Northwest College | Issues in Web Design | Course Syllabus

 

ART/PHOTO 2165 (3 credits)
Online course January 16-May 11, 2007

Instructor:

Renée Tafoya
Email: renee.tafoya@northwestcollege.edu
Phone: (307) 754-6041
Office: Visual Arts Dept., Cabre Building, Rm 202

 

Course Description:
Students will investigate conceptual and practical issues surrounding the process of designing web sites. These issues include web architecture, interface, accessibility, and marketing as well as problems in graphic design, typography, and writing for the web. We also examine current methods in publishing, publicizing, and maintaining a website. This course will benefit anyone who currently produces web pages, from the dabbler to the professional.

Assigned readings, threaded discussions, tutorials, a final project and presentations will be the primary format applied to this class. Assignments will include the creation and presentation of html pages that illustrate various issues. Students are free to utilize any operating platform and web-authoring software, but should have intermediate level skills in one or more of the following: HTML, Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, or other web-design applications.

Course Outcomes:
This course fulfills the general education requirement for a Visual & Performing Arts course:

  1. Students will utilize appropriate terminology from art or other artistic media in discussions and writings. In this course, students will learn the vocabulary of web designers & developers and will use this terminology in discussions and writing assignments.
  2. Students will evaluate artistic works and performances using knowledge of appropriate design elements. In this course students will evaluate the use of color, typography, writing styles, and images in a variety of websites, and assess the effect of these elements in communication.
  3. Students will draw on their own individual experiences, creativity and imagination to create or write about artistic works. In this course, students will research web design elements that support and enhance visual communication and will create web pages or Power Point presentations that utilize these design elements.
  4. Students will articulate reasons for their emotional reactions to artistic works or performances. Specifically, students will analyze websites from a number of cultural venues (music, commerce, entertainment, training, informational, etc.). Using this analysis, students will develop written criteria for evaluating a website.
  5. Students will relate ideas expressed through artistic media to history and expression in other disciplines. In this course, students will illustrate the relationship of web design to other disciplines including communication, writing, public relations, typography, graphic design, photography, architecture, and computer programming.
  6. Students will express in writing ways that the arts reveal cultural function, values, and beliefs. In this course, students will analyze and discuss the present and future impact of the Internet on global cultures and economies.

Required text and resources:
Web Style Guide, by Lynch and Horton, Published by Yale University.
ISBN 0-300-08898-1 (available through Northwest College Bookstore and at http://www.webstyleguide.com/)

http://www.lynda.com/– student subscription to software training videos. Your instructor will provide information on your personal log-in to your subscription.

Course Outline:

 Unit 1. The Internet. Opens January 15 - Closes January 28

Unit Assignment: Search tools and strategies
Discussion: Browsers
Exercise: Add a URL with a short review to our Web Links page

Unit 2. The Design Process. Opens Jan 21 - Closes February 4

Unit Assignment: Analyze purpose and audience
Discussion: discuss this assignment and Final Project
Exercise: Log in to www.lynda.com with your student account and begin to view the tutorials

Unit 3. Site Design. Opens January 28 - Closes February 11

Final Project Milestone #1 due
Discussion: Understanding Source Code
Exercise: complete the tables & frames tutorial in Unit 3. Upload your work to our class site.

Unit 4. Page Design. Opens February 11 - Closes February 25

Unit Assignment: Liquid, Ice, or Jello?
Discussion: Tables and frames
Exercise: Lynda.com tutorials

Unit 5. Typography. Opens February 25 - Closes March 11

Final Project Milestone #2 due
Discussion: Cascading Style Sheets
Exercise: Cascading Style Sheets

Unit 6. Editorial Style. Opens March 11 - Closes March 25

Assignment: Internal and External Style Sheets
Discussion: Final project Q & A
Exercise: CSS, Citations, and APA style

Unit 7. Web Graphics. Opens March 18 - Closes April 1

Final Project Milestone #3 due
Discussion: web graphics
Exercise: Graphics self quiz / Photoshop

Unit 8. Multimedia. Opens April 1 - Closes April 15

Assignment: Using multimedia
Discussion: Multimedia
Exercise: Add a URL with a short review to our Web Links page

Unit 9. Publishing and Maintenance. Opens April 15 - Closes April 29

Assignment: Meta Tags
Discussion: finding web hosts and domain names
No exercise

Unit 10. Conclusion begins April 22 - Course ends May 11

Discussion: The future of the Internet
Final Project Milestone #4 due Due May 8. Upload zipped websites or presentations.
Exercise: review the final presentations and post comments.

