will thus be a constantly growing and changing body of information. There will be email links to contact the instructor, the T.A., and all class members and to send mail to our listserv discussion list.
The listserv email discussion list will be one of our primary means of communicating important information, continuing discussions, and asking and answering questions. To subscribe to our listserv list, send an email message to listserv@listserv.syr.edu (no subject and no signature) with the message subscribe ist553kl Your Full Name. If you are unfamiliar with listserv lists, be sure to save and study the initial welcome message that you receive upon subscribing. If you have trouble subscribing or using the list, let me know right away.
Students who need special consideration because of any sort of disability should see the instructor at the start of the semester and any time thereafter if further consideration is needed.
(Detailed instructions for all assignments appear below. All written assignments should be word processed, carefully proofread, and printed. They should demonstrate attention to standards of spelling, grammar, and style. The page numbers below assume single-spacing.)
| Critique of Web sites | 2 pages | 20% |
| Initial idea for Web site | ½ page | [ungraded] |
| Description of design goals | 2-3 pages | 20% |
| Discussion of policy and management considerations | 2-3 pages | 20% |
| Prototype Web site | at least 5 Web pages | 25% |
| Personal course page | 1 Web page + assignment pages | 10% |
| Class attendance and participation | 5% |
It is essential that all assignments be turned in on the day indicated or, if there are special extenuating circumstances, that alternative arrangements be made in advance. Unless prior arrangements are approved, assignments not turned in on time will be averaged in as zero.
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