UCD School of Information and Library Studies. IS30020: Web Publishing

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1 UCD School of Information and Library Studies IS30020: Web Publishing Module Coordinator: Dr Judith Wusteman Office: SILS 110, Tel: Office hour Semester 1 (Sept 2011): Mondays Table of Contents: page 1. Module description 1 2. Weekly activities 2 3. Assessment 3 1. Module description Overview HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the language of the World Wide Web. In this course, you will learn how the Web works and how to create Web pages using HTML. You will also learn some of the basic tenets of electronic publishing theory and how they influence the development of the Web. This is a very practical course involving hands-on Web page development. If you work hard and put in plenty of practice, you should find it fun. But this module is academically challenging and requires commitment and application. The ability to create Web sites is now an essential skill for all graduates, particularly for those wishing to illustrate information literacy. It is also a core skill for librarians and information specialists. This course does not cover the use of an HTML editor. All HTML and CSS (Cascading Stylesheet) coding is done directly in Notepad. HTML editors allow you to produce HTML code in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment (ie without directly seeing the code you are generating). Using an HTML editor saves time but means that you don't learn what the code looks like or how it works. Editors also produce sub-optimal, often non-standard, code. The aim of the course is not to learn how to use an HTML editor - that is comparatively simple - but to understand and be able to manipulate HTML and CSS code. That is why HTML and CSS editors are not used on the course. See Getting started with HTML by Dave Raggett, URL: for a very quick introduction to HTML. Course objectives By the end of the course, you should Understand how the World Wide Web has emerged, how it is evolving and how it functions Understand some of the tenets of electronic publishing theory on which the Web is based Be able to create Web pages that are technically accurate, standards-oriented, future-proof and appropriate for purpose Be able to create and manipulate HTML and CSS code directly in Notepad Understand the evolution of HTML from version 1.0 through to XHTML and HTML 5 Understand how the Web can be used to add value to journals Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites. 1

2 Incompatible module: Students are not permitted to take this module if they have, or are planning to take, module Web Design (COMP20030). Module communications Course announcements will be made via UCD official . It is therefore important that you check your UCD regularly. Other communications will be made via Blackboard. Lectures and Classes The course will run in the first semester. There will be one lecture every week. In addition, students are required to complete one remote class every week. Lectures Lectures are an essential and compulsory part of the Web Publishing module. They take place at 9.00am on Mondays. It is not possible to successfully complete this module without attending all lectures. In every lecture, the register will be passed around. If, by the end of the lecture, you have not signed the register, it is your responsibility to approach the lecturer and ensure you do. It is your responsibility (not the lecturer's) to ensure that you sign the register during the lecture. It will not be possible to amend the register after the lecture. Five percent of the final mark for this course will be allocated to lecture attendance. You can be awarded a mark for a lecture you miss only if you provide the lecturer with a medical certificate or equivalent at the next lecture you attend or via . Never sign the register for another student - this will result in disciplinary action. Lectures start on the hour and finish at 10 to the hour. You are required to turn up on time. Poor time-keeping will be noted. Because of this, you should let the lecturer know if you have a genuine reason for being late. Classes Remote classes form an integral part of this module and submission of completed classes each week is compulsory. Classes are made available via Blackboard and should be submitted via Blackboard by the required deadline. 10% of the final mark for this module will be allocated to class submissions. Students may be given an extension for a classwork submission only if they provide a medical certificate or equivalent. Other than this, classwork submitted after the weekly deadline will not be awarded a mark. 2. Weekly activities Reading You are expected to do weekly background reading as recommended in lectures and Blackboard. Online references on a variety of topics covered in lectures are available via Blackboard under Resources. You are also expected to purchase and study the course text: HTML, XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, Sixth Edition, Peachpit, 2006, Elizabeth Castro A few copies are available on short loan in the library: CAS. 2

