Information Architecture for the Web: Course Materials: Email Archives

NOTE: If you are enrolled in this class, you should be receiving these messages emailed directly to you. If that is not the case, email your instructor larrjoh@gmail.com

S532 Update - Information Architecture, March 18, 2008
Hi gang,

Spring Break week is over (Some of you are saying "Spring Break, what Spring Break?"); we are about half way through the course. I'm still grading, more of your Project 1 scores coming this week. And then on to Hutmates (8-).

Meantime, keep a watch on that calendar.

ASSIGNMENTS
This week: Complete Quiz Two
Everyone did a great job with the first quiz, so I'm sure you'll do fine on Quiz 2 (Similar format). Quiz 2 is now officially open and will be available through the weekend and next Monday nite. DON'T MISS COMPLETING IT!

NOTE: There is NO Chapter 26 in the Castro textbook; that was an error on the calendar listing.

For the record, we are working our way through CourseQuest 2 http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide2.htm

Work on Hutmate 4; it's due next Monday, March 24th.

PROJECT 2
Now that you've chosen a client, it's time to begin work on designing your website. REMEMBER, this is a course in information architecture, not just "making web pages." Keep in mind that this project should be a professional level website. As such, I want you to carefully examine the entire IA process.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE PROCESS
Let's review the first three elements of the Information Architecture process.

Investigation
Your first mission involves learning about your client, the primary and secondary audience for your project, and the website needs. In other words, you need to figure out who will be using this website and how it will be used. This is not about what YOU will put on the web... it's about what THEY need and will use. To do this, you need to work with your client and determine the main audience for the website... in other words, is the main audience seven-year-olds, teenagers, teachers, general public patrons, churchgoers, etc? Also, you need to determine to what extent you also will gear your site toward secondary audiences that might find your page. These might be people from outside your school district, potential library patrons, or new members of your community. You may choose to address or ignore this secondary audience.

Next, conduct a needs assessment. You need to decide the best way to collect information about your audience. You might interview your "client" to determine their view on needs. You may also want to do a survey of patrons or other users. You need to share your reasoning behind the needs assessment you choose as well as the results.

Analysis
Once you know your audience, you're ready to state the website's purpose and analyze potential content. Rather than just putting a bunch of junk on the Internet, your content should be directly related to your audience and purpose. Why will people come to your website? What's its value to your audience? What unique information will keep them coming back? You should have a reason for selecting the content you use in your website. Consider essential, special, dynamic, interactive, and duplicate content elements.

You should spend substantial time collecting and organizing meaningful, quality content.

Design
Once you've determined your audience, purpose, and content, you need to think about the design of your website. Think about how your information will be designed. Use Inspiration to build a diagram showing how information is interwoven. Next, consider the technical aspects. How many pages are needed to meet your needs? What navigation tools will be provided? Finally, you're ready to design your web pages.

PROJECT PLAN
Begin by reviewing the requirements and evaluation criteria for Project 2 http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide2.htm#3 as well as the Hutmate Discussion 4 Project Plan http://www.eduscapes.com/arch/coursequest2.htm#d2

You'll be creating a project plan web page that you can use to share your insights into Projects 2 and 3. This is the place where you'll share your plans for each project and later your personal reflections about the project. As you create your plan, consider your client. Your plan should include the information your client needs to understand the audience, purpose, content, and design of the website that will be built. You should share this plan with your client and agree on these elements before beginning web page development.

You may wish to look at the requirements for Project 3 as your design your Project 2 plan. Project 3 involves a significant content piece that will involve adding information or resources organized around a particular set of content. You also must add an additional technology element.

INSPIRATION
One element of your project plan is a diagram showing your website planning. A concept map is an excellent tool for planning. You can download concept mapping software at the Inspiration website (http://inspiration.com). You can also use your own concept mapping tool if you have another software preference. Dreamweaver has a built-in tool for organizing your files, but it's not really intended for "preplanning".

When using Inspiration, you need to EXPORT your completed document and SAVE IT as a .jpg file. Once you have created a finished diagram and saved to a file, you can share this visual with others.

Note: Inspiration is one of several graphic software programs that can be used to plan and diagram the site structure. Also be aware that MS Publisher files cannot be viewed by persons using a Mac computer. Avoid problems in sharing the diagram component by using common files such as .jpg or .pdf.

NOTHER OOOPS!
In the last update, I posted the winners for the LITEhouse awards. Somehow I left out the information and link to Kathy Pizarek's nomination for Gold Award winner Springfield Township High School Virtual Library (best design, useful content, technical aspects) http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/mchslib/Pizarek/lighthouse.htm

CYNTHIA SAYS ASSESSIBILITY ICON
With the validation for the coding related to CynthiaSays, page will validate if you add a forward slash at the end of the code line as shown here . . .
alt="Cynthia Tested!" height="31" width="88" /></a> </p>

I believe the instructions provided do not fit with today's XHTML coding.

CITATION / CREDIT REMINDER
From here on out the remainder of your work, be sure that you credit all sources of information use on a webpage. For text information, you should not copy text . . . include only original writing / composition and credit information sources. Similarly credit all sources for image and other multimedia content. Make sure that you have permission to use images.

Have a great week. Let me know if you have questions as you begin / continue your work on product 2.
Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, March 4, 2008
Hello,

Can you believe how fast this semester has gone - is going? You should be pleased with what you have accomplished! We are coming up on Spring Break week. I'm still working to catch up on scoring your work and have a few more SBA twos before moving right into your first project: Litehouse nomination. I will be grading through much of Spring Break (do have to make a work trip, speaking at a conference in SC early in the week) and will check daily on email - - for those who will be working next week, I will be virtually around and online.

A LOOK BACK ON THE FIRST THIRD OF THE COURSE
A majority of people who create a web page have never hear of coding, validation, or web accessibility. In some cases, you may wish you'd never heard of them either. However these are foundational, technical skills for anyone interested in information architecture and the web.

The next section of the course will focus on the content and design aspects of developing an entire website. This goes far beyond just "creating pages" and places emphasis on designing effective, efficient, and appealing web-based content to meet the needs of a specific web audience.