Required Learning Activities

1. Ten Unit Discussions (3 points each = 30 points)

Students are required to participate in the Unit discussions on the course website. Discussion is considered to be at least one original post and one reply to another's post. The purpose of the threaded discussions is to encourage active participation in learning activities and to facilitate learning from each other. Discussions topics are posted at the beginning of each unit and each unit’s discussion is worth 3 points.

2. Nine Unit Exercises (3 points each = 27 points total)

Every unit will include a practical exercise.

3. Six Unit Assignments (5 points each = 30 points total)

The purpose of unit assignments are to facilitate hands-on learning and analysis. Assignments are an expansion of the unit tutorials and may be either the creation of web pages or written reports. Completed assignments may be used to build the final projects.

4. Final Project (20 points)

You may select from two options for a final project. One option is a completed Web site. This option is available only for students who have proven experience in web page design. The other option is a PowerPoint or Acrobat Reader presentation on an approved topic.

Grading:           
Grading is based on the percentage of “points” earned.  Each required learning activity has a defined number of points possible and a set of criteria or standards for grading.

Please note that late submissions will only receive half of the points as a full score even if they meet all other criteria.

Blackboard CE6
This course will utilize the online learning environment of Blackboard. Students can access Blackboard by going to http://mynwc.northwestcollege.edu. Log in with your firstname.lastname (for example, my login is renee.tafoya). Your password is the last 4 digits of your social security number and your 6 digit birthdate. You are encouraged to change your password after you enter Blackboard the first time.

The Issues In Web Design course homepage contains course announcements. Other course tools are found in the navigation bar at the left of the page.

Course Content is in Unit modules. Each unit will be made available the week before the unit begins.

The Calendar contains due dates for assignments and milestones.

The Grade Book will be updated at midterm and one week after finals.

In Mail you can send a message to one or all of the class.

Important note about E-mail communication: First, when using email to communicate with me, write “ART/PHOTO 2165” as the subject (title), then add whatever your concern/issues/questions/ideas after that. This will help me quickly recognize your email from other emails I receive. Second, write your full name (first and last) at the end of your message, because your personal email address won’t necessarily suggest your name. Providing your full name will facilitate our communication, especially at the beginning of the class when I am learning who you are. Unfortunately, I can only write to you using your Northwest College student email account. Please remember to check that account frequently.

The Chat common room is where all class chats will be held. This chat is public and recorded. This means you can read the logs after the chat to review something that was discussed or read the chat log if you missed a chat. The other chat room is intended for student use and is private. Select the one you want and schedule small group or one-on-one chats among yourselves as needed. You are NOT required to participate in the chat sessions, but live chats will be held for an hour at the end of every unit. This is the time during which I can be reached exclusively for this on-line course in addition to other ways of communicating with me.

Assignments is where you recieve and return assignment documents. This is the preferred method of turning in assignments (the other method is through email attachment). Written assignments must be in Word or WordPerfect or RTF format.

The Web Links page is as good as we make it. Those web pages that you find important to you would probably be appreciated by your colleagues too, so, post them in the webliography

Sensitive Material
Due to open access to the Internet, the student may encounter offensive material, however these subjects are not part of the curriculum.

Students With Special Needs
Students who qualify for specific accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act should inform the instructor within the first week of class to ensure that their needs are met in a timely manner. It is the student's responsibility to inform the instructor of her/his needs and to provide the necessary documentation to the Student Success Center before any classroom accommodation can be made. To contact the Director of the Student Success Center, call (307) 754-6135 or stop by the Center located in the basement of Colter Hall.

Northwest College Computer Labs
If you don’t already have a NWC student computer account, your instructor can set up an account for you. Lab hours are posted at each lab entrance; please depart from the labs before all scheduled classes, and by 10 p.m. nightly. Do not install or download software onto any NWC computers without written permission from NWC Computer Services.

 The Macintosh Computer labs in Fagerberg 44 and 46 have Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe GoLive software, as well as PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. Your enrollment in Issues in Web Design authorizes you to utilize the Macintosh labs.

The PC labs in the Fagerberg building and at the Cody Center are also available for your use, however web design software is not available on those computers. Instead, they can be used to connect with WebCT and the Internet, and for creating and uploading PowerPoint and Word documents.