User:Vtaylor/Willard/CIS 89A HTML and CSS/16F information

summary 1. Getting Started

• Introductions and expectations - Welcome to Web Development

Thanks for the introductions (and dog pictures). It is always nice to "meet" the class. For some online courses you just work on the assignments on your own and turn them in. Not in CIS89A. There will be lots of great resources and interesting ideas shared throughout the course. Please help to make this an enjoyable, friendly, interactive learning experience. Ask questions. Comment on the discussions. Some of the best information comes along that way.

From the discussions and the Week 1 in Review assignment, many great questions and comments came up. Here are some that are particularly helpful.

• Personalized learning - new to the web, advanced practitioner, something for everyone

Each module includes a coding assignment that covers the topic in depth. The Willard textbook does a pretty good job of showing what is important and how to use the tags, attributes and properties appropriately.

For other areas and activities, the depth and breadth will depend on individual baseline and interest. Everyone should learn something new from each of the course activities. Someone who is completely new to using the web may struggle with saving their work in Thimble. Other with a strong programming background may be interested in learning the inner working of cyber security for a commercial site.

Some topics, like Web Mechanics are very broad and will be covered throughout the course. There isn't one simple reference that covers it. If you have specific questions, please ask.

• Tracking assignments

You can check your Grades any time. There is a link to Grades in the lower left navigation menu.

If we are working on Week 3 and you don't have a grade for the Week 2 assignment, either it hasn't been graded yet (usually with 2 days of the due date) or you didn't submit it. Not sure - please ask.

• Internet and the Web - what's the difference?

Short answer - The World Wide Web (web) is just a small portion of the entire internet. Although there are billions of web pages and this is what most people access, there is a lot of "plumbing" and computer-to-computer traffic that is important for many forms of communications, as well. If you are really interested, check out the IOS Standard 7 Layer Model description.

• HTML and CSS - how are they related?

The Willard textbook explains that the HTML style attributes of the page display can be applied directly to the content, or the whole page or to an entire web site. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the process for coding the HTML for describing the style information and how it will be applied to your site as it is displayed by the visitors' browsers. We will spend a lot of time on both HTML and CSS.

• Cyber security

Other than being aware that there is an issue with security associated with any web site, this topic is beyond the scope of this course.

If you are just creating a personal web site to tell about your hobbies, you don't have a problem. Most web hosts have some security that is likely to be adequate.

However if you are running a commercial site that take credit card information or a medical records site that collects personal information, you must understand security and how to handle customer data. There are DeAnza courses for that. For large corporations and institutions, cyber security is often the responsibility of a specialized team.

• Advanced track

Advanced track would depend on the interests of people who want to go this route.

Other than participate in the weekly discussions along with the rest of the class, you can work on something interesting and challenging to you. This assumes that you already have a working knowledge of some areas of the course that you can build on.

I would like to see a proposal so we can discuss the appropriateness for credit for this course, the level of challenge for you, the scope of the project and the estimated time to complete.

If there are others working on an advanced track, sharing ideas and reviewing work as a separate group can be arranged.

• Controlling notifications from discussions

You can control the discussion notifications a couple of ways. Check your Profile - lower left navigation menu. This controls the frequency and type of notifications generally.

Also you can control the notifications from individual forums - see the Forums link in the Activities menu - navigation menu on the right side of the main course page.

Finally each individual discussion forum topic has a drop down to select notification (or not) for that specific discussion topic.

The News forum is beyond your control. This is to ensure that you are notified if there are any important course announcements.

Be sure to check out the different settings for the discussion topic display. These include newest first, oldest first, nested and threaded. All can be useful and good to know about.

• Discussion threads - replies to replies

There are discussions described in the Assignments. There should be a discussion topic with that name in the Discussion forum that show the instructor as the creator of that topic. Post your information as a Reply to these.

Sometimes students create new discussion topics. These are not the "official" discussions.