LITEHOUSE AWARDS
You all took part in the LITEhouse nomination and decision-making process. Each group came through with an impressive group of finalists. Starting with the special library / academic library and other website category, Anna Proctor reported the winners:
Gold: Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. http://www.folger.edu/ nominated by Anna Proctor http://mypage.iu.edu/~aproctor/S532/litehouse.html
Silver: Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY http://www.birds.cornell.edu/macaulaylibrary/ nominated by Joel Boehner http://joel.boehner.googlepages.com/project1a.html
Bronze: J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA http://www.getty.edu/museum/ nominated by Nancy Fay http://mypage.iu.edu/~nfay/litehouse.html

Mary Gish reported the voting results for the school library website group:
Gold: Springfield Township High School Virtual Library (best design, useful content, technical aspects) http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/ nominated by Kathy Pizarek http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/mchslib/Pizarek/lighthouse.htm
Silver (tie awards):
(A) Oregon School Library Information System (OLSIS) (Useful content) http://www.oslis.org/index.ph nominated by Mary Gish http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/mgish/slisclass/litehouse.html
(B) Cold Spring School Library (Usability features) nominated by Terri Zabonick http://mypage.iu.edu/~tzabonic/litehouse.htm
http://www.coldspringschool.net/component/option,com_uhp2/Itemid,98/task,viewpage/user_id,83/
{No Bronze winner}

Celia Bandelier submitted the results for the public library group.
Gold: Madison-Jefferson County Library http://www.mjcpl.org/ nominated by Joe Coram http://s532.joecoram.com/litehouse/ The website is developed and maintained by Jerry Yarnetsky, a former student in this class. He began a major revision of the site as his final project in the class. You too can do this caliber of work.
Silver: Monroe County Public Library http://monroe.lib.mi.us/ nominated by Celia Bandelier http://cband13.googlepages.com/nomination.htm
Bronze: Grand Rapids Public Library http://www.grpl.org/perl/home.pl nominated by Dawn Mehan http://dmehan.ofyellowshoes.com/project1

I hope that all of you take time to skim through everyone's nomination pages and visit the winners. There are so many different ideas and techniques to be seen in your classmates' webwork.

ASSIGNMENT
If you have not already started, it is time to turn your attention to materials for the web development software. Read the following online materials:
Web Development http://eduscapes.com/arch/develop/index.htm
Tools http://eduscapes.com/arch/develop/tools.htm
Dreamweaver http://eduscapes.com/arch/develop/dreamweaver.htm
Nvu http://eduscapes.com/arch/develop/nvu.htm

Most of you will be using Dreamweaver (My recommendation too). Some of you may be using the older version 8, and we have left some resources for that in place as well as ones for the newer CS3 version. As you are getting started with Dreamweaver, you can find more startup help at
The Basics: Dreamweaver for Course Development
http://eduscapes.com/distance/the_basics/dreamweaver.htm

This is a section of a new course: Teaching and Learning at a Distance that Annette and I are currently developing. We recently tested parts of the materials with a user group. If you need additional information, there are a number of optional texts for CS3 listed in the course syllabus. Also another valuable learning text is the 'Help' feature in your Dreamweaver software.

Although Project 2 http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide2.htm#3 is not due for a while, YOU MUST be learning to use Dreamweaver now. This is not something you can learn at the last minute.

During the week after Spring Break, you will have several scheduled days to complete Quiz 2 (Wed Mar 20- Sun Mar 24).

DREAMWEAVER TIPS
One of the advantages of a web development tool is the spell checker and other built-in assistance. Look for the features that will complement your hand-coding skills. Notice that in Dreamweaver you can hand-code, use a split screen, or do everything in the Dreamweaver layout.

Here are a couple tips as you get started with Dreamweaver:
When the "New Document" window appears the Doc Type should default to XHTML 1.0 Transitional
As soon as you create your new page, be sure to save it in in the folder you create for your website (See File Organization below).

You MUST use CSS. You can create a new CSS document from scratch and attach it. Or, use Dreamweaver's built in CSS management system.
DO NOT set the fonts, styles, size, etc. individually in the Properties panel. Instead, establish a CSS and use the Paragraph, H1, H2, H3 options in the Properties panel.

FILE ORGANIZATION
It's essential to stay organized when working on web pages. I'd suggest the following:
1 - Create a folder/directory on your hard drive with your username or whatever the main directory is for your website such as ljohnson or bsmith.
2 - Store all of your web pages, images, css files, and any other files associated with your pages in this folder. This will ensure that your internal links and linked files function properly.
3 - Once your files are all in the same place, you can begin making links, inserting images, or accessing CSS files and everything will correctly link together.
4 - Be sure to upload all the files associated with the pages such as images and CSS files.
5 - The name index.htm is considered the default for most directories. If you use this name for the "home" file of your folder/directory you won't need to write it out in the URL. In other words, you'll type http://eduscapes.com/info instead of http://eduscapes.com/arch/index.htm
6 - When planning a large project break it down into subdirectories or folders. For example, I have a subdirectory for each course I teach. Within each folder is a page named index.htm

When possible, use the name index.htm or index.html for the main (home or core) file in your directory or folder. This becomes the "default" for the folder and is used when anyone goes directly to the folder/directory. That way, people won't need to write the name of the file. It just saves typing. For example, instead of writing http://eduscapes.com/arch/index.htm they just go to http://eduscapes.com/arch

COURSEQUEST 2
Continue progressing through CourseQuest 2 with careful attention to the Project 2 requirements. I chose not to create a SBA related to Dreamweaver because you'll each be working at a different pace and have different experienecs with web development tools. Some people prefer to learn with their own content rather than going through a tutorial. You might consider practicing by updating your personal page using Dreamweaver. Either way is fine as long as you learn the basics of using Dreamweaver.

In PROJECT 2 and 3 you will be creating a website to meet a particular need such as a school library, classroom, public library, special library, or nonprofit (i.e., church, 4H club, health agency, parent organization, historical society, local museum). You could also develop a business site or other resource if it fits with your career goals. Consider something that would be useful to the community. It's VERY flexible. I just don't want you to do a "personal" family-type page or a "project for the sake of a project" page. Make it something that will be useful to "the world". It could even be a business or commercial site if you have a "real world" client in mind.

If you have questions or concerns about your client or need ideas, email me soon so we can discuss the possibilities. Some of you have already emailed me about your chosen client. It's a good idea to get started right now collecting information and content that will be useful in building this website.

VALIDATION
Overall everyone worked hard and did great with the second skills building activity SBA2.

Several of you had webpages whose coding validated correctly - - that is up until you added information about completing validation and/or accessibility checks at the bottom of your page. Reminder that you MUST go back a revalidate and recheck the page after making any change of any type. Throughout the remainder of the course, even though you will be using a web-development software, you still must complete the validation and accessibility checks of your webpages.

If the page does not pass, (1) see if you can correct so that it passes or (2) you must identify the reason the page does not pass and state such in your Oncourse posting (Not on your webpage). For example an embedded YouTube video on a webpageprevents a webpage from successful validation. You check the validation of the webpage by removing the embedded code for the YouTube video, making sure that all the other code is in correct form. Some JavaScripts also will not validate, but often we need to have those features included in our work for valid reasons.

Lastly if your page does not pass validation or accessibility checks, DO NOT place the icons on your webpage. Explain why in your Oncourse submission but keep your website clean and true to its condition.

CYNTHIA™ TESTED ICON
Thanks to T. Vandenbark for posting the location of guidelines and access to Cynthia™ Tested Button for those who successfully pass that accessibility test of their webpages. http://www.cynthiasays.com/org/cynthiatested.htm

CSS CODING TECHNIQUES
As you proceed further in your web development, here are a couple of articles on CSS techniques that may be useful:
53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/19/53-css-techniques-you-couldnt-live-without/
Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/21/powerful-css-techniques-for-effective-coding/

Keep cruisin' through the course. You have made it through hand coding. You now have a marketable skill that very few people have; you can troubleshoot any kind of web coding. Way to go - Celebrate!

Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, February 19, 2008
Hey gang,

You may not realize it, but you have achieved a lot in the past few weeks. Don't worry about comparing your work to someone else's. Learn from each other and celebrate what you've accomplished so far.

LITTLE MORE 'BOUT VALIDATION
Many of you are finding that the validation tools are not perfect. It's not surprising. With the change from HTML to XHTML and the assortment of rules, it's possible that you may not follow every suggestion. An "error" to this automated system, may be a usable, deprecated tag. Two examples are setting a color in a horizontal rule and using the height attribute in tables. Using a style attribute in a CSS is the "preferred" approach to both of needs, but using the color and height attributes won't cause any real problems with most browsers.

Some of you have asked about switching to a different validator in order to eliminate or avoid errors. My advice is to stick with the W3C validator. When you turn in your assignments, just note that you tried the other validator. That's all you really need to do. You don't need to be clean on both. Use this as an analogy... think of using a spell check from the US, Canada, and the UK... you'd get slightly different results for the word colour/color, but they'd both be technically correct.

Now that you have learned the process of validation - - you should be aware that dependent upon your content, validation is not always possible. For example, incorporation of Flash video won't validate. That does not mean that you should not incorporate such components in your future work. It just means that you need to recognize that incompatibility and note that when you submit your future projects. Make your programs as valid and accessible as possible, but also include those content elements that you need for your work.

PROJECT ONE
You nominated a site for an award - - the best website you could find. Your Project 1 should be posted by Tuesday, February 20 (Monday holiday)! If you need the extra day, use it - no problem or penalty. During the week, your group will now choose the best of the best.

First post the web address of your Project 1 in a section of 'Hutmate 2 - Awards Discussion' in the Oncourse Forums section. After posting your Project 1, you're ready to participate in the HUMATE 2 discussion. Rather than just sharing your favorites, be sure to share your reasoning.

HUTMATE 3
Plan early for this hutmate. It involves communicating with a web master. This should not simply be a friend who runs a website. Instead, choose a website that you respect and email the web master. You may want to send out 3-5 emails to different people because you may not get a response from your first communication.

You should start working on this assignment IMMEDIATELY so you can post your results by March 3rd.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Up until this point in the semester, we've been focusing on basic coding skills for building single web pages and the evaluation of websites designed by others. Now it's time to learn how to build an entire website from scratch. Developing a website involves a new set of skills related to Information Architecture.

Information architecture (IA) brings content and technical elements of web development together. It's the art and science of identifying, organizing, and managing information for a particular need. Information Architecture involves a series of steps: Research, Strategy, Design, and Implementation.

We'll explore the first three of these steps during CourseQuest 2; begin CourseQuest 2 at http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide2.htm

READINGS
This week, read Morville & Rosenfeld Chapter 10.

LITTLE MORE ON CODING
As I'm grading Skill Building Activity 2, I'm noticing that some of you have trouble with the use of tags related to accessibility. You may want to go back and be sure that your Project 1 is accessible.

ALT TAG
The ALT tag can be used with any of the following non-text elements: animations, applets, audio, bullets, buttons, icons, images, image maps, sounds, symbols, or video. It is not used with links.

Keep in mind the following 3 attributes: alt, title, and summary.

ALT
The alt attribute text will appear as a pop-up label on some, but not all browsers. Use the alt="" for images and images related to multimedia. Browsers that read the page contents aloud will read the alt tag. Try to keep alt attribute under 50 characters. Examples:

<a href="bartcow.wav"> <img src="audio.gif alt="Sound file: Don't have a cow.">Listen to a message.</a>

<a href="eagle.mov"> <img src="tv.gif alt="Movie file: No audio track, but video of eagle flying over mountains.">Watch a video clip.</a>

TITLE
While the alt attribute is required in XHTML, the title attribute is optional. The use of title attribute will generally produce a pop-up label, but not on all browsers. If you use both ALT and TITLE, then the title will be used for the "pop-up" or "tool tip". Use the title="" attribute for links to websites, movies, audios, documents, PDFs, and other links.

<a href="frog.html" title="Link to a page about frogs."> Frog Page</a>
<a href="http://tipt3.utoledo.edu/starters/bears/meadowbear.mov" title="This link provides soundless QuickTime movie of a black bear crossing a meadow.">Click here.</a>

Also use a simple title or summary for a table used in navigation.

SUMMARY
Use the summary attribute to describe the purpose and structure of the table. You should describe what is in the rows and columns. This information will not show up in a "pop-up" but will be read aloud in browsers for the visually impaired.

CAPTION
The caption attribute is optional. It will place a caption above the table on your page. It should provide a short heading for your table.

<caption>Photographs of Frogs</caption>

MULTIMEDIA
It's a good idea to tell people what type of video they are accessing within within the text of the website. This is also important when you link to a document such as a Word file or PDF file. When possible, also link to a website containing plugins such as the Apple QuickTime website. Example:

Need QuickTime? <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">Click to Download.</a>

Be sure to include some description of media itself such as whether it contains audio elements. There are many options. Explore:

Let's watch the QuickTime bear movie. <a href="http://tipt3.utoledo.edu/starters/bears/meadowbear.mov" title="This link provides soundless QuickTime movie of a black bear crossing a meadow.">Click here.</a>

NAVIGATION
Provide consistent navigation on each page. Also, make it clear what page you are on.

IMAGES
You can take entire courses in imaging, so I know some people have more experience than others. However, everyone all did a nice job with images for this assignment. As you select images for future projects, think about their purpose. Whether it's a piece of clipart or a photograph, consider whether it's needed and how it contributes to the page. Also carefully consider the size of the graphic and whether to use a small/thumbnail, medium, or large visual depending on the intended purpose of the visual. Many of you incorporated captions or discussed the specific photo in the text of your page. This is a great idea.

AUDIO AND VIDEO
As many of you found out, there are many ways to incorporate audio and video into a web page. Much of it gets down to audience. Who will be using your website? If they are new to audio and video, you may want to provide support such as links to the QuickTime drivers. Or, if they need the information on the web page to understand the video, it makes sense to embed the video on the page rather than putting it in a separate location. It really depends on the needs of your content and audience.

I am really pleased with the efforts that all of you have put into your work so far in the course. Now that you have the Skills Building work out of the way and have finished the first project - - we turn our attention to a html coding software: Dreamweaver. With your new coding skills you will be able to fix many problems and tweak your Dreamweaver work.

Have a great weekend. Be sure and contact me with individual problems; I'm here to help . . .
Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, February 10, 2008
Hello,

I'm about half way through grading your SBA1s - - I will send out direct emails to each of you. However I have to spend much of the next few days on another project and will not be able to finish up all before the end of the week. I assure you that if you absolutely messed up and score 3 pts or lower on the work; I do provide an opportunity to try again and raise your score (highest possible in that situation is 4 points). The goal here is for everyone to get the experience and gain the needed basic coding skills.

