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Monash University

FIT1012 Website authoring - Semester 2, 2012

This unit will develop the basic concepts of website authoring, from design to implementation. Students will develop skills in creating digital content which is authored to deal with the particular issues of web publishing. The unit will examine HTML/XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript as the fundamental website authoring suite. Also skills for incorporating images, audio and video into websites will be covered. In addition HTML embedded script languages, will be used to create dynamic database driven content. The unit will also introduce wider W3C standards, web usability and web design specification.

Mode of Delivery

Caulfield (Day)

Contact Hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 2 hrs laboratories/wk

Workload

Students will be expected to spend a total of 12 hours per week during semester on this unit as follows:

  • a 2-hour lecture
  • a 2-hour tutorial
  • a recommended minimum  of 6-8 hours of private study per week

Unit Relationships

Prohibitions

CPE1003, MMS1402, MMS9401

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Caulfield

William Lay

Tutors

Caulfield

William Lay

Caroline Trainor

Academic Overview

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will:
  • understand the characteristics of commercial web sites and the authoring/management issues associated with them including dealing with clients in a variety of situations encountered in the tendering/authoring process and addressing copyright;
  • have knowledge of the features and applicability of a range of software tools which are used in the development of websites;
  • understand internet standards and protocols, in particular the impact of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards in this area;
  • have an understanding of website usability issues;
be able to create and manipulate digital content for websites, including basic images, audio, video and animation;
  • have the ability to code web pages using standard HTML/XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and the DOM;
  • be able to write HTML embedded script code to produce dynamic database driven web documents;
  • have the skills to produce design specification documents applicable to a web site authoring task, and
  • have developed the teamwork skills needed to work as a member of a project team.

Graduate Attributes

Monash prepares its graduates to be:
  1. responsible and effective global citizens who:
    1. engage in an internationalised world
    2. exhibit cross-cultural competence
    3. demonstrate ethical values
  2. critical and creative scholars who:
    1. produce innovative solutions to problems
    2. apply research skills to a range of challenges
    3. communicate perceptively and effectively

Assessment Summary

Examination (3 hours): 40%; In-semester assessment: 60%

Assessment Task Value Due Date
HTML/CSS Website 20% Week 6 (Friday 6pm)
Group Project 20% Week 12 (Friday 6pm)
Work Requirements 20% (4 x 5%) Weeks 3, 5, 9 and 11
Examination 1 40% To be advised

Teaching Approach

Lecture and tutorials or problem classes
The teaching and learning approach provides facilitated learning, practical exploration and peer learning, equipping you with the ability to apply skills upon completion.

Feedback

Our feedback to You

Types of feedback you can expect to receive in this unit are:
  • Informal feedback on progress in labs/tutes
  • Graded assignments with comments
  • Other: Solutions to work requirement tasks

Your feedback to Us

Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through SETU, Student Evaluation of Teacher and Unit. The University's student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.

For more information on Monash's educational strategy, and on student evaluations, see:
http://www.monash.edu.au/about/monash-directions/directions.html
http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/quality/student-evaluation-policy.html

Previous Student Evaluations of this unit

Previous feedback has highlighted the following strengths in this unit:

  • A broad range of practical techniques are covered
  • Opportunity for creative application of skills

As a result of student feedback and unit review, improvements have been made to this offering:

  • More coverage of upcoming standards
  • Adjustments to length of tutorial exercises
  • Adjustments to assessment to focus more on correct application of HTML structure
  • Adjustments to weighting of marks in group assessment
  • Increased focus on encouraging good programming practices

If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp

Required Resources

Please check with your lecturer before purchasing any Required Resources. Limited copies of prescribed texts are available for you to borrow in the library, and prescribed software is available in student labs.

The unit covers the following software:

  • Adobe Dreamweaver CS4/CS5.5
  • Adobe Photoshop CS4/CS5.5

All software will be provided in computer laboratories (if you wish to have after-hours access, this can be arranged with ITS). Alternatively, students may use their own computer with their own copies of the software installed.

Software may be:

  • Purchased at academic price at good software retailers
  • Trial versions of software are available from publishers' websites

Recommended text(s)

Joel Sklar. (2011). Principles of Web Design. (Fifth Edition) Course Technology (ISBN: 1111528705).

Jonathan Lane, Meitar Moscovitz, Joseph R. Lewis. (2008). Foundation Website Creation with CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript. () Apress (ISBN: 1430209917).

Matthew MacDonald. (2011). Creating a Website: The Missing Manual. (Third Edition) O'Reilly Media (ISBN: 144930172X).

