Dept. Colloquiua

CS 101   Web Construction,  Fall 2008,  Instructor:  Jeffrey Horn

COURSE ANNOUNCEMENTS (Saturday, December 6, 2008)

What's REALLY New:

• Added a link (below) to a Final Exam Guide.  Go to bottom of this page or just click here.

• Winding down!  Final Exam Information added (below)

• Updated A6 web page with info about extra credit submission option.   See link to A6 page below. (or click here)

Not so New (Older Announcements):

• A6  added
• A5  added
• Quiz 2 (CSS Basics) will be given on Monday (10/13) and Tuesday (10/14) this week.  Details below, including info on how you might be able to take the quiz on a different day (i.e., the other section's quiz day) IF you have a good reason!  (see below, info on Quiz 2)

• Quiz 2 (CSS Basics) is postponed to next week.

• A4 is assigned! See below.

• Quiz 1 on Wed. (for MW section) and on Thur. (for TR section).  See below for list of topics.

• Practice Quiz Solution here

• A3 is assigned! See below.

• I'm back!  (from Dortmund, Germany).  Time to re-organize:

  • A2 due date finalized:  end of this week!   (Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, midnight).   That should be plenty of time for any lingering questions.  Note that I do not have office hours on Fridays!  And remeber to check the A2 web page for the details on how to hand in the assignment.

  • This week in class I will allow a little bit of time for lab on A2, but mostly I will be introducing A3, going further into CSS, getting feedback on the video lectures, and prepping you for a quiz.

• Added a bit more info on CS 101 tutoring at the ACT (All-Campus Tutoring Center) in Administrativa below. Chris' tutoring hours are now fixed for the semester.  See "Tutoring" below.

• CS Tutor Chris Wells will be available to help on A2 Thursday 1-3pm in NSF 1207.  

• Second video is up (syntax of CSS comments).   See Video list below, or A2 web page.

• First Video is up.  Just an intro to CSS syntax.   I will be adding more shortly.

• Videos are listed in the "LECTURE NOTES" section below, and are also linked to from the appropriate places on the A2 task list.

• Sorry, slight delay on the videos.  Technical problems, including loss of internet this morning.  Videos to come later today.  I will be posting them TO THIS PAGE, announcing them here, and emailing notice to you.

• OK, so for Tuesday, I want the TuTh section of CS 101 to take advantage of our tutor (Chris Wells).   He has hours today from 3-5pm in NSF 1207.   Those are part of his normal hours but they cover part of our usual 4-5:40pm class time, so we cannot usually take full advantage of them.  But today, you can!   The MW section can also take advantage of those hours today, of course!   I have prepped Chris on A2 so that he can help you with any aspect of it.  It is optional, but he is there.

• As for actual guest lecturers, our past CS tutor, Brian Krent, will be giving a guest lecture on "Intro to CSS" to the MW section on Wednesday, Sept. 17, in our usual classroom, 2901.   I told him he could keep it short, and then offer to help with any A2 questions afterward (so the usual lecture+lab type of schedule).  

• Unfortunately, Brian cannot be there on Thursday for the TuTh section, so we will either have Chris Wells or a video of Brian's Wed. lecture.   Also, the TuTh students are welcome to attend the Wed. lecture (if they can find room; the MW students get first dibs on seats!   But I doubt it will that crowded...)

• Greetings from Germany! I am in Dortmund, Germany, at the PPSN 2008 conference. I just got wireless internet working in my room, so I am online!

• I have got my video software (Camtasia Studio) working, so starting tomorrow (Monday), I will be posting videos to our web page for you to watch to help with A2, which will be due middle of NEXT week (after I get back). 

• The Quiz for this week will be PRACTICE only, and I will send it to you by email.   I decided not to have our first "assessment" with me out of the country.   So I'll make a practice quiz and send it to you for you to take WHILE I AM GONE!

• Plans for the coming week (9/15 -9/19):

  • MW section:  Do not come to class on Monday.  If we have a guest lecturer, he/she will come to class on Wednesday.  For Monday, I want you to watch some videos which I will be posting on Monday.   More later...

  • TR section:  stay tuned.   We MIGHT have a guest lecture on Tues. or Thursday. 

• A2 is assigned. See "Assignments" section below.

• A1 is assigned. See "Assignments" section below.

• A0 is assigned and due this week. See "Assignments" section below.

• Welcome!

CONTENTS

• Administrativa

  • Syllabus

  • Our text's web site. 

  • Tutoring:

    • We have our own, departmental, CS tutor (for 101 and other CS courses)

      • Chris Wells:   Available in NSF 1207 at 3-5pm  Tuesdays  and  1-3pm Thursdays

    • The All Campus Tutoring Center (ACT) also has some tutors for CS 101

      • ACT web site

      • CS 101 tutoring schedule (from ACT web site; go here for latest):

Lecture Notes

• Assignments

• Programming

• Tests and Quizes

LECTURE NOTES

VIDEOS:

• Intro to CSS using background colors

• Syntax for Comments in CSS

WORKSHPS:

• Brian Krent's CSS Workshops:

  • Main page

ASSIGNMENTS

• Assignment 0  "Software Setup"

  • Handed out:      Monday, Aug. 25, 2008  (MW section)       Tuesday, Aug. 26, (TR section)

  • Due:                    Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 (MW section)    Thursday, Aug. 28  (TR section)   IN CLASS!