In addition if you receive information in my feedback that helps you on the SBA2 exercise, you can correct / change that product before I score it the following week (next week).

ASSIGNMENTS
This week work to complete your Project One http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm#3 It is due next Monday.

Read Online:
Information Architecture http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/index.htm
Overview http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/overview.htm
Definition of Information Architecture http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/overview1.htm
The Information Architect http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/overview2.htm
Libraries and Information Users http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/overview3.htm

Principles of Information Architecture http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles.htm
Organizational Systems http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles1.htm
Labeling Systems http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles2.htm
Navigation Systems http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles3.htm
Search Systems http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles4.htm
Metatdata http://eduscapes.com/arch/ia/principles5.htm

Also in the Textbooks:
Read Morville & Rosenfeld Intro, Chapters 2, 3, 13, 15
Read Morville & Rosenfeld Chapters 4-9.

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
As we continue through the course, there maybe times that you need to use a graphics package like PhotoShop to manipulate a photo or image. For example if you want to remove a white background that is framed around a graphic to make it match a color background on a webpage, you can use PhotoShop to convert the image to a transparent GIF. Or you may need to edit or resize a photo - - generally we edit down in size rather than stretch or distort the image up in size. You can change the image resolution to 72 dpi (dots per inch), the optimum resolution for web display. Again a graphics program is needed.

If you do not have access to the relatively expensive PhotoShop software, there is a reliable Open Source product that works well: GIMP http://www.gimp.org/

Audacity is a great sound editing program that can be used to recored and edit audio clips http://eduscapes.com/sessions/freedom/

To learn more about these and many other Open Source software programs, visit our online article: Freedom or Nightmare? The Implications of Open Source Software http://eduscapes.com/sessions/freedom/ Also read the June 2006 InfoTech Article for Teacher Librarian: Open Source Software in School Libraries (Online database access requires login); 33(5), 55-57.
http://search.epnet.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/login.aspx?. . . ip,url,uid&db=f5h&an=21337000

VIDEO & AUDIO VALIDATION
I haven't found a way to avoid validation problems with embedded videos. The problem is that there's not consistency among browsers in terms of a standard for embedded videos... as a result, they come up as "not valid". This is one of those situations where people use a "best viewed on... browser 'whatever'" to cover themselves. However you can still validate the remainder of your coding, by identifying the the small section that pertains to the embedded video and then temporarily removing it from the file.

The recommended procedure is to copy and paste your coding into the validation tool (keeping your original work intact and saved). Then within the validator remove the coding that pertains to your embedded video. Check validation, make corrections and adjustments and then paste the embedded video coding back into place. Check that everything works as needed. Finally provide a explanation of the situation in your Oncourse posting.

USING CSS FOR HORIZONTAL RULES
There are a few issues with using CSS for horizontal rules with some browsers (IE has trouble with the background color) , but works in most cases. You could also create specific attributes such as hr.skinnyline if you needed varied lines.

hr {
border: 0;
width: 80%;
color: red;
background-color: red;
height: 5px;
text-align: left; /*this will align it for IE*/
margin: 0 auto 0 0; /*this will align it left for Mozilla*/
}

The following is deprecated, but still works for most browsers if you need it for a specific example:
<hr width="50%" size="5" align="center" />

Be sure to include some description of media itself such as whether it contains audio elements. There are many options. Here are a few samples:

LITTLE THINGS
When your CSS code validates correctly (W3C CSS Validation Service), but you are not provided the link to the icon / image for your webpage - - go to the bottom of this page http://www.websitedev.de/css/validator-faq to retrieve an icon.

Similarly when you use the accessibility validator to check you webpage and it does not give you access to an icon, just make a statement in your Oncourse posting including the accessibility level checked and validator name - location. You do not have to have the icon on the page when there is none provided.

Navigation. Provide consistent navigation on each page. Also, make it clear what page one is on and provide a way to return to your main page.

MORE 'BOUT QUIZ ONE
I generally don't like to give traditional tests over course content. On the other hand, I need an efficient way to determine whether you've located and read the course materials. It's easy to miss pages in an online course and every page is important. While the quizzes will determine whether you've gained a basic understanding of the factual information, the projects will demonstrate that you can apply these ideas. The questions come directly from the online course readings. The answers to the questions should be easy if you've read the materials. There are NO TRICKS, although there are funny (yet incorrect) options for each question to lessen the stress of test-taking. I just want to be sure you're reading. Feel free to use your course materials to answer the questions. There's no time limit, but you can only complete the quiz once.

Quiz 1 is administered online within Oncourse. It will cover all material in the class assigned through the week of February 11th. This online quiz will be available beginning Friday, Feb 15 and remain available for one week, CLOSING THURSDAY NITE (Feb. 22th) AT MIDNIGHT. Don't forget it!

At Oncourse, look for "Original Test and Survey" on the left menu index. Enter and select "Quiz 1" and complete by selecting the ONE BEST ANSWER to each question. The quiz is worth a total of 5 points on the grading scale (Oncurse cannot reconcile a score of less than one point per item; therefore I will adjust your number score to fit that total).

Let me know if you have questions. I'll be checking back daily but during much of the daytime hours - - will be away from the computer. If you do not catch me early in the morning, then I will get to your message in the evening.

Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, February 4, 2008
Hey codetalkers,

Aren't you glad that SBA1 (Due Monday, Feb. 4th) and SBA2 (Due next week) will soon be behind you?

A few reminders: I know that some of you put in several hours on these exercises. But keep in mind that you are learning a skill. You have to master these tasks in order to make good use of the html development softwares. You may not code all of your pages, but you have to be able to examine your code and troubleshoot problems. These skills will pay you back quickly in your continued web development work.

Also read Chapters 18 and 16 in the Castro textbook.

LITTLE ABOUT QUIZ 1
The first quiz is administered online; that is, you will take it via Oncourse. It is open-book, open-notes, and open-computer. More next week - it will be put up midweek and be available several days. Just be sure that you DO NOT FORGET to complete it.

SBA 1 DEBRIEFING
I will be grading your SBA1 exercises later this week or weekend; you should now be working on SBA2 (Due next Monday).

Thanks for all your hard work early in the course. Very impressive! A few people are still having validation problems, but most of you have that part well in hand. Those of you who spent many hours working on the assignment have learned a lot! Sounds like most of you enjoyed the topics for SBA1. I figured the topics would be "low stress" so you could concentrate on the XHTML and CSS.

Also some people took lots of time with validation, but that too is part of the learning experience. Again, coding is a SKILL like sailing a boat, playing the piano, or cooking a gourmet meal. It simply takes practice. The more you do it, the better you get.

