Thursday, February 26, 2009

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 16

I spoke about the first assessment. Although this is scheduled for Week 4, it will be in next week (5). I gave students the option of having the assessment on Mopnday or on Thursday ans the group of students present chose Monday.

Students continued work on their imagemaps.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Repeat structure for COMP6023 Web Publishing

The assessment structure for the repeat of this module will be the same as the original assessment. The final mark will comprise three components.

Written Report 40%
Exam 30%
Project 30%


All students who received < 35% in this module must retake all three assessment components.

Written Report


Students should submit a topic proposal to the lecturer for prior approval. Students may choose any course related topic but may not write a report on the same subject as their previous submission. Papers that are not approved in advance will receive zero marks. Submissions that contain any plagiarised content will receive zero marks.

Exam


Students will be advised of a time and location for the exam. This will take place during semester 2 (if all students agree to this).
[P.S. Students didn't want this. So it'll be in Sept]

Project


Students may form groups with other repeating students or they may complete projects by themselves. Project proposals should be submitted to the lecturer for prior approval. Projects that are not approved in advance will receive zero marks. Students must start a new project. They may not re-use parts of their previous submissions. Students who wish to submit a group project must specify the composition of the group in the project proposal.


Deadlines


Repeat examinations normally take place in August and September. However if all students are in agreement, I am prepared to set deadlines in Semester 2. This will allow students to complete the repeat of this module in advance of the summer break.

Update: (02 March 2009)
The in-class exam (30%) will be in September.

The deadline for the website (30%) is noon 14 August 2009. However the project must be approved by noon 01 May 2009. Students should propose ideas well in advance of this date. The maximum group size is 3 students.

The deadline for the written report(40%) is is noon 14 August 2009. However the paper topic must be approved by noon 01 May 2009. Students should propose ideas well in advance of this date.

No support will be available after 20 June 2009
. So students are advised to have their work at an advanced stage by then.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

SOFT6008 16

We briefly looked at how dynamically sized tables might be used to visualize numeric values. I outlined a mobile phone company price comparision exercise.

barchart.html

phonebills1.html

SOFT6007 ITM Lab 04

We looked at how tables can be used for rudimentary page layout.

Students worked on tables and on layout. Some students were a bit behind.

Monday, February 23, 2009

SOFT6007

The notes on imagemaps do not include the alt attribute. If an alt attribute is included in the area tag of an image map some browsers will display the text when the mouse hovers over the area.

area shape="rect" coords="200,100,300,150" alt="Connector"

SOFT6007-EVCOM 05

We looked at using tables for page layout and Imagemaps.

Slides: www3t.ppt

Files: imagemap-exercise.jpg imagemap-exercise-grid.jpg iberia.jpg

SOFT6008 14 & 15

Students worked on their exercises.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 14 & 15

Students worked on their image map exercises. Some students struggled with the basics.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 13

We looked at font, color, bgcolor, background

SOFT6008 13

Students worked away on the exercises. Some students are a bit behind.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 12


We looked at image maps.

Students made an image map for iberia.jpg

Next week we will make an image map for imagemap-exercise.jpg. Use this guide image to help figure out the coordinated.

Notes: www3t.ppt

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

SOFT6008 12









We looked at JavaScript dialog boxes and loops.

Students wrote a page that prompts the user for their name and uses it in a greeting.

Notes: JS02

Next exercise (after navigation bar)
Build a page that prompts the user for an amount of money and diplays that amount in coins.

SOFT6007-ITM Lab 03

We were delayed by a stolen monitor cable.

I explained how lists work. I showed how to nest lists and gave out a nested list exercise.

Monday, February 16, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM 04 Lists & Tables

We went though Tables, including colspan and rowspan.

Sample Page4a & Page5a

Students built simple tables.

I expected everyone to have lists sorted by this week. However many students had not yet studied lists. Once students were confident with lists I gave out two nested list exercises. Nested lists are very tricky.

I gave out a complicated table exercise (Q5)that required understanding of colspan and rowspan.

Students will be expected to have lists and tables put to bed by next week.

Everyone was gone by 2115. Still it was a good night's work.

SOFT6008 10 & 11

I talked students through how to make slices in Photoshop and how to slice a large image up precicely so that nothing gets lost.

We looked at how to hand colour a black and white image. That might make for interesting rollover effects.

Students continued working on their rollover exercise. To be successful students will need some Photoshop skills and a good understanding of tables (including colspan and rowspan), as well as the JavaScript covered in class.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 10 & 11

Students continued to work on the table exercise. It's not as easy as it looks. colspan and rowspan can be tricky

SOFT6008 09

(Some) Students continued with the navigation bar exercise. We didn't cover any new material.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 09

We looked at colspan and rowspan in tables.

Sample page 5a

Students started a tables exercise (Q5) in class. We'll finish it in the lab.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

SOFT6007 EV COM1 has moved to Monday

Web Development Fundanmentals has moved to Monday nights from 1800-2130. See you Monday.

