Garo Green (with Lynda Weinman). Dreamweaver MX: Hands-On Training. (Berkley, CA: Peachpit Press, 2003).

This is a tutorial guide to web site design using Dreamweaver MX. We will be reading and doing the tutorials to build strong user skills with this professional web editor. We will complete the following tutorials: Chapters 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 10 • 13. The tutorial on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is Chapter 6 from the new book that will be given to you as a handout and replaces Chapter 11 on CSS in the book you have.

Jay David Bolter, Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing, 2nd Edition. (Hillsdale, New Jersey; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001).

We will read this book to understand web publishing in context of historical technologies of writing and publishing. Although this book is not directly related to the web, you should read each chapter and consider how things have come to pass because of the web. You should also speculate about future directions of the web, in relation to the issues of each chapter. It is a more theoretical perspective on web publishing. Each of you will research a chapter topic on the web and prepare a presentation on implications of the basic ideas for the future of web publishing. Include sample sites and briefly discuss 1 or 2 key points from the chapter. You may choose a devil's advocate to resist the ideas of the chapter. You will have a maximum of fifteen minutes for your presentation.

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Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

The primary goal of this course is to learn how to write, develop and organize interactive web site hypermedia publications to be used on the computer screen. A secondary goal is to consider the impact of web publishing on literacy in general, and more specifically, on the future of publishing.

This course fulfills the English major core requirement in publishing and the English writing major learning goal that students will have the ability to write, edit, design, and publish effective professional publications using contemporary computer technologies.

Hypermedia Design Experiential Learning Activities

You will create a variety of online documents, building from simple collections to more complex presentations and interactive hypermedia that include basic levels of interface design. You will gain competence with current computer technology related to web publishing including: HTML, web site design, manipulation of images, simple animation and user testing. You will reflect on your learning experiences and present your design strategies and development processes as a demonstration of professional oral communication.

Web Site Design & Development

This course focuses on a deliberate integration of hands on and minds on learning in four kinds of knowledge:

(1) use technology to access, create and present information,

(2) design effective information system web site design,

(3) develop strategies for team management to coordinate the development of sites with ongoing interaction with the clients, and

(4) be prepared to teach others to understand and value web site design and maintenance through presentation and explanations of design choices.

History of Web Publishing

Conventions of print media must be reinvented for computer screen, but we need to understand the history of publishing to appreciate the new technologies. Also, issues of copyright, fair use and ethical considerations must be understood in an historical context. Finally, reader roles have changed radically on the web, so that you must design for wide range of knowledge seekers.This course also reviews the history of web publishing in relation to the history of writing and publishing technologies in general. Emphasizing the web as a "space" for thinking, this course reviews the history of writing spaces:

the visual writing space of the printed page and vibrant computer screen,
the conceptual writing space of books and encyclopedic collections of ideas, and
the mind as a writing space for thinking through or with new technologies.

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1. User Goals of Hypermedia

Orientation-startup screens and the first time user tutorials

Navigation-prompting use, mapping, and user anticipation

Interactivity-ranges from passive to co-creation

Persuasive Intent-ranges from informative to entertaining

2. Four Major Screen Design Principles

Simplicity-integration of visual, textual, aural

information overview
context
modularity
information clustering

Appropriateness-image of sponsor and expectation of users

trends versus classic design
amateur versus professional design

Function-how the hypermedia works (range of interactivity)

immediate reading or processing functions
long-term organizational functions
page design versus publication style for the entire site

Economy-of production, maintenance and use

3. From StoryBoard to User Testing: Development of Interactive Hypermedia

The process of developing online documents: Collecting information and resources Creating a storyboard and mapping task flow chart plans Walking through the storyboard with development group Build your design in html (web editors are nice!) Online screen design principles and user access requirements User testing & revising of task flow, information density, or interactive capabilities

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Informal Quick-Writes, Exercises & Planning Work

Quick, informal assignments based on your own thinking will be graded with a simple check-system (+) (v) or (­). You will rarely receive a plus for less than one full page of writing. These grades let you know that:(+ = 100%) you have done a thoughtful writing, (v = 50%) you have completed the assignment perfunctorily, or (– = 0%) you have not fulfilled the assignment.

Tutorial assignments are to be completed in the Mac lab outside of classtime. When you complete a tutorial send a learning review reflection to me by email. Also, we will have "task quizes" immediately following the due date for tutorials. We will complete the following tutorials:

Chapters 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 10 • 11 • 13

Attendance Policy

I am very strict about attendance. You are allowed two absences without penalty. After ywo absences, you are considered to be excessively absent and five per cent of your semester grade will be subtracted from your semester score for each day of excessive absence. Of course, extended illness will be exempt to this absence policy, usually resulting in an incomplete for the semester.

Web Publishing Project Assignments

Course grades will be determined as follows:
(A+=100, A=95, A-=90, B+=88, B=85, B-=80, C+=78, C=75, C-=70, D+=68, D=65, F=0)

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Academic Honesty Policy

All students are expected to uphold professional standards for academic honesty and integrity in their research, writing, and related performances. Academic honesty is the standard we expect from all students. Read the Student Handbook for further explanation (available on the Millikin University web site). Staley Library also hosts a web site on Preventing Plagiarism, which includes the complete university policy. It is located at: http://www.millikin.edu/staley/research/prevent_plagiarism.asp . Visit and carefully read the Preventing Plagiarism web site.

If you submit work that is not your own, that is, plagiarized or copied from any source without proper citation, or if you are caught cheating on any assignment, you will fail the assignment and you will probably fail the course. In addition, the Registrar and the Office of Student Services may be notified so that they can take action according to university policy, which means that you may be dismissed from the academic program and university. If you have difficulty with any assignment in this course, please see me rather than consider academic dishonesty.

Disability Accommodation Policy

Please address any special needs or special accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you become aware of your needs. If you are seeking classroom accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you should submit your documentation to the Office of Academic Development at Millikin University, currently located in Shilling room 205.

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This site is maintained by Dr. Randy Brooks, Director of the Writing Major
English Department, Millikin University.

Last modified September 29, 2006 . Contact: rbrooks@mail.millikin.edu