ERRORS vs CHOICES
Once you get beyond the XHTML basics, you'll find that there are times when you need to make decisions about coding. The line between "correct" and "incorrect" begins to fade. A professional web developer is often faced with having to weigh the importance of validation with the need to present information in a particular way. For example, you may wish to embed a video within a page, even though you know that your page will not validate using strict XHTML. You may need to use a deprecated tag to create a "look" recognizing that it may cause a problem at some point in the future.

A novice programmer makes mistakes. The validator will catch these "errors" and the programmer will fix them.
An experienced programmer makes choices in coding. The validator will identify what it considers to be poor "choices" and the experienced programmer will decide whether the potential hazards are worth the gains.

For example, some of you are concerned about the Table height requirement. This is a deprecated tag, but it's not the end of the world. Sometimes you use them to do specific activities that would be difficult otherwise, or you figure out another way to do the same thing.

PROJECT 1
As soon as you can finish SBA2, you need to quickly turn your attention to Product 1. It is DUE on Monday, February 18th. This is a FIRM due date.

This product involves creating a series of web pages that are used to nominate a website for the LITEhouse award. This project MUST be completed on schedule because your "committee" will need time (Feb. 18 to Feb. 25) to e-discuss the nominations and come up with the winner. Please email me if you have questions or concerns related to this project.

Be sure to spend as much time with the content aspect of Product 1 as the technical aspect. Students tend to lose more points on the content than the technical aspect of this assignment.

Below I've listed some of the things that distinguish A projects from A- or B projects:

1) You MUST include LOTS of good examples from the nominated website. I don't just want a simple comment such as "the navigation was good"... instead, I want you to describe WHY it was good and provide a link to a page that illustrates this idea. Or, a screen capture showing a part of a menu you thing was well-designed.

2) Although we haven't talked about information architecture yet, you should already have a feel for good organization and navigation. Your web pages should be easy to use and navigate. It should be very clear how to move between your pages.

3) Your pages should be professional in appearance.... this means consistent fonts (a shared CSS is the easiest way to accomplish this), good use of graphics, colors, and headings, and quality, accurate, thoughtful information. It doesn't need to be fancy, simply professional.

NOTES ON VALIDATION and ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility testing does not provide an icon like the Web validation pages; however, it will tell you that the page complies with all accessibility requirements and that you have gotten the job done. You need to fix errors, but you don't need to formally address the warning. However you need to be aware of the issues related to the warnings. I have added a little more explanation to that material also:

Coding: Formative Evaluation: Accessibility http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/formative3.htm

Review some of the issues related to validation and accessibility as you think about Project 1.

MYTH - It looks fine, why validate?
It looks fine to you right now, but what about different browsers, screen displays, and operating systems? When a new version of the browser comes out, an unvalidated page may look awful. Validation ensures that your pages contain no errors and are most likely to run quickly and smoothly on all web browsers. It's worth the time in the long run.

For example, a student in the class had a CSS problem. The page looked perfect in Mac Safari, but it couldn't read the CSS in Internet Explorer for Mac or Windows. They had an error that Safari was able to catch, but the page couldn't be viewed using Internet Explorer.

MYTH - The layout and fonts look good on my computer, why be concerned about CSS validation?
Although everything may look good on your screen, CSS validation checks your coding against the standards. For example, many people use specific fonts that are only available on their computer. The CSS validation will suggest that you add a generic font that will be viewable by everyone.

MYTH - I can see and hear the page, why should I worry about anyone else?
Until Annette temporarily lost her hearing a few years ago (she got most of it back), it would have been easy for us to have this attitude. However we can tell you that accessibility is VERY important. You may see and hear well now, but wait a couple decades . . . (8-)

MYTH - Accessibility is only a concern to people who are deaf or blind.
Some people with older monitors have a hard time viewing pages that contain too little visual contrast. Again, older monitors may only be able to display text at 640 pixels wide. Those without computer speakers may not be able to play sounds. There are other reasons to be concerned about accessibility beside the obvious ones. All these issues are related to the usability of your website by others. As you design your pages, don't think about yourself as the user. Think about others!

ACCESSIBILITY AND MEDIA
Students often wish graduate courses could be more "real world"... after the SBA 2 assignment and your experiences with validations, you might be ready to forget the "real world"... it's way to messy. Actually, I asked you to do the Web Accessibility on the SBA2 assignment because it included graphics, tables, and video to give you an idea of the problems you'll encounter in making decisions.

As you work on Product 1 you'll want to consider what you've learned in SBA1 and SBA2. Some people are getting confused about the ways to make a site accessible. I would recommend that you explore this page for more information about accessibility, check out WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) at http://www.webaim.org/intro/

SEARCHING EDUSCAPES
If you're having a hard time locating a concept in the readings, consider using the search tool in eduScapes at http://www.eduscapes.com/search.htm

For example, you can look up a word such as validation. Be sure to click the eduscapes.com logo to conduct this search.

REMINDER
Remember, I'm usually sitting near my computer waiting for questions . . . be sure to email me if you get stuck or need help.

Have a great weekend. Except for a few breaks now and then, I'm primarily working on scoring those SBAs and work with another class. Back with you soon - - I know this class is time consuming, but take a break, rest your mind, and enjoy yourself. Come back refreshed.

Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, January 28, 2008
Hello Everyone,

First a bit more about coding - - your SBA1 exercises, and the validation processes (See below). Coding, this is probably the most difficult and tedious part of the course. Coding is unforgiving, one extra character or a character out of place and things do not work.

ACCESSIBILITY & USABILITY
The Nielsen Norman Group recently made a report available free at their website. This report is based on the results of usability studies with people who use assistive technology and recommends best practitices for website and Intranet design. Find out what actually works for disabled users based on observations of real user behavior.

Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibility/ (PDF 148 pages) "This report addresses the second level in improving the user experience of websites and intranets for people with disabilities. Yes, you must ensure technical accessibility but you should also ensure good usability, ease of use, and high productivity for employees and customers with disabilities."

This resource has been added to our course materials.

ASSIGNMENTS
This week's readings begin with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), then finish up with how webpages are organized and made public followed by procedures for validating code.

Read the following chapters in the Castro textbook:
7: Style Sheet Building Blocks
8: Working with Style Sheet Files
9: Defining Selectors
10: Formatting with Styles
15: Lists
11: Layout with Styles
12: Dynamic Effects with Styles
23. Web Hosting
22: Testing and Debugging Web Pages

Posting Pages http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/posting.htm
Posting Pages: Web Hosting http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/posting1.htm
Posting Pages: FTP http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/posting2.htm
Formative Evaluation http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/formative.htm
Formative Evaluation: Procedures http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/formative1.htm
Formative Evaluation: Validation http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/formative2.htm

VALIDATION ISSUES
Validation may seem time consuming, but it's important to ensure that your pages can be viewed by all end users. The validator will provide specific feedback about errors. Unfortunately this information is not always specific enough to help correct the error. I suggest that when you are trouble shooting and trying to make your page work that you make one change, then check that before moving on to another change. If you make multiple changes, you can end up with conflicting codes and no idea of what is causing the problem.