If you want to reply to a student's post withing a discussion topic, you can Reply to their post. This will then become a "thread" or series of related posts within the discussion topic.

• Were any women involved in the creation of HTML?

A number of women were involved in the creation of the internet, the worldwide web and HTML. Grace Hopper is often considered as one of the important contributors to computer science and the internet. Nicola Pellow was directly involved, working with Tim Berners-Lee at CERN https://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/People.html

• Do web developers write all the source code?

Many web developers use editors to develop code. They usually copy and paste big chunks of code too. Some one had to write all that source code once, before there were all the fancy tools.

An important reason for learning HTML and CSS is to ensure that you know what is going on in the code, even if your don't write it all yourself directly. It is really handy to be able to fix the HTML code directly, especially if the tool has made a mistake that can't be undone with the tool. It does happen.

• Thimble and/or Voyager

Thimble is a great tool to get everyone going. You can use it for all the coding assignments if you wish.

Everyone has an account on the DeAnza Voyager server. For one of the later assignments, you are required to demonstrate that you can upload and manage files in that environment. If you prefer to use Voyager for all your coding assignments, rather then Thimble, you can do that.

• Find it

by Valerie Taylor - Sunday, October 2, 2016, 4:05 AM

10 tips for smarter, more efficient Internet searching http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-tips-for-smarter-more-efficient-internet-searching/

This is a good reference.

"Find it" is one of the six digital literacies that we will be exploring throughout the course as part of a DeAnza initiative on lifelong learning in a digital world.

Choosing the right search words can greatly improve your online research. This can be difficult. "Navigation" is a great example. That one word can mean many different things. Apparently, what you are looking for is not one of the most common interpretations. Some of the "best" interesting and important resources may be way down in the search results. You may need to look at dozens of pages and try many combinations of search words to find resources that answer your question. The answer is probably there somewhere!

As a web developer, you will need to consider likely keywords that people will use when they are looking for YOUR site. This is called SEO - Search Engine Optimization. There is lots of information about this. We will be looking at SEO as part of final site design considerations later in the course.

• Welcome to Week 1. Getting Started

by Valerie Taylor - Friday, September 30, 2016, 3:30 AM

Welcome to CIS89A Web Development Week 1. Getting Started.

You should be working on the activities outlined in Assignment 1 for module 1. Getting Started.

Please complete your introduction and post it to the Introductions and expectations topic in Discussions 1 by Friday. Getting to know everyone is a great way to begin the class.

There are a lot of activities each week, but each is relatively short. This provides flexibility so you can complete individual activities. Log in and work on the activities and discussions most days. Spread the work out through the week. All activities in the module assignments are due on Sunday at 11:30pm.

Many of you are new to online courses and web development. There is information provide to help you with each activity and to learn about Catalyst. If you have questions, please ask them in the Questions & Answers forum, or ask me directly in a Catalyst message or by email.

I am looking forward to working with you on your web projects.

• Richard

As you probably figured out already, anyone with a bit of programming background can learn most of the actual HTML and CSS syntax in a few hours. Developing great web sites takes years to master, as there is so much more to the process - client management, user interface design, search engine optimization, graphics design, application interface, database integration, ... just to name a few.

There is a huge range of interests and abilities among participants. An online course can offer something for everyone. Lots of relatively short activities allow participants to fit the course work into their individual schedules. in the end, everyone can be successful, having met or exceeded their requirements and expectations.

The discussion activities provide a means to introduce many of these other considerations in web development by looking at lots of actual web sites. It is amazing what comes up. Great learning experience.

This is a college transfer course, so there is an obligation to provide an opportunity for communication in context. The discussion posts don't have to be more than a few sentences - as specified in the activity descriptions. Some posts are longer than necessary, usually because the student can type really fast and/or didn't really think about how to be more concise. So far you have only seen the contributions from a few students. Just wait til 11pm Sunday night.

