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Syllabus
Spring
2005
Section 001: Tuesday/Thursday
mornings, 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 a.m. in Solon Campus Center 42.
ref #48166. Course home page: http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/sp05/5230/001
Section 002: Wednesday
evenings , 6:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. in Solon Campus Center 42.
ref #47337. Course home page: http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/sp05/5230/002
Dr.
Craig Stroupe, 726-6249, Humanities 424
cstroupe@d.umn.edu; Office hours
Tues and Thurs mornings, 11:00-noon or by appointment
Purpose
| Expectations | Resources
Needed | Grades
Purpose
The purpose of this course
is to prepare you not only to work productively in an economy that is
increasingly mediated by information technologies, but to add creative
value the civic and cultural lives that we share. This course emphasizes,
therefore, creative and cultural problem solving in Web design, rather
than just the mechanics of producing HTML pages and Web sites.
While I assume you have no
prior knowledge of Web design, and will provide you with introductions
and resources to master to the basic skills, this class is dedicated to
your learning the social and rhetorical uses of Web-design techniques--including
writing--rather than just the technological tools.
The goals of this course are
to enable you to gain practice and expertise in the following areas:
- applying principles of rhetoric,
design, cultural theory and creative thinking to your Web-design work
and writing;
- discussing your work in
critically informed ways;
- writing critically and knowledgeably
about issues and questions raised by the digital culture;
- conceiving and carrying
out writing/design projects that engage potential audiences on a variety
of levels, especially socially;
- participating in and contributing
to a community of writer/designers;
- learning to develop successful
working relationships with clients and support teams, which are especially
necessary in the creation of documents for institutions, businesses,
and civic organizations;
- using a variety of software
to create documents for delivery via the Internet.
Purpose
| Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades
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Expectations
Exercises
and Projects
This course is organized as
a series of project and exercises. The projects are long-term, individual
works. The exercises are done together in class, usually in 15 to 30 minutes.
The Projects.
As described on the Works Page, the projects
are larger pieces of work that you'll complete individually over a period
of two or three weeks using the skills you learned from the exercises
and insights from the readings and class activities. Three of the projects
are Web sites/pages, including a "Client Project" for a real-life
organization, individual, business, professor or campus unit of your own
choosing. One of the projects is an essay about digital culture. You will
also have an opportunity to do a "global revision" of one of
the projects.
There is a three-point penalty
per day for late projects, including the commentaries and printouts that
are explained below.
Due dates for all requirements
are included in the online schedule, which
will be updated throughout the semester.
Exercises.
We'll do the exercises together in class to learn particular
skills or techniques, and you'll have 24 hours after the class meeting
(if needed) to complete and post each exercise to the Web for credit.
Printouts and Commentaries
I will give you specific directions
for submitting the finished projects and exercises. All Web-based projects
should be
- posted to the Web,
- the URL sent to the Webx
discussion board, and
- all the pages printed
out and handed in. Be sure to number the pages of your
printout.
In a separate document, you
will write a commentary on your project, which will
comprise two parts:
- An opening paragraph that explains how your project
fulfills the most basic criteria and goals of the assignment. This
paragraph should reflect the depth of your understanding of the assignment--what
it asks you to do rhetorically and creatively, what's interesting about
it--rather than just a list of mechanical requirements. Here you should
make big claims for your project as you look back at it, even if you
weren't aware of everything you were accomplishing as you were working
on it.
- A list of annotations should
follow the opening paragraph. The items in this list should comment
on particular features in the project to which you want me to pay
attention, or about which you want me to answer questions or understand
more.
Each of these comments
should be labeled with a number like "1.1" or "3.5." The
number before the decimal point refers to a page number on the
printout. The number after the decimal point refers to a number
you've handwritten on the page to point to the particular feature.
For instance, the banner on the first page of your site's printout
might have a circled (1) next to it, and, on your typed comment
sheet, the annotation on that banner should be labeled 1.1 (page
1, numbered item 1).
Other Writing
and Design Work
In addition to the design,
creation and writing of the exercises and projects themselves, you will
complete:
- writings on our online Webx discussion board
- plans and preliminary writings
or designs for your projects,
- peer critiques for workshops
- other writings.
Readings
On days when readings are assigned,
please do the following:
- have the readings done by
the beginning of class;
- expect brief quizzes or
guided reading responses at the beginning or end of class. There are
no make-ups on these responses if you are absent, late or leave early.
Attendance
Since this class will function
as a community of writer-designers, your regular attendance is absolutely
necessary.
- Absences: For the Tuesday/Thursday
class, an excess of 3 will deduct 3 percent each from your
overall grade. For the Wednesday night class,
an excess of 2 will deduct 3 percent each from your overall grade
- These possible absences
can be spent however you wish and so there are no "excused"
or "unexcused" absences. Save your "free" absences
for a rainy (or snowy) day.
- If you are absent, you are
responsible for all material covered in class.
- In the case of absences
or lateness, some requirements like quizzes and guided in-class activities
cannot be made up when timeliness or group interaction is critical.
- In addition to your budget
of allowed absences, you also have instances of arriving late or leaving
early to use (with or without an excuse) if necessary: 3 for the Tuesday/Thursday
class, 2 for the Wednesday night class. Instances
in excess of these allowed occasions will decrease your overall grade
by 2 percentage points each. If during the semester you need to leave
class early, even if it's one of your allowed instances, please arrange
it with me in advance.
Participation
A larger goal of this course
is to establish a community or network of writer-designers--with a wide
variety of backgrounds, expertise, and interests--to enhance your learning
and enjoyment during the next sixteen weeks. The class is designed to
provide a number of avenues for this community building, including peer
workshopping and critiquing, in-class "studio sessions," support
groups, and various Internet-based communications and collaborations.
Your sincere and regular contributions to maintaining this collaborative
environment will count in your grade, and of course
will greatly benefit your final products in the course. Because your work
is the subject matter for this course, turning in all projects and writings
on time is critical; work turned in late will be assessed a 3% penalty
per day.
Incompletes
Incompletes for the semester
will be given only in the following very limited circumstances:
- you must contact me in advance
of the semester's end to make a request for an incomplete;
- no more than one or two
weeks of class, or one or two assignments, can have been missed;
- you must be in good standing
in the class (not already behind, in other words);
- you must have a documented
family or medical emergency, as required by university policy;
- you must arrange a time
table with me for completing the missed work that is acceptable for
both of us.
Purpose
| Expectations | Resources
Needed | Grades | Top
Resources
Needed
- Jakob Nielsen's Designing
Web Usability. New Riders Publishing, 2000
- Sherry Bishop and Piyoush
Patel's Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004. Thomson Course Technology, 2004
- David Trend (editor), Reading
Digital Culture, Blackwell, 2001
- a UMD e-mail account
- Zip disk or pocket drive
for saving and transporting your work (at least 100 Mg.)
- occasional access to a digital
camera, or several high-density, IBM-formatted floppy disks for use
in a digital camera to be checked
out from UMD
- access to a printer, or
funds for printing
Grades
- Your work on the
major projects and various exercises
(weighed according to the size and complexity of the project): 85%
- Participation in
class generally, including in-class activities and contributions, online
discussions, attendance, conferences, quizzes, peer workshop responses,
Webx discussions, class discussion, promptness: 15%
Purpose
| Expectations | Resources
Needed | Grades | Top
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