And the error messages are not always explicit. Oftentimes you have to look at the code ABOVE the line identified with an error. In other words, the error occurred right before the location where the validation picked it up. Also when you get several error messages, they are often caused by one simple code problem - - another reason for making one change at a time and then checking it. Work your way from the first error down the page, one at a time. As you solve one problem, other problems will be eliminated.

Finally be sure to complete the assigned readings this week (and every week) before you attempt to finish up SBA1. And based on a few email messages from students in the class, I have made some changes and additions to the website materials that are specifically related to validation of your coding. Hopefully this will help with the validation process. The new material explains how to get a validation icon for your external CSS document. It better explains the validation process for the HTML validation. Validation of the internal CSS style is part of the HTML validation, and no icon / coding is provided. In scoring the internal CSS, I actually check that validation with the internal CCS code that you use.

SBA1
You should be working on Skills Building Activity 1 http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm#sba1 SBA1: Basic XHTML is due next Monday. Remember that you submit your work at the Oncourse Forum section providing a URL (link) to your public website.

Hope this helps. But also be assured that if you are having difficulty, don't hesitate to contact me. That is what I am here for. The best tact is to attach your document (html, external style doc, or the URL) so that I can examine exactly what you have and reply to your specific situation. Tell me what it is that you are having trouble with / what you are trying to do. I will do my best to provide assistance. And I promise, if you stick with this - - things will get easier.

Remember some days, I have errands or activities that take me away from the computer for a few hours. Tomorrow I need to get my passport renewal completed. Another day, Annette and I may head to Austin for part of the day. We may go to babysit our niece and nephew or take in a movie, etc. And we just might take a day off now and then; there's lots of back roads and interesting landscapes to explore nearby. But I will get back to you as soon as possible, in most cases within 12-24 hours . . . often much earlier. Most weekends too! (8-) There will be a few times later this semester, when I will be traveling - - I will let you know when that occurs and let you know how many hours I will likely be off-line.

The important thing is not to get frustrated and overly upset . . . if it's getting that way for you - - take a short break, get some good rest, and then 'hit it' again. And remember that last sentence in the first paragraph (above - top).

Have a great week,
Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, January 22, 2008
Hi codetalkers,

I will mention that with two web classes going, I fear that someday I may email out the wrong information to a class list. In over a dozen classes in the past few years, I don't think that has happened but I have come close. I won't mention all the typos and errors that I might send - - how come they jump right out after you've already sent the message? (8-)

HUTMATE SCORING
Your first Hutmate is due today, Jan. 22nd. Replies / responses to classmates posting are due the following Monday, one week later. Because of the way Oncourse works, it is much easier for me to score both the posting and replies all at one time, therefore I do not normally grade those until after the replies are due.

ASSIGNMENTS
This week, you should have read online
List Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml8.htm
Link Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml9.htm
Images http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml10.htm
Coding http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml17.htm

And Chapters 5 and 6 in the Castro text.

Next week, you will be moving on to deal with coding for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

LOVE / HATE HAND CODING - WHY DO THIS?
I know some of you would like to join the "I HATE HAND CODING" club while others think it's great fun. You're asking, why learn hand coding when there are web development tools? The answer is that there are WAY too many times when a web developer needs to fix things that can ONLY be done by working directly with the code.

If you're only planning to create a couple pages here and there, then a template builder like the one built into Google or the HTML option in Microsoft Word would probably be fine. However in this course, I'm making the assumption that many of you will end up being a webmaster by choice or by default because "someone" has to do it. Being a webmaster of a fully developed site requires more than skills in using templates and web builders.

As a professional web developer with over 3000 original documents posted on the web, I will confess the I use Macromedia Dreamweaver most of the time and I don't spend much time with web validation. HOWEVER, on almost every page I've ever made, there are 1 or 2 things that needed to be adjusted that couldn't be done without hand coding.

SKILLS BUILDING ACTIVITY 1
So.. how do you get started you may ask?

There are four different files with names like chocolate.txt, icecream.txt, and comets.txt. These are links at the Skills Building Activity 1 directions at http://eduscapes.com/arch/coursequest1.htm#sba1

Open these files in Windows (NotePad) or Mac (TextEdit). The top part of the text file contains the directions and the bottom part contains the content for the page. You have a list of "things" you need to do on each page.

If I ask you to do something you don't like (such as use a deprecated tag), simply write a comment at the bottom of the page indicating how you addressed the issue or a work-around you selected.

To learn the skills needed to accomplish these goals, you need to read Castro's book and read the website materials - - follow the Courseguide http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm and check your due dates on the Calendar http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/calendar.htm

XHTML Tip of the Day
The biggest problem people have with building web pages is getting the very top of the (X)HTML document correct. Be sure to read through the information in your readings on DOCTYPE declaration and encoding information. If you're unsure what to do, just copy the following code and be sure you start your web pages with this information. Then, enter your head information between the start and end tags (i.e., style tags for CSS). Finally, enter your web content between the body start and end tags. Examples:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE html
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" >

<head>

</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

TEXT EDITOR
You will should use NOTEPAD (Windows) or TEXTEDIT (Mac) - - for your coding work. Do NOT use Microsoft Word or Front page!

In Windows, you can find a text editor by going to the Start button, choose Programs, select Accessories and choose NotePad.

In a Mac, you'll from TextEditor in your Applications folder. If you use an old version of Mac, look for Simple Text.

COMMON ERRORS
Sometimes you code seems to be perfect, but it just doesn't work. Delete the whole line and retype it. There may be embedded characters in your code that you cannot see or extra spaces. While you are at that, check carefully for misspelled words that are easily overlooked.

ONCOURSE & ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSIONS
Though everyone has found and posted Hutmates at Oncourse, there is a forum section setup for all of your webwork (SBAs and Projects). You also are to setup a personal website.. DO NOT USE GEOCITIES. Check the Requirements page for suggested locations.

When you've completed ALL sections of SBA1, upload them to your site, and add links to your personal page. Then compete a posting at the appropriate Oncourse Forum section. SBA1 is due on Monday, Feb. 4th. Consider turning SBA1 in early. This will give you more time for SBA2 and Project 1.

In the Discussion area at Oncourse, you can use the General Discussion and Technical Support section for exchanges among class members about any topic(s) related to the class. This is not a section that I monitor or generally visit; rather it is for student use. For example, you may use that discussion thread to talk about your SBA activities.

By now you should have set up a personal web space area and are to email me the location for my records. If you need help with that, re-read the requirements page http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/require.htm Contact me if you need added assistance.

Remember if you run into trouble, just let me know and I'll do my best to walk you through it. Don't wait until you've torn your hair out. Email with a concise description of your problem and a link to your webpage or attached file(s).

Hope this helps. Have a great week. I'll be around most of the time.
Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, January 13, 2008
Hey Everyone!

