Subject to Change

With the pandemic still affecting our world, our class setup is subject to change throughout the semester. I will do my best to teach you, inform you on changes, and hopefully have a great semester. With that said, the rest of the syllabus is shown below.

Course Information

Contact Information

Materials Needed

Student Learning Outcomes for the Course

Objective - Learn Great Web Design & Market Yourself

By the end of the course you will have a website (that you created) to market yourself for future internships and jobs. We will primarily cover building web pages/sites using HTML5 and CSS3. You will also have the opportunity to learn a little javascript and PHP.

Course Policies

Attendance

Review Miami's attendance policy. I take attendance in this class via a "Tell Me" poll. Poor attendance can result in a lower grade. Contact me if you have to miss class. Contacting me does not excuse the absence but does help to keep me informed as to why you are missing. We only meet once a week; missing one class means that you are missing almost 10% of the classes for the semester. Historically, people that have good attendance in my class have done better with their learning and grades.

Academic Integrity Policy

Review Miami's academic integrity policy. On web sites it's pretty common to "steal code". In this class, I don't mind if you start from someone else's design, but you cannot start from a class-mates work. You can begin from my (Kirk's) code, but you need to make it your own. That means you need to create/use your own graphics, color schemes, and content. By being able to start with something and tweak it, that tells me that you understand how to build web pages (which is a big part of the goal of this class). Simply using someone else's design or content, however, is not acceptable. You must "make it your own".

Disability Services Information

If you have needs for disability services, contact student disability services.

Mental Health Services Information

If you have personal issues, seek help.

Course Calendar or Schedule

University Dates

Please note the updated add/drop deadlines to full-term courses:

Class Location

Our class meets Friday's from 2:50pm-4:10pm remotely via Zoom.

Class Structure

This course is being taught in a synchronous online style. All course materials are online via this/our class site and were created by Kirk. Class time will be spent with corporate and individual learning time. We will typically start off each class doing breakout sessions. We will then address any questions/concerns with the material as a group. Finally, individual time will be offered, where students can work directly with me (Kirk) and/or help each other and work on projects. A typical class/week may be spent as follows:

A typical week

Readings

No book is required for this course. Material for the course was developed by Kirk Hopkins and is available on this site. Content (i.e. material) for the course is in video format with transcriptions. Some compressed (zip) files are also available for download on the Material section of the site. Students are expected to watch all of the videos or read all of the transcripts.

Grading Policy

Grading rubrics are listed for every assignment. Kirks Pet Peeves also apply to grades. A regrade request is offered on all assignments and projects (that's a total of 18 regrade request opportunities). Students are encouraged to take advantage of the re-grade request opportunities. Re-grade requests are available if the assignment or project is completed on time, and will be available after the work has been graded, up to a week after the assignment was due. Grades will not be changed after these opportunities are exhausted.

Grades for Assignments and Projects include automatically graded "Mechanics" (i.e. HTML and CSS) as well manually graded "Design" (i.e. responsive design, color schemes, spell checking, grammar checking, etc) and "Content".

Kirk sends out automated email notifications for assignments not found. This is for information purposes only. Students are still expected to use the Assignment Viewer to ensure that their assignments can be graded. The purpose of the automated email notification is to act as a reminder to do an assignment if it hasn't been started or alert the student to a potential folder and/or file naming problem.

A sample quiz and sample exam are in Canvas and can be taken any time and as many times as students like.

Grading Policy Continued

Do assignments on time if you don't want a 0

A big part of your grade is simply based on doing your work on time.

Class Grading Overview: % of Final Grade

Project Grading Overview: % of Final Grade

Project Step by Step Instructions (also on the Material page)

Assignment Grading Overview: % of Final Grade

Extra Credit: % of Final Grade

Letter Grade Overview

Grade Scale

Grade%
A+97-100
A93-96.99
A-90-92.99
B+87-89.99
B83-86.99
B-80-82.99
C+77-79.99
C73-76.99
C-70-72.99
D+67-69.99
D63-66.99
D-60-62.99
F0-59.99

Re-grade Requests are Encouraged

If you are not happy with your grade on an assignment or project, and you completed it on time, you can modify the web page and use the assignment viewer to submit a regrade request (one request is allowed (and encouraged) for assignments and projects). The assignment viewer shows you how long you have to submit a regrade request.