  • Goals:  Become familiar with basic concepts of text files (as web pages), editors vs. browsers, organization using folders.

o    Details:

§  Graded S/U (pass/fail)

§  Use any TEXT editor you like (e.g., NotePad, WordPad, etc.)

§  Create a folder named "A0"

§  Create a file named "A0.html"

§  Put some basic information into like your name

§  Save it and view it in a browser.

§  Show me.

§  Then edit the file again and add some more info.  Save it, view it in a browser, and show it to me.

·         Assignment 1  "First Web Page"

o    Handed out:  Wednesday, August 27, 2008  (MW section)   Thursday, August 28, 2008  (TR section)

o    Due:               IN CLASS   Monday, Sept. 8, 2008  (MW section)   Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 (TR section)

o    Goals:  Get used to the TextPad (or TextWrangler) editor, and use actual valid html tags to markup (format) text on a web page.

o    Details:

§  Create a single, simple web page consisting of a single .html file.

§  Make sure it has original content in each of the following:

1.      Comments (At the very least, a comment near the top of the file with your name, the date, and the assignment number)

2.      Nesting

3.      Title  (in a properly-written header)

4.      Body

5.      At least three different elements from the following list of inline-level elements:  
  (I, EM, B, STRONG, SUB, SUP, Q, STRIKE)

6.      At least two different elements from the following list of block-level elements:  
(H1,H2,H3,P,HR)

§  Indentation/writing style (try to indent for readability, but I won't grade you on indentation this time!  I will, however, give you feedback on it.)

§  Example  (view the source code for this page!)

o    Turn-in Procedure:    Show me your web page on your notebook, in class or during my office hours

 

·         Assignment 2  "Multimedia Pages with Style"

o    Click here

·         Assignment 3  "Links, Tables, and Servers"

o    Click here

·         Assignment 4  "Multi-page Web Site"

o    Click here

·         Assignment 5  "FORMS and Server-side Scripts"

• Click here 

·         Assignment 6  "JavaScript (with Image Maps)"

• Click here 

PROGRAMMING

• Language:  HTML, CSS, Javascript

• Platform:   NMU IBM ThinkPads OR Apple MacBooks

TESTS AND QUIZZES

• Most tests are open book and open notes.  Some require your notebook computer (I'll let you know ahead of time!)  NONE are "open neighbor"!  (i.e., no help from others!)

• Practice Quiz,  Practice Quiz Solution here

• Quiz 1 Topics:     (basically anything from A1, A2)   Open book ,open notes, open laptop, NO HELP!
  1. Basic HTML elements (e.g., <html>, <head>, <body>, formatting:  <i>, <b>, <sup>, etc.)
  2. Nesting of elements
     • (e.g., fix the following code "<h2><b><i> Dollar Menu Items at Starbux!</b></h2></i>")
  3. Lists, images, hyperlinks
  4. HTML Comment syntax
  5. Some attributes (e.g., "src", "height", "alt", etc.)
  6. No CSS
• Quiz 2:  Basic CSS  (CSS syntax from A3)   Open book ,open notes, open laptop, NO HELP!
  • This quiz is scheduled for Monday (Oct. 13) and Tues (Oct. 14) at around 4pm in our usual classroom.  There will be two different versions of the quiz.  IF you have a very good reason for not being able to make your usual class day (i.e., M for the MW section and T for the TR section), then you MAY take the other section's quiz on their day, IF you email me ahead of time that you want to do this, and IF you give me a good reason, and IF you make it to the other class on time, and IF you tell me early enough ahead of time so that I have time to make sure I have enough copies printed!  (That's a lot of "if"s, I know!)
  • Details:
    • Shorter than Quiz 1 (maybe 10 points instead of 20, total). 
    • CSS embedded in the HTML <head> element.  This means using the <style> element.
    • Full syntax for the <style> element is "<style type="text/css">  ...    </style>",  where "..." is pure CSS code.
    • Pure CSS code consists of a list of pairs such as "  body {   color:  red;  }",  where "body" can be any HTML element (no angle brackets!) and the curly braces contain a list of CSS properties (e.g., "color"), and a value for that property (e.g., "red" for "color").   Remember the use of full colons between a property and its value, and a semi-colon  at the end (the semi-colon serves to separate property-value pairs). 
    • Another CSS basic syntax example:   "  body {    background-image:  url("flowers.gif");  } "
    • No external CSS!  No "in-line CSS"!   Just "header CSS".
    • Possible format of a CSS question:  "Here is an image of a web page the way I want it to look.   (Imagine a web page with a solid border around the h1 heading, and a paragraph with a green background and red text.) Write the CSS code to achieve this appearance. "

FINAL EXAM 

In response to numerous requests, I have decided to be flexible and allow EVERYONE in both of my CS 101 sections to take the final exam on EITHER of the two days that have been allocated:

*(from NMU Master Schedule)

The two tests listed above will be different but similar.   (Both sections of CS 101 covered the same material and had the same assignments, although different quizzes and tests.)  And no, you can't take both!

A guide to the final exam can be found here, including topics and policies.