I've enjoyed reading your introductions; interesting to learn about some of your life. Hopefully your reading of everyone's introductions gave you a feel for the wide variety of people we have in the course.

COURSEQUESTS
A CourseQuest is an inquiry-based, web-based course learning environment. I think CourseQuests are a great way to guide you through the course. The three CourseQuests will guide you through the course materials and assignments. Read these carefully.

Each CourseQuest has an introduction, task, process, product, evaluation, and conclusion. The PROCESS section of the CourseQuest contains readings, practice exercises, and required assignments (i.e., 7 Hutmate Discussion Assignments, 3 Skills Building Activities, and 3 Quizzes) for the course. The PRODUCT & EVALUATION section details the required project for the CourseQuest. When you've worked your way through all three CourseQuest, you're done! We'll spend the first couple weeks of the course concentrating on CourseQuest 1. http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm

At first, some students are overwhelmed by all of the links. Keep in mind that the CourseQuests link to the course readings and provide the guidelines for all the requirements. Use the Course Checklist http://eduscapes.com/arch/checklist.html and the Calendar http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/calendar.htm to be sure you've completed the required assignments.

THIS WEEK
Last week, the course focused on getting to know each other and web readings on website exploration and evaluation. This week, we move to XHTML basics (or review depending on your skills). If XHTML is new to you, you'll need to work VERY HARD to keep up. For those who use XHTML regularly, the first couple weeks will be easy.

READINGS
This weeks Web reading assignments are:
Coding http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/index.htm
Coding Introduction http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/introduction.htm
HTML, (X)HTML, and XHTML http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/introduction1.htm
Editors http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/introduction2.htm
Terminology and Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/introduction3.htm
Deprecated Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/introduction4.htm

Coding: XHTML http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml.htm
XHTML: Declaration http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml1.htm
XHTML: HTML Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml2.htm
XHTML: Head Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml3.htm
XHTML: Title Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml4.htm
XHTML: Meta Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml5.htm
XHTML: Body Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml6.htm
XHTML: Text Tags http://eduscapes.com/arch/code/xhtml7.htm

Textbook assignment
Read Castro Introduction & Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

HUTMATE DISCUSSIONS
As you move through the process section of the CourseQuest, you'll notice a total of seven different Hutmate Discussion assignments. You are to post these activities in the Oncourse Message Center section. You'll also need to respond to another student's posting for each activity. This week, you should complete Hutmate 1.

Hutmate discussion postings and replies are to be placed within the Forum sections at Oncourse. Your original posting for Hutmate 1 is due next Tuesday, Jan. 22nd. Followup with at least one reply to another student's posting. For the full credit, your reply / response must provide additional information, ideas, examples related to the original posting. Responses in the arena of "I like", "I agree", "I will use" etc. related to whatever was posted will not gain any credit - even though positive feedback is encouraged. Rather for the full score, you need to extend the original Hutmate discussion with substantive additions. Your reply / response is due within one more week from the original Hutmate posting; in other wods replies for Hutmate 1 need to be posted on or before Tuesday, January 29th.

SKILLS BUILDING ACTIVITIES
There are three Skills Building Activities for the course. Two of the three are in the first CourseQuest. These activities will help you practice your coding skills.

PERSONAL WEBSITE
Follow the instructions described in the Skills Building Acitivity 1 assignment http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm#sba1 and on the Requirements page http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/require.htm to set up your webspace for housing and sharing your projects. Please do NOT use Geospaces to house you web work.

If you have trouble getting your web space started, email and we can e-talk about this. You should email me the URL that will serve as your class home page sometime this week. You will also share this URL in your hutmate area.

LOOKING AHEAD
We'll be focusing on both the technical and content aspects of website design and creation. You will be creating a website from scratch for a REAL client of your choosing such as a library, school, classroom, nonprofit, organization, or small company, so it's a good idea to begin to think about this. Your client can be a friend, boss, work-related project, family member, or someone you simply approach and ask. This is NOT intended ito be a "personal home page," instead it is intended to provide an experience working with real content in a professional situation. You should go ahead and identify a potential client and make a contact so that you are ready later this month.

You may or may not be creating an entire website for this course. You may be able to focus on some aspect of an existing website. For example, you might develop a new digital collection for a local historical society, a children's area for a church website, a website for a nonprofit organization, a training and development section for a business, or a thematic literature circles or book club website for a library or school. This information-rich website will contain REAL, original content (i.e., text, graphics, photographs, documents, audio, forums, etc.), not just links. In the past we've seen every project you can imagine from websites for pet grooming services to church choirs. Many student choose public library, school library, or special library websites to develop.

FONT SIZE ISSUES
Some people find reading off a screen tiring. Particularly if you're on a Mac, you might find the font small.

If you're using FireFox as your web browser, go to the View menu and choose Text Size and then chose Increase. You can do this over and over to make it increasingly larger.

If you're using Explorer as your web browser, go to the View and choose Text Zoom and make it 150 or 200%. This should help a lot.

If you plan to do web development for libraries now or in the future, I'd suggest that you join the Web4Lib electronic discussion group. It's optional, but might be help to some of you. Learn more at http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/

Back with you soon. Meantime if you have any added questions or concerns, don't hesitate to email me.
Larry

S532 Update - Information Architecture, January 7, 2008
Hey Everybody,

It's time to get this class going! Thanks for your patience.

FIRST INSTRUCTION
Since there have been some changes and restructuring at the course website, if something doesn't work or look quite right - let me know. I do believe that we are super-human (8-) NOT, but I'm sure that there are a few glitches.

I see a few familiar 'faces' (guess that would be names) on the roster and also several people new to me. Maybe I should introduce myself, at least provide a little more information directly related to this course. In the past, I've been a middle school and high school teacher, a school library media specialist, an instructional media administrator at a community college and university, and now teach online courses for IUPUI SLIS. I've been doing web-development since the sometime in the 90s, but really geared up in 1998 with the development of our (wife, Annette Lamb - also teaches IUPUI Web courses) popular educational website http://eduscapes.com (eduScapes has now grown to a 'family' of websites with a few distinct URLs, but all under the eduScapes umbrella: 42eXplore, Escrapbooking). Today eduScapes gets 8 to 10 million hits, more than 1/2 million visitors, and usually over 80 million KBytes downloaded each month; really haven't checked it since early last Fall.

I know that we usually have a wide variety of students in this course. Some have teaching experience and/or library experience, while others may be working in areas such as business or information science. I look forward to learning more about you! I enjoy teaching online courses and exploring the world around us. I'm a new kind of professor. I usually teach one or two classes each semester at IUPUI, but I don't live in Indiana. Annette and I live all over North America, traveling in our motorhome (We are nearing the end of our eighth year of living and working on-the-road as full-time RVers). Last fall, we were in southern Utah and then Santa Fe, New Mexico. We moved to Texas Hill Country for some warmer weather. It is warmer here, back into the seventies today - - but there are some bad factors. I have discovered the Texas ich, a.k.a. cedar fever or more correctly as cedar pollinosis. The cedar trees (junipers) are Texas's predominant evergreen, especially in Hill country. Not everyone is susceptible to their pollin, but I have discovered that I am. Coming up on two weeks of itchy eyes, stuffed sinuses, sore throat, etc. I'm ready for this to be over (8-).