I think there is real value in the discussions, as individual activities and from reviewing the contributions of others. Brief posts early in the week for the current module are great as they get the discussion going and provide some direction for others. Review replies later in the week to see what others have discovered. Each activity is relatively short - usually 5-20 minutes.

You are welcome to send all the time and effort you think is necessary to develop your HTML and CSS skills. You can work ahead on the coding assignments. I am happy to discuss and specifics with you directly. Javascript certainly has a place in web development. That come up near the end of the course.

• Getting started questions

by Valerie Taylor - Thursday, September 29, 2016, 3:50 AM

Question from a student:

Wow! This is my first time navigating the Catalyst! I am frustrated right now. I cannot buy your text book from DAC until Friday September 30th, 2016. So what do I do? Can I go online to at least read the first chapter somewhere on the textbook website? Please get back to me ASAP. Thank you.

Reply

Thanks for asking. Getting started in an online course can be challenging. There is a lot going on. Many others in the course are new too.

You can complete most of the activities listed in Assignment 1 without the textbook. Once you have the textbook, it will be helpful for all of the upcoming modules.

To get started, read through the information linked in the top section of the main CIS89A course page in Catalyst. These cover the basic information about using Catalyst and participating in the course activities and discussions.

The activities for module 1. Getting Started are described in Assignment 1. These can be completed in any order. Most take 5-20 minutes to complete. For best results, log into the course and work on the activities and participate in discussions throughout the week as your schedule permits. All the activities are described here. All are due Sunday Oct 2.

There are 1000s of online resources for learning everything about HTML, CSS and web development. I suggest a number of these online resources for each module. I do recommend the textbook because it includes Cascading Style Sheets CSS from the beginning. It is a handy reference book.

Hope this helps. If you have questions, please ask.

• message to Never - 2016.9.27 Tues 2:37pm

You are signed up for DeAnza CIS89A Web Site Development. The course has started. You need to log into the course in Catalyst and begin working on the activities in module 1. Getting Started. Introductions should be posted by Thursday. All the activities for Assignments 1 must be completed by Sunday October 2 at 11:30pm. If you are having problems getting started or if you have questions about the course or assignments, please ask. ..vt

• Editors for writing HTML code

by Valerie Taylor - Monday, September 26, 2016, 2:47 PM

You are welcome to use any text editor you like. However, you must submit your coding assignments as link to a publicly accessible web page.

If you don't use Thimble, you will need to jump ahead and activate your Voyager account, and use FTP to transfer the text file with your coding assignment HTML to the public directory within your Voyager account.

If you don't understand this, just use Thimble for now.

Also - You should be writing the code as text, rather than using some higher level code tool that creates all the HTML in the background. Most of the WYSIWYG web page tools add a lot of junk to the code. Including the tags for the coding assignments in a meaningful way is difficult.

• Discussions grading - something different...

by Valerie Taylor - Friday, September 16, 2016, 2:12 PM

For many of the assignment activities, you will be doing research, finding online resources, reviewing work of professionals and other students and sharing this work as "discussion posts". These are an important part of the course, so many of these will get participation and contribution points. More about this later.

I will be assigning points as I review these discussion posts, so you will be accumulating points throughput the week, even though the DUE date for the Assignment activities is Sunday at 11:30pm.

You can see how you are doing by checking your Grades - there is a link in the lower left navigation menu on the main course page. Please wait until after the due date to determine if you missed any discussion points. Your grade will only reflect what has been reviewed prior to that.

Discussion submissions must respond to the Assignment activity questions. Replies must contribute to the discussion - more than just "I agree". There are points for submitting early as this gets the discussion going. Helping other students, providing extra information or useful resources that benefit the course are welcome and usually get additional points, too.

If you have questions, please ask! No one is going to know you need help if you don't ask.

..Student Cafe by Valerie Taylor - Monday, September 26, 2016, 2:53 PM

Only the discussions associated with the Assignment modules may be graded.

The Questions & Answers and Student Cafe forums are not graded. These are informal spaces provided allow for the kinds of communication that goes on in face-to-face classes.