3 week You should get into the habit of using Castro to look up the topics covered in lectures. Reading about the topic will help to consolidate the lecture material. You should also use the course text when you are working on to classes and use it as a reference and to try and sort out any queries, where possible, before you ask the tutors. If you already have a book on XHTML, you can check with Judith whether it will be an acceptable alternative to Castro. Be aware that HTML is changing all the time: the latest version is called XHTML; the version prior to this was called HTML 4. The differences between the versions may appear minor but books on HTML 4 will probably just confuse you. You also need to ensure your textbook covers CSS. Outline Full details, including all lecture slides and classes, are available on Blackboard LECTURE Wednesday 1200 G-24 (Agriculture) CLASS To be completed remotely in your own time and submitted by deadline. 1 (12 th Sept) Housekeeping, History of Web, What is a journal 2 (19 th Sept) HTML basics 1. Your first HTML document 3 (26 th Sept) Stylesheets 2. More practice with the basics 4 (3 rd Oct) HTML linking 3. Stylesheets 5 (10 th Oct) Graphics 6 (17 th Oct) More on CSS 4. Linking 5. Graphics 7 (24 th Oct) Page layout 6. Advanced linking 8 (31 st Oct) BANK HOL 7. Page layout 9 (7 th Nov) Assessment 8. Addressing 10 (14 th Nov) Zipping and submitting, Standards etc 11 (21 st Nov) Revision 9. Zipping and submitting, Image links 12 (28 th Nov) Revision 3. Assessment Component Percentage of marks Weekly submission of classwork 10% Weekly attendance at lectures 5% Project 30% Exam 55% 3

4 Web Publishing Project The objective of this assessment: To produce a Web-based academic electronic journal. You will be provided with the text for a journal cover page and an article that you must use. Note that this is an academic journal, not a magazine or a newsletter and its presentation should reflect this. The journal must illustrate the appropriate use of Web facilities to add value to electronic journals. Details: You will be provided with The basics of a cover page including a table of contents A sample article The cover page is the one you have been working on in classes. You can add anything you like to the cover page or article but you mustn t remove any of the text in either. Your cover page must be formatted and laid out using CSS. The class on Page Layout using CSS describes a CSS file template and an HTML file template for laying out your cover page; you may use these templates or you can create your own. The CSS template file only provides basic layout styles. You must add formatting styles to this CSS file yourself. The sample article is not the one you have been working on in class ( XML to the Desktop by J Wusteman) but a different article ( VREs: What is the Librarian s Role? by J Wusteman). You can include the XML to the Desktop article if you like but you must include the VREs: What is the Librarian s Role article. Your journal should be HTML and CSS-based. It should include the cover page and the sample article, marked up in HTML, plus a CSS stylesheet as a minimum. The articles should be formatted using CSS but need not be laid out using CSS. (The distinction between formatting with CSS and laying out using CSS will be explained in the relevant lecture and class.) All HTML files submitted should include the Doctype definition for XHTML Transitional, as given in Class 1. Additional marks will be given for other useful journal features. Some of the links to such features may be dummies. All anchors to unimplemented features should point to the same dummy file that should incorporate an appropriate message. The dummy file should be called dummy.html. You will, of course, get more marks for an implemented feature/file than for a dummy file. You will be required to use styles appropriately as illustrated in lectures and classes. You will lose marks if you use deprecated tags or attributes where styles would be more appropriate. You should make appropriate use of all of the following features: Colour (Keep it subtle: nothing garish. Remember it s an academic journal, not a magazine.) Graphics (Avoid over-large or frivolous images.) Internal and external links Internal links should be relative and not absolute Navigation facilities (eg buttons) facility (Your link may not work on the UCD computers but you won't lose marks for that as long as the syntax is correct) Each of the HTML files submitted should link to and use a CSS stylesheet. The stylesheet should Format and layout the journal cover page Format the journal article(s) You can use one stylesheet for all your files or you can use more than one stylesheet. For example, you might have one stylesheet for the coverpage and another stylesheet for the 4