I will be sending out these periodic emails about every week to keep you up-to-date on things you should be doing for class and due dates. I'll also throw in some personal stuff occasionally, but will try not to bore you with too much of that. I prefer to use my personal email for class interactions rather than Oncourse, larrjoh@gmail.com As a backup, you can use ljohnso@iupui.edu - - that mail is forwarded to my gmail server.

There are no required face-to-face or scheduled chat sessions for this course. Many students enjoy taking an online course because they don't have to be in a particular place at a particular time. HOWEVER, this means that you're responsible for making your own personal schedule in order to meet the course requirements on time. Some people find that this the most difficult part of the course. You need self-discipline to be successful in distance learning.

My job is to help you successfully complete this course and expand your skills in developing effective web-based materials. I spend much of my time at or close to a computer hooked directly to the Internet, so I'm happy to hold personal email discussions whenever you feel the need to talk. So anytime that you have questions or a problem, email me - - I'll get back with you as soon as possible.

Our motorhome has a satellite Internet system mounted on the roof and usually have three or more laptops connected - - right now I'm listening to cool-tunes via Pandora http://pandora.com -- Music Genome Project's web-music service, free if you don't mind a few ads on the page.

For those who have taken one of the other Lamb - Johnson Web classes, this one is a little-bit different. All the other classes have some degree of project-based assignments; however most of this course requires competing web development. Assigned reading provides needed background and instruction for completion of the assignments.

I hope that you have been able to purchase the required books discussed in the earlier email. They are practical books that will take you step-by-step learning XHTML/CSS and Dreamweaver. If you don't plan to purchase Dreamweaver software, you'll be able to use the 30-day trial that comes with the book. Hold off activating that use time until the last instance. The IUPUI bookstore (And bookstores at all IU campuses) are selling Dreamweaver.

ASSIGNMENTS
Start with these links:
Entry page for L571 website http://eduscapes.com/arch/index.html
Open Course Materials http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/index.htm
Explore the Syllabus, Calendar, Requirements, and Resources
Syllabus http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/index.htm
Calendar http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/calendar.htm
Requirements http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/require.htm
Resources http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/resources.htm

Follow the instructions on the Requirements page, go into Oncourse and Introduce Yourself (I see several of you have already been there / done that)

Then follow the instructions setup in the Course Guide
Begin with CourseQuest 1 http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/guide1.htm

RECCOMMENDATION
As you are getting started, I strongly recommend that the only page that you print out be the Checklist. I would not print-out course materials for reading; it's takes a lot of time and paper (money spent) plus you cannot grab the connected resources in this hypertext Web environment. Those are resources through which you should browse, looking for key information and ideas related to the course content. If you need to print out directions for specific assignments, wait to do that at the exact time you are beginning to work on that assignment. Online resources are not static, links checked today sometimes disappear. Good rule of thumb on a rotten link: First hit the reload, then try again after some time has elapsed (Occasionally you just run into a site downtime for maintenance).

If you do that and the link still doesn't work, email me the URL of the bad link and the webpage where it is located witin in our course materials. I'm not being lazy, but with the size of our website those problems are sometimes difficult to run down. Appreciate your help. There is a Search engine on the eduScapes website http://eduscapes.com/search.htm It's a direct link of the first page at eduScapes.com. And before I leave you, see if you can avoid that paper printing thing as much as possible (8-)!

Better go now, and remember - - if you are having trouble or something does not make sense: email me . . . and try not to do that printing thing. (The website will be there - long after this course is over).

Larry

S532 Update - Preliminary Information, January 1, 2008
Hello Everyone,
I am still waiting to hear from one or two people that are enrolled; that's to be expected. We have almost one week before class officially starts. There are still several people wanting to get into the class, so if you have changed your mind - - please officially drop the course.

Trust that everyone is enjoying a great holiday break and a happy New Year. Many of you probably aren't quite ready to think about this class, but others may be anxious to get going.

EMAILED COMMUNICATIONS
I will be sending out periodic emails to everyone to try and keep you up-to-date on assignments, due-dates, and what's-going-on for the class. Sometimes I will throw in a bit of personal information: i.e., where my wife and I are currently calling home, what we are doing etc. We live a somewhat unique lifestyle - - we are full-time RVers living in a motorhome with our satellite Internet system keeping us connected. You can learn a little more about this lifestyle at http://www.eduscapes.com/lamb/ Feel free to share some of your life with me also, especially since we do not meet face-to-face. I will place an archive of these emails online at the course website, so that you can always check on them later.

The best and quickest way to contact me is my personal email at larrjoh@gmail.com (Note; my old escapees mail server that I have used for about a decade is to cease existing soon, please update your records accordingly). I check my e-mail regularly. If you email me via Oncourse or my IUPUI address, it will be forwarded to me.

I'm still working on updating the Web Architecture website at eduScapes and putting things into place at Oncourse - - so no need to go there yet. I should be finishing up in the next few days and will email you all with a 'you can get started' update message. That will contain specific information about how to use the course materials and how the class operates.

NO SYNCHRONOUS MEETINGS
We will not meet face-to-face or have scheduled sessions for this class. That's one advantage of an online course; you do NOT have to be in a particular location at a given time. Once all the materials are in place, you can access any hour of the day and day of the week. However this does mean that you are responsible for scheduling your own time to meet the course requirements. You may find that this is the most difficult part of the course. Each course is different (This is one of several online courses that I teach) but all require discipline and commitment.

TEXTBOOKS & SOFTWARE
The two required textbooks are:
Castro, Elizabeth (2007). HTML, XHTML & CSS. 6th Edition. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. ISBN 0-321-43084-0

Rosenfeld, Louis & Morville, Peter (2007). Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. 3rd Edition. Sebastopol: Ca: O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 0-596-52734-9

These are available at the campus bookstore. There are other optional textbooks listed in the syllabus http://eduscapes.com/arch/course/syllabus.htm

We will begin the class completing web exercises that require you to do hand coding of html. Later we will switch to using a web development software; recommend the latest version of Dreamweaver - version CS3. If you have Dreamweaver8, you should have no problem - you may use it. Lastly the 30-day trial version of Dreamweaver will not meet the needs of the class unless you work ahead and are able to complete all projects in that time frame (very difficult.)

Note: You will not need to have Dreamweaver software for about 6-7 weeks.

If anyone did not receive my earlier email on required texts and software for the class, email me.

Back with you soon,
Larry

Larry johnson

Larry Johnson, PhD
Indiana University at Indianapolis (IUPUI)
larrjoh@gmail.com
ljohnso@iupui.edu
http://eduscapes.com

Course Materials: Archive of Emailed Update Messages