Class Description PAF 410: Intro to Web Design - Fall 2014 Mondays and Wednesdays: 3:45 5:05 Instructor: Jonathan Lee (jtlee03@syr.edu) TA: Seth Singer (sesinger@syr.edu) Office Hours: TBA In this three-credit course, students will learn how to design and develop multimedia documents for the World Wide Web. Students will become familiar with the planning, design, implementation and management cycle of web design for personal, business, and government/non-profit purposes. After studying the basics of HTML, you will learn how to create effective and visually appealing web sites. As the PAF prefix would suggest, the content of these web sites will center on the skills and concepts you have acquired through the major in policy development and implementation. This course is not about memorizing facts, but about understanding and applying concepts and learning web design skills. Your grade will be primarily based on the projects you create, a few homework assignments, and a midterm exam. The goal of the instructor is to offer a course that is interesting, challenging, and most important useful. If there is something you want to learn that is not covered in the course syllabus, please contact the instructor. Skills students will develop: Develop and maintain a website using HTML5 and CSS Communicate technical needs and requirements with non-technical clients Use statistics to help clients understand the information collected Design an effective social media strategy from an organizational standpoint Communicate effectively through social media Overcome technical challenges using problem-solving techniques Organizational skills Explore career goals and the usage of technology in the real world
This course supports the following goals of the Policy Studies Major: 1. Apply problem solving to societal problems 2. Understand the implementation of public policy 3. Gather information in a variety of ways 4. Use computer programs to analyze quantitative data 5. Communicate effectively in oral and written venues 6. Work efficiently on individual projects 7. Work effectively on team projects 8. Gain knowledge of societal problems, causes, and policy in a specific problem area Requirements: Attendance is mandatory. Absences will result in the loss of one-third of a letter grade per absence (Ex: A to A-, A- to B+, etc.). Absences without penalty will be considered on a case-by-case basis. This course REQUIRES the use of a personal laptop for each class. Failure to bring your laptop to class will result in being marked absent for that class. Punctuality is key. Homework assignments and projects are due at 11:59:59 PM EST on the assigned day unless otherwise directed. Late assignments will lose one letter grade per day. Academic Integrity This class will involve a considerable amount of code writing. While many of the assignments will be similar from student to student, copying blocks of code from other students, implementing plugins, or using prewritten code from the internet is equivalent to plagiarism and all involved parties will receive a zero for that assignment. These students will also be brought to the attention of Syracuse University Academic Integrity Officers. Attentiveness Each student is expected to be organized, take notes, and pay attention in class. This class covers a significant amount of content, and it is up to each student to ask questions and seek help if they do not understand a concept or idea.
Grading Point Distribution: Homework Assignments 10% Midterm Project 15% Midterm Exam 20% Personal Website 20% Final Project 35% TOTAL 100% Course Outline: Grading Scale: Min Max Letter 93 100 A 90 92 A- 87 89 B+ 83 86 B 80 82 B- 77 79 C+ 73 76 C 70 72 C- 60 69 D 59 F Disclaimer: This schedule is tentative. All assignments, lectures, projects, and dates are subject to change. Date Lecture 25- Aug 27- Aug 1-3- 8-10- Course Introduction Course Requirements (laptops, software, patience) The good, the bad, and the ugly IT 101: So, how does any of this stuff even work?? Hardware, Software, Access What happens on the server? HTML vs CSS (and other messes of code!) Labor Day No Class Celebrate work by not working! Hello World! Elements, tags, attributes, and our first website! Structure I Elements: block-level vs. inline Intro to CSS Structure II The Box Model Floating Homework: Box Model Assignment (DUE 9/17)
Date Lecture 15-17- 22-24- 29-1- 6-8- 13-15- 20-22- 27-29- 3-5- Color and Images Counting by 16s RGB(A) vs Hex Why People Hate Technology: JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs Navigation Why People Hate Technology (Part II): Screen sizes A Look Ahead Homework: Email Assignment (DUE 9/24) Site Replication Project Homework: Midterm Website (DUE 10/8) Site Replication Project Midterm Review Finish Site Replication Project (DUE 10/6) MIDTERM EXAM Our Social World Integrating Social Media with HTML Homework: Personal Website Brainstorming (DUE 10/8) Brainstorming How the heck are we supposed to do this from scratch?? Homework: Personal Website Sketch and Presentation (DUE 10/13) Personal Website Presentations Begin work on websites in class Homework: Personal Website (DUE 10/27) Social Media Strategy Gaining followers, increasing brand-awareness, and giving your audience what they want Google Analytics Careers and the Web Designers, Programmers, and Webmasters The Future of Web Design HTML 5 and CSS 3 Why People Hate Technology (Part III): Responsive Design Photoshop I Photoshop II Dealing with Clients Final Project Introduction Homework: Find a Client (DUE 11/5) Meeting the Client Homework: Deliverables for Client (DUE 11/10)
Date Lecture 10-12- 17-19- 24-26- 1-Dec 3-Dec JavaScript I Making a website dynamic Homework: Final Project (DUE 12/3 - uploaded to server before class) JavaScript II Image Sliders Work on Final Project Work on Final Project Thanksgiving Break - No Class Thanksgiving Break - No Class Work on Final Project Course Evaluation and Wrap-up Final Project Presentations
Disability Statement Students who require academic accommodations due to a disability are encouraged to discuss their needs with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. To obtain authorized accommodations, students should be registered with the Office of Disability Services, 804 University Ave., Rm. 310; 443-4498; E-mail: odssched@syr.edu. Students must provide the instructor with an updated accommodation letter. Services are not provided retroactively. They must be requested in advance. Faith Observances There has been a change in the campus policy concerning religious observance. Information can be found at http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm. If there are holy days that are part of your faith tradition, the instructor must be advised within the first two weeks of the semester for any related absence due to religious observance and entered on MySlice. Cheating/Plagiarism Academic honesty is expected of all students. For individual assignments, students must hand in their own work. Similarities in wording between individual papers, including a consistent case of the use of the same sources, may result in a zero for both papers and a letter to the department chair and to the dean. Any evidence of failure to follow University guidelines for academic integrity will result in a zero for that assignment. Consult http://provost.syr.edu/provost/units/academicprograms/academicintegrity/ for more information. When it is determined to be necessary, authenticity of papers may be verified using the plagiarism prevention system, Turnitin. Students may also use Turnitin through Blackboard to confirm that information has been correctly cited. Students must not copy and paste Internet sources without proper attribution.