5 articles. Remember that a consistent look & feel is important for the journal; if you include more than one article, all of the articles should be laid out similarly using the same stylesheet. All styles should appear in the stylesheet. No styles should appear in the HTML file head or in individual tags. Make sure you look at some real ejournal systems to get ideas for the presentation and features for your own. Validation You must ensure that the HTML in all your files is correct. The use of an HTML validator is the best way to do this. (See the HTML practical Class 1) I won t know whether you ve used a validator or not so if you find the error messages difficult to understand, you may choose just to check the code carefully by hand. What you mustn t do (and what some students have done in the past) is to delete HTML code at random until the validator says there are no errors! Use the validator as a tool; if you don t find it useful, don t use it but be warned, you may well leave some errors in you code unless you are very careful. Comments You must comment your code to indicate the function of the various sections of code. Comments should appear within the HTML code, not as part of the printed documentation. Don t comment every line - you just need to convince me that you know what's going on in your code. Three or four comments should be enough. You don t need to repeatedly comment the same feature if it appears in more than one file. You should also include comments in your CSS file; again, don t comment everything. Using HTML Editors If you were creating a professional website, you would use an HTML editor. Editors allow you to produce HTML code in a WYSIWYG environment (ie without directly seeing the code you are generating.) Using an HTML editor saves time but means that you don't learn what the code looks like or how it works; this is why you're not using an HTML editor in this course. Editors also produce suboptimal, often non-standard, code. The aim of this assessment is not to determine whether you can use an HTML editor but to determine if you understand HTML code. Hence, you should not use any editor to create your HTML or CSS code except Notepad. It is always obvious when code has been created by an HTML or CSS editor so don t risk it you will lose marks when you are found out. Also, do not create your own HTML code and then open it in an HTML editor; this will reformat it and make it appear that it was created via the HTML editor. And make sure, when you view your work in a browser, that you don t then save it using the browser as this can sometimes add some odd code to your file. In other words, don t choose File > Save As from within the browser. Only ever save your files from within Notepad. Browser You must ensure that your journal appears correctly in Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. Checking Links Check very carefully that all your links work and that you are using relative addressing rather than absolute addressing. In other words, your links shouldn t refer to your hard drive/floppy/cd etc. And make sure you submit all your files (including graphics). Submission: By 3.00pm on Friday 2 nd December 2011 (ie last day of First Semester). 5

6 Your ejournal should be zipped and submitted via Blackboard. (Further details about how to submit via Blackboard will be made available in lecture and class). All the files should be in a folder called journal, or in subdirectories within folder journal. Your introductory/header page should be called coverpage.html. All subsequent pages of your ejournal should be accessible, directly or indirectly from links in coverpage.html. You should also submit a Word document, called tree.doc, containing a tree diagram illustrating the interconnectivity of the HTML files comprising your journal. Remember to keep an electronic copy of your assessment. UCD Policy on late submission of coursework Coursework submitted at any time up to one week after the due date (ie up to 3pm on Friday 9 th December) will have the mark reduced by one letter grade (for example, from B+ to C+). Coursework submitted more than one week but less than two weeks after the due date (ie between 3pm on Friday 9 th December and 3pm on Friday 16 th December) will have the mark reduced by 2 letter grades (for example, from B+ to D+). In other words, if you miss a deadline for submission, you may use the remainder of the week to improve your submission without additional penalty. Coursework received more than two weeks after the due date (ie after 3pm on Friday 16 th December) will not be accepted. UCD Policy on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Assessments must be the individual work of the student; group work is not acceptable and will be penalised according to the UCD policy on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism. Please note: It is acceptable to Cut and paste raw text from a journal currently online and then add your own HTML "Borrow" some graphics/icons/a heading or two Take a few ideas on layout / structure from a similar journal online Borrow an individual CSS style from another site It is not acceptable to Use any HTML code not produced by you (For example: using an online journal article/feature along with its HTML and CSS) Use a stylesheet taken from another website. Copy more than one CSS style from any particular site. (But you can use any of the styles given in lectures/classes, and you must use the CSS template provided) Copy a current ejournal format and content so closely that the journal you create is very similar to the journal you've borrowed from. This will be regarded as plagiarism. I will be using a search engine to check that all ejournals are your own work. If you don't know whether the material you have "borrowed" is acceptable, please come and see me. Examination At the end of the semester, you will sit a 2 hour written exam. All past papers are available on Blackboard. 6