SOFT6007-EVCOM 03 - Lab A

There was only one student in class. We did nested list exercises.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 08

We looked at tables.

Sample Table 4 used in class. (corrected)

Sample Table 4a improved to include th for column headings and a caption.

Table with a caption at w3schools

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM 03 - Lab B

Only one student turned up to this lab. So far this module has only 8 students. It does not look like it will run on both Tuesday and Saturday with that many students.

We looked at lists in HTML and did some nested list exercises. Nested lists can be quite tricky.

SOFT6008 08

We very briefly looked at the basic anatomy of a web page.

Students started work on a large navigation bar with separate slices stiched together with a table. Sucessful completion of this exercise will require knowledge of tables and a some basic Photoshop skills.

Notes:
Audio: to follow

Monday, February 9, 2009

COM1-CMOD6001 Repeat

A repeat of the CIT module is being offered this semester. INterested students should contact emmett.coffey@cit.ie

Good Luck

Colin M

SOFT6008 06 & 07

I spent much of the class talking to the Head of Department about trying to sort things out. Student spend much of the time watching SOFT6007 (yes 7!) online classes.

Copy of e-mail sent to relevant lecturers.

----------------------

Hi Guys

I only realised this week that COM2 students were struggling with Interactive Web Development SOFT6008 because all but 2 of them did not ever do Web Development Fundamentals SOFT6007. We changed the semester in which this is delivered and did not head off the problem by requiring them to do it as an elective.

I discussed possible solutions with Jim. The most obvious solution, that they do SOFT6007 now and SOFT6008 later, doesn't work so well because SOFT6008 needs to be done in time for SOFT7008. We might only be postponing the problem until this time next year.

Jim has proposed that I run a slightly slimmed down SOFT6008 and cover the essentials of SOFT6007 at the same time. Students would still be given the credit for SOFT6008, although not all of the learning outcomes would be met. I think that would work. It would, of course, be a once off.

Any thoughts?

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 06 & 07

I gave out a long list for student to code. It was complex and few students got it correct on the first attempt. The nesting of lists is difficult to get right, especially when browsers are often so willing to correctly display incorrect code.

handout: exercise

SOFT6008 05

We looked at how to do a rollover. Most students succeeded in getting a rollover working during the class.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 05

We looked at lists again and discussed nested lists. We did an exericse in class.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 02 - Lecture

Rather than have a lecture we carried on with the lab.

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 01 - Lab A

Introductions and contact details.

I showed students how to use iTunes to view the online classes.

Students made a web page with links and an image.

Handout: lesson01.ppt

Thursday, February 5, 2009

SOFT6007-DCOM 04

We started to look at lists. ordered and unordered

By the next class everyone should have watched all of the online classes up to and including Online Class04 (lists).

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 01 - Lab B

Introductions and contact details.

I showed students how to use iTunes to view the online classes.

Students made a web page with links and an image.

Handout: lesson01.ppt

SOFT6008 04

We found a lab to work in instead of B219.

Students showed me the exercises they'd completed. Some students have tried new and interesesting things with the code we'd learned. That's the kind of thing I like to see.

Well done.

Monday, February 2, 2009

SOFT6008 02 & 03

02
I was late for class. Sorry about that.

I showed students where to find the online classes using iTunes. This course will cover more than in in the podcast at the moment.

Students watched Online Class 01.

03
We looked at the code to generate a random image. It's tricker than it looks because the the need to quote quotes. I asked students to write down possible output of the script.

Bonus round: It turns out the images do not appear with equal probabilities. Can you see why?

Students ran the random image code.

Then they made a start on the time dependant image exercise.

SOFT6007-DCOM 02 & 03

02
We looked at how to subscribe to the podcast and download online classes using iTunes.

The feel URL is http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6007.xml

Students looked at Online Class 01

We discussed some of the main points in the online lesson.
Notes:www1g.ppt

Students made a webpage with some bold, italics, and a link to CIT.

03
Students looked at Online Class 02
Students made a second page and made links between both pages.

Students looked at Online Class 03
Students added images to their pages

That was a lot of work for the first day of class. But it's best to hit the ground running. If you need any the points we covered to be explained a bit better be sure to ask. We have plenty of time to get things right in this module.

Students are welcome to look at the next few online classes. It's best, though, but put the theory in to practice as you go.

I advised students that they were expected to continue with the blogs they started last semester. Students will be expected to make at least one entry per week.

SOFT6008 01

We started to take a look at JavaScript.

We made a page that used a different greeting depending on the time of day.

Notes
JS01.pps

The URL for the podcast lessons is
http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6008.xml

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 01

Introductions.

We had a lightening fast introduction to HTML. The important point was that most tags occur in begin-end pairs and all tags must be closed.

Handouts
Syllabus
Examples


Students should read examples again before class at 1400