Your grade will not go down if you requested a re-grade. If you got a 0, that means the project was not where it was supposed to be (or it was named incorrectly). If you got a very low grade because you barely had anything to grade, don't expect to get an A on a re-grade request. Saying you were sick and didn't get it done on time is not a good excuse. The due dates for all of the projects are plainly visible. You can request to have your work regraded one time up to 1 week after the due date. It obviously takes time to do the grading, so you may only have a few days from when I enter the grades to make changes and submit a re-grade request. I will try to have things graded as quickly as possible. Your grade can only go up 2 letter grades if there is a severe problem with content for an project (i.e. there wasn't much attempt made). This will allow students not to worry as about missing something during the learning process. If it appears that you made a solid attempt, I will allow up to full credit on a re-grade request.

Are you wondering why you got the grade that you got? Review your work and compare it to the scoring list below. Still not sure? Ask some of your peers what they think. Being a webmaster (that's what you are) means being able to use the critical eye that we used in our first class to review your own site. I want you to be proud of your work. All of your work in this class can be used in the final project so making it all top-notch is highly recommended.

Comments will be added in Canvas to the grade when applicable.

Academic Support

IMS222 Tutoring is available by the department

Course Evaluations

One of the mid-semester assignments is creating a web page as sort of a mid-semester evaluation. Kirk will use the information to determine if changes need to be made to the course during the semester. Contact Kirk at any point in the semester if you think changes could be made to the course to help you learn better.

At the end of the course you will be asked a series of questions to evaluate me (Kirk). I will strive to ensure that you learn cool stuff in this course (at least I think it's cool). I hope that you are able to grade me with high marks. We're all learning and I have found that one of the best ways to learn is to get feedback as you go. With this in mind, read the questions that you will evaluate me on, and as we go through the course let me know if I'm missing the mark anywhere. I'm more concerned about you learning than I am with getting a bad evaluation; I would prefer to address your concerns during the class instead of finding out after the fact, so that you are able to learn more effectively.

Welcome
Hello,

My name is Kirk Hopkins. I look forward to teaching you great web design in our IMS222 class.

The web site that we’ll use for our 202120 IMS222 class is: http://kirkhopkins.com/IMS/202120_IMS222/index.php. On the site, you'll see everything you need to know for the course including all of the assignments and due dates, the syllabus (including course content), the assignment viewer, ways to contact fellow classmates, and contact information for me.

Our class meets Friday's from 2:50pm-4:10pm online using Zoom. We will evaluate how we use our class time as we go through the semester. The important thing to me is that you learn the content. Time is valuable so I want to make sure that we’re using it in the most advantageous way possible. No book is required for the class. I have developed all content that we’ll use for the course in a video-based format (with transcription for those who prefer text).

Our class will operate in a synchronous online format. You’ll learn content on your own before class. We’ll use class time to re-enforce learned concepts and discuss new content. I developed a type of polling software where I can post questions and you can respond (type in your answer) in real time, then we can discuss your responses. Past students have enjoyed it as a unique way to interact during the class and an interesting way to learn. We'll use this during our class time in addition to video conferencing via Zoom.

In this class, we are all going to learn together (me included). You'll be able to see each other’s published work (on the website) because it will be on the web; for that matter, you’ll be able to share your work with anyone in the world with web access. Pretty cool, eh?

Your first assignment is due by class on Friday. You read that correctly, you need to do the first assignment before we meet. Directions can be found at: http://kirkhopkins.com/IMS/202120_IMS222/Material.php?ShowThis=Week00. Week 00 gives you an overview of the course and tells you how to setup your web space (which is required by our first class). You will also want to cover the content for http://kirkhopkins.com/IMS/202120_IMS222/Syllabus.php?ShowThis=Week01 before our first class. Many classes at Miami require self motivation and this class is no exception. I've found that students who put the effort into the class from the beginning, do the assignments on time, and attend class, do well (grade-wise) in my class.

So to re-iterate, here's your Getting Started Module, due before our first class:

You don’t have to use Bluehost for your web space; that’s just what I use. All the code that we’ll do in our class will be done with a text editor. If you use Bluehost, portions of WordPress will automatically get installed, but not as much as if you use the install option so I recommend not installing Word Press.


You can reach me via the contact page (http://kirkhopkins.com/IMS/202120_IMS222/EmailForm.php?subject=general%20info&uniqueid=) on our website or by emailing me.

I look forward to meeting you soon. I like to have photos of everyone so I can get to know you and so it makes an online class more personal. Please upload a photo of yourself at http://kirkhopkins.com/FilesForSharing.php?ThisFolder=202120%20IMS222 (with just you in the picture) before our first class.

...Kirk.