Course Materials: Requirements

This page provides a review of the basic requirements for the course. Go to the Course Guide for specific assignments and the Course Calendar for specific due dates.

Getting Started

This course is intended to be a practical exploration of information architecture for the web. Regardless of whether you're interested in public, academic, school, special library or other information work, this course is designed to be flexible enough to address the varied needs of students.

Keep in mind that this class contains students with a wide variety of educational, work, life, and technology experience. Try not to compare yourself to other students. Instead, focus on your own strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to email your instructor if you have questions or concerns about the specific projects and how they can better fit your professional needs.

Course Updates

Your instructor will be sending out periodic class updates to review important course information and assignments. Please read these carefully. If you have questions, please reply to these updates for clarifications or questions. If you think you've missed one of these communications, check the Course Email Archives.

Oncourse Overview

Since this is an online course, much of the sharing and discussion will happen using the Oncourse online learning environment. However since you'll be experiencing many different technologies in this course, be sure to read the activity guidelines carefully to determine where projects should be shared. Use the following documents if you have questions about Oncourse: What is Oncourse?; Oncourse Menubar: Overview

Oncourse contains a menubar on the left side of the screen for easy navigation. Use the following instructions to help you use the resources for this course:

The SYLLABUS links to all of the course materials.
The ROSTER shows the class list. You may wish to include a personal profile and photo so we can learn a little more about you.
The GRADEBOOK is a place where you can track your progress. If you lose a point, I'll provide a comment indicating the problem.
The MESSAGES area contains a place to send and receive e-mail messages. You might want to check the settings. You can have these messages sent to your personal email if you wish. For class updates, I'll use your regular email address.
The FORUMS are the area for posting general information and class introductions. We'll also use this area for our project postings and discussions. This is where you'll share your projects with peers in your interest area. I've created separate areas so the discussion areas doesn't get so full.
The CHAT area can be used by anyone who would like to share in "real time" with anyone in the class. There are no required course chats.

Personal Web Space

You will be sharing many projects during the semester. Sometimes I'll indicate where they should be stored. At other times, you'll have a choice. The course materials also provide links to free storage space for resources such as videos. Rather than relying on university space, it's a good idea to start thinking about long-term storage of assignments that you might eventually wish to place in your professional portfolio.

You may wish to share your projects and get feedback from classmates before submitting to your instructor. Classmates can help identify typos and missing elements that can impact your grade. By reading the projects of others you can often find ideas that might enhance your own project. Remember this is not a competition, all projects are graded with the same checklist.

Use the following resources to explore sources of web space.

1. MyPage. You'll find that university web space is probably the best choice for your assignments.

Go to Publishing Pages on Mypage to learn about setting up your own university web space. If you place your project here, it will have a URL such as http://mypage.iu.edu/~anlamb/filename

What is MyPage and how can I publish a web page there?

2. Oncourse. Provides space to store assignments.

Oncourse provides space to store assignments. You will upload the files (html, images, css, etc) to your Oncourse Workspace and make it PUBLIC so it can be accessed by others on the web.

Use the following readings to learn more about this space:

Here are directions to help you upload to this space and ensure that projects can be viewed by others on the web.

Enter OnCourse. Go to the MY WORKSPACE option in the red banner across the top of the new OncourseCL.

To Upload files:
Click Upload-Download Multiple Resources and follow the directions for Mac or Windows.
You can upload any kind of document including web pages, Word documents, PowerPoint documents, graphics, video, audio, etc.

Once you've uploaded files return to MY WORKSPACE, you should see the new items on the list.
Click the REVISE link next to the file you uploaded.
You'll see choices.
Under ACCESS, choose DISPLAY TO NON-MEMBERS (PUBLICLY VIEWABLE).
Near the bottom of the page you'll see the web address such as
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/anlamb/newlamb.jpg

Your address will be your user name instead of ANLAMB
If you uploaded folders, your address will include the name of that folder after your username such as
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/anlamb/project/index.htm

Remember NOT to use spaces in folder or file names.

You can use this URL to tell others about this document, file, movie, sound, graphic, or whatever kind of file you uploaded. You can also use this as a link on a webpage or blog.

The ITS Knowledge base http://kb.iu.edu/index.cgi provides an extensive Help index. You can access more by using the search feature and browsing the menu at top of each webpage.

File transfer http://kb.iu.edu/data/apfj.html
What is SFTP, and how do I use it to transfer files? http://kb.iu.edu/data/akqg.html

3. Personal Space. Use your own personal or work web space. Most local service providers provide space for personal pages.

Assignments

This course contains a series of Skills Building Activities and a Course Project in two pieces: The Plan, The Website. A total of 100 points are possible.

A Course Guide will guide you through the materials. You should systematically work your way through the Course Guide.

Readings

Throughout the Course Guide, you'll be directed to read web pages and complete assignments. Your activities and projects will reflect your understanding of these readings.

Assignments and Course Project

Assignments will focus on building specific skills essential in developing effective projects. You are required to complete and share each of these assignments.

You'll find yellow and purple boxes which contain the requirements for the Activities within the Guide. These activities are intended to help you analyze and apply the course content.

In many cases, you will be asked to provide a "high quality replies" to your peers.

Below you'll find examples of the kinds of "responses" that will be counted. Feel free to "get into" the discussion with as many comments to your peers as you'd like. However to receive your 1 response point, be sure that your response is insightful and will help others in their learning.

Provide technical support or suggestions. You might provide a tip or suggestion related to use of a website that might help a student expand their project or solve a technical problem.
Act on a suggestion. For example, after reading a comment from a peer, you might decide to add an example, suggest a website address or other resource, or answer a question. Be specific.
Provide feedback to others such as a specific comment or idea along with an example, expansion, or suggestion. In other words, "way to go Susie" is a good start, but won't get you a point. You could even start with "that's crap Susie", however the key is providing positive, constructive criticism or helpful and encouraging advice. Healthy debate is fine, but let's discourage mean-spirited comments.
State an opinion and provide supportive evidence or arguments. This can be fun because it can really get a discussion going. For example, you might point out why you think a particular project is effective or ineffective. Be sure to be specific.
Add an insight. If you've had an encounter with the topic being discussed, it would be valuable to hear your thoughts and "real world" experiences. This should be more than "I'll use the idea in class." How and why will you use the idea? Would the idea work in another area? How or why?