Course description:

This course will be conducted in a seminar fashion, meaning that the content and the direction will be shaped in part by participants (instructor and students) as the semester progresses. The primary goal is to build on knowledge obtained in DART230 to advance understanding of authoring environments in general, noting parallels and differences among them. The focus will be on building knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3, integrating that with JavaScript and jQuery to create sites based on HTML, and adding XML and PHP components, employing hand code or frameworks, primarily Twitter Bootstrap. Coverage of other environments may include XSLT, RSS, AJAX, SVG and database interaction, microformats and others.

We will also look at current Web standards and at designing for accessibility across platforms.

Class time will be devoted to sharpening your design and technical skills. We will be incorporating all the components you have learned into a single project which will be used to showcase your work. This project will consist of a creative Web site redesign that may interface with a database.

We will learn to mingle design strategies. You will not be an expert in all technologies, but you will develop a solid foundation needed to continue in these areas.

Classes will include discussions and demonstrations of techniques to combine your design and technical skills. You will be given examples and ideas to develop during your lab time. You will be required to participate in critiques of colleagues' work in collegial and productive ways. This year I may also incorporate occasional "lectures" by students in ther tradition of DArt 230's Site of the Day. We all need help surveying what's out there, and what's trending, so you may be bringing that to class as we proceed.

Textbooks:

Rahman, S. F. (2014). Jump Start Bootstrap. Australia: Sitepoint. eBook or print: (ISBN 978-0-9922794-3-1)

Ward, C. (2017). Jump Start Responsive Web Design. (2nd ed.). Australia: Sitepoint. eBook or print: (ISBN 978-0-9943470-9-1).

The following are recommended: Verou, L. (2015). CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media. Book website (with Intro, Chapter 1) (ISBN 978-1-449-37263-7)

Goldstein, A., Lazaris, L., & Weyl, E. (2015). HTML5 and CSS3 for the Real World (2nd. ed.). Australia: Sitepoint. eBook or print: ISBN 978-0987467485

Gillenwater, Z. M. (2011). Stunning CSS3. A project-based guide to the latest in CSS. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. Book website. (ISBN 978-0-321-72213-3)

Recommended for later: any book on related topics from Sitepoint.

You will take two tests covering material in the text and in lectures. Both tests will have written and hands-on components.

You will complete several short assignments that show familiarity with skills outlined in the text and elsewhere. Some of those will feed into the final project. The Web site will be a redesign of an existing company site built with your code, Twitter Bootstrap, or other grid that incorporates PHP, jQuery, flexbox, uses media queries to port to mobile devices, and may populate a page with XML content styled by CSS/XSLT.

You will give presentations and critiques to the class of your and other Web sites, and be expected to respond to classmates' presentations. You may also give a report and demonstration on a Web technology of your choice. This can be one you already know or one you'd like to learn more about.

Attendance is important. Those present will sign a roll at each class meeting. For any absence to be excused you must contact me beforehand and provide documentation of your excuse or have a friend do so if you are unable. Given normal extenuating circumstances, you are allowed a total of four unexcused class absences. Further unexcused absences, or excessive excused absences may lower your final grade.

Assignments or tests missed due to excused absences can be made up, but those missed due to unexcused absences cannot.
Adjustments to the schedule and requirements listed in this document are to be allowed for, if not expected.

You are responsible for following the University’s and this class’s policies on submission of original work and acknowledgement of direct quotations or paraphrases from others’ writings (see the La Salle statement of Academic Integrity), or use of code. Plagiarism “consists of passing off the ideas, opinions, facts, words—in short, the intellectual work—of another as your own” (Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers). Clearly plagiarized work will result in a grade of “F” for the project and may result in an "F" for the course.

The Academic Integrity Policy, the American Disability Act of 1990, and the Student Guide to Rights and Responsibilities are posted in the Canvas course Help Menu.

Short assignments 35%
Tests 25%
Semester project 30%
Class participation, critiques, 10%

Grade assignment: A = 94 and above; A- = 90-93; B+ = 87-89; B = 84-86; B- = 80-83; C+ = 77-79; C = 74-76; C- = 70-73; D+ = 67-69; D = 60-66; F = below 60.