Unit Schedule

Week Activities Assessment
0   No formal assessment or activities are undertaken in week 0
1 Unit Introduction & Key Concepts  
2 HTML & Web Standards  
3 CSS Formatting Work Requirement 1 due Week 3
4 Working with Colour, Images & Typography  
5 CSS Layout & Rich Media Work Requirement 2 due Week 5
6 Website Testing, Forms & JavaScript Basics Assignment 1: HTML/CSS due Week 6 (Friday 6pm)
7 Browser Scripting with JavaScript  
8 Document Object Model & Web Servers  
9 Scripting using ColdFusion Markup Language Work Requirement 3 due Week 9
10 Structured Query Language & Form Data  
11 File Manipulation & AJAX Work Requirement 4 due week 11
12 Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimisation & Publishing Assignment 2: Group Project due Week 12 (Friday 6pm)
  SWOT VAC No formal assessment is undertaken SWOT VAC
  Examination period LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/
academic/education/assessment/
assessment-in-coursework-policy.html

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)

Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/

Assessment Tasks

Participation

Assignment 2 and Work Requirement 3 are conducted as group assessment tasks.

Due to the nature of group work in this subject, students are expected to attend at least 80% of classes.

  • Assessment task 1
    Title:
    HTML/CSS Website
    Description:
    A 5-page informational website designed to W3C standards.  To be undertaken individually.
    Weighting:
    20%
    Criteria for assessment:

    Site aims

    • Definition of target audience
    • Statement of site and user goals
    • Suitability to target audience

    Technical criteria

    • XHTML validation using the W3C validator
    • Appropriateness of XHTML structure
    • Application of CSS
    • Degradability of CSS
    • File naming and arrangement
    • Adaptability to various screen sizes
    • Cross-browser compatibility

    Visual design

    • Overall visual concept
    • Appropriate use of images in design
    • Layout of page elements
    • Use of conventions and metaphors
    • Branding (colours, logos, look & feel)

    Information architecture

    • Overall site structure
    • Clear content hierarchy
    • Accessibility of navigation
    • Readability of content
    • Search engine optimisation
    Due date:
    Week 6 (Friday 6pm)
    Remarks:
    Submission by online upload.
  • Assessment task 2
    Title:
    Group Project
    Description:
    A website for a fictional retail company, using server-side scripting to display products information stored in a database.To be undertaken in a groups of two students, with each member taking a specific role in development.
    Weighting:
    20%
    Criteria for assessment:

    The final mark you receive will consist of:

    • An overall shared group mark (50%)
    • An individual mark based on your assigned development roles (50%)

    Business management

    • Overall information structure
    • Organisation of files
    • Text content accuracy and proof-reading
    • Image content quality and suitability
    • Overall site accessibility

    Graphic design

    • Overall design concept
    • Company branding and logo design
    • Page layout design
    • Formatting using CSS
    • Typography design

    IT management

    • Retrieval and display of products table
    • Additional ColdFusion functionality
    • Application of JavaScript functionality
    • User input validation for forms
    • HTML validation to W3C standards
    Due date:
    Week 12 (Friday 6pm)
    Remarks:
    Submission by online upload.
  • Assessment task 3
    Title:
    Work Requirements
    Description:
    There will be 4 minor work requirement tasks.
    Weighting:
    20% (4 x 5%)
    Criteria for assessment:

    Regular work requirement tasks will be used to test students' understanding of concepts throughout the semester:

    • Correct application of semantic HTML structure
    • Application of CSS and images
    • Website planning documentation (group work)
    • Application of client-side and server-side scripting
    Due date:
    Weeks 3, 5, 9 and 11
    Remarks:
    Some tasks will be submitted by demonstration during tutorial sessions. Failure to demonstrate your work during the timetabled tutorial sessions may incur a penalty for late submission.

Examinations

  • Examination 1
    Weighting:
    40%
    Length:
    3 hours
    Type (open/closed book):
    Closed book
    Electronic devices allowed in the exam:
    None

Assignment submission

It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an online quiz).

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the VLE site for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Referencing requirements

For all assessment in this unit, any material that is not the student's own original work must be referenced. This includes (but is not limited to) use of the following:

  • Text content
  • Image, audio, video or other rich-media content
  • Scripting code and document markup
  • Template resources for content, code or other media

Other Information

Policies

Student services

The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at www.monash.edu.au/students. For Sunway see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/

The Monash University Library provides a range of services and resources that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Sunway, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.

Academic support services may be available for students who have a disability or medical condition. Registration with the Disability Liaison Unit is required. Further information is available as follows:

  • Website: http://monash.edu/equity-diversity/disability/index.html;
  • Email: dlu@monash.edu
  • Drop In: Equity and Diversity Centre, Level 1 Gallery Building (Building 55), Monash University, Clayton Campus, or Student Community Services Department, Level 2, Building 2, Monash University, Sunway Campus
  • Telephone: 03 9905 5704, or contact the Student Advisor, Student Commuity Services at 03 55146018 at Sunway
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