7360 - Introduction to Web Development
UMC Course Description
The purpose of this course is to provide students with and understanding of basic web page design and web authoring skills in addition to the technical expertise required for creation and publishing of XHTML-compliant documents. The course will cover browser/server interaction, directory management, and web page design and development. Attention will be directed toward the impact a designer's choices have on communication, understanding, and accessibility. Students will develop, test, evaluate, and apply evaluation data to their project web site.
Personal Reflection
Web Development is necessary to take advantage of the connectivity that the Internet has to offer. The eMints program offered an introduction to using web editors to produce pages for the Internet, but the understanding was limited to manipulation of others works or the capabilities of a program. This course introduced me to using hand coding and mechanisms to meet the latest coding standards.
As the World Wide Web develops, the need to understand the target audience increases. Files need to be able to be viewed on multiple devices from desktops to phones. The accessibility of different users is also a consideration. 7360 developed an understanding of the different platforms and regulations for developing the coding that exists. To take advantage of the widest audience, sites need to consider the requirements to validate using the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards validation tools (W3C XHTML Validator) (W3C CSS validator).
The role of hand coding is to allow the developer to escape the limits of a specific web editor. Prior to this course, I could develop a site that looked okay and provided material for my students. However, the site was based around someone else's coding and I did not understand most of what made the site work. That meant that if I wanted to modify the site, it was not always feasible. With an understanding of the coding, I am able to use the Internet as a resource along with a web editor such as Dreamweaver to produce original works that are limited only by my time and interest to learn more.
For example, we were initially challenged to create a simple introduction page that would be used to link all of our assignments for the course (David's Assignments Page). This page would then have minor updates as new pages were developed to link to it. It was fully coded with only a text editor such as TextWrangler for Mac or Notepad ++ for PC. The second assignment (mini-project 1) in the course was to work with links, colors, formatting and images. I felt compelled to challenge myself further at this point and embed a video. The page shows a rudimentary understanding of hand coding, but did not have much depth for the page layout. The second assignment (mini-project 2) dealt with the accessibility and validation of sites. The previous pages and all subsequent ones would have to be validated and made compliant with accessibility standards. The course then began to incorporate this new knowledge into more specific functions that employed the use of tables (mini-project 3), CSS (mini-project 4), and multimedia (mini-project 5).
All of the mini-projects were designed to prepare for a culminating final web site. For me, this portfolio was targeted to be that product. The process began midway through the course with the development of a Design Document (.pdf) to organize the site before production. The next step beyond further skill development with the remaining mini-projects was to submit the site through an evaluation process (Evaluation Report). The process included reviewers that acted as target audience members and site developers. This helped to allow differing perspectives on the project to see if what was intended was actually being received. Ultimately, after many revisions the course ended with the submission of this electronic portfolio.
The role of a collaborative grouping of individual on an electronic discussion board greatly enhanced this courses outcomes. The instructor and mentors for Sakai were tremendous assistance when absolutely necessary, but they did a good job of allowing peers to support peers to find solutions. The discussions had members of the class reviewing the coding of others for solutions to problems and to offer resources to support individual efforts.
Furthermore, the discussions seemed to challenge me to move beyond the minimum expectations of the assignments to include more in my products. The course had not intended to have JavaScript and complete page layouts using CSS, but the discussions inspired me to challenge myself. The mini-project 4 is an example of a personal challenge. The page is all CSS layout designed with three columns that will shrink down and hold together fairly well at exceedingly small screen sizes. There are codes out there on the Internet available to copy, but by knowing how to write the coding myself, I have much greater capacity to expand.
I anticipate continuing to develop my web development skills and utilizing web development in my teachings. I foresee trying to include more multimedia such as podcasts. Students should also be able to submit material via web pages. I look forward to expanding my possibilities from this course with the Web Application Development course scheduled for the Fall of 2008. Also, the role of electronic discussion boards will increase in my classes. Students need to develop the skills to collaborate effectively and this is an excellent way for me to assess their abilities in this area. They will also be able to increase their confidence by assisting others through the course material.
