This study guide provides the objectives, requirements, and timetable for this course.

Contact Information.

Introduction and Prerequisites

This course is designed for students who are interested in adding interactivity to their web pages and in learning and practicing to create web sites (as opposed to just a collection of web pages). The course covers both client side and server side technologies (ie, both javaScript and Perl/cgi). The course will involve programming in several different languages and thus will be more rigorous than COMP 10500 (Introduction to Web Development). You should be prepared to spend a lot of time working on the computer!

Students must have a solid knowledge of html, css, and using server side scripts like mailmerge (but not creating them) prior to taking this course. Specific topics that you must know include:

• Basic html tags.
• Image maps.
• Tables.
• Forms.
• Lists and Links.
• Images.
• Frames.
• Internal, Embedded, and External Style sheets.
• Formating and Layout with Cascading Style Sheets.

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Required Textbooks.

JavaScript Comprehensive, 4th ed. Don Gosselin, Thomson Learning, 2008. This book provides the primary material for the first part of the course. Lecture slides and problem sets will come from this book.

PHP ?? Julie Meloni, Thomson Learning, 2008. This book provides the primary material for the second part of the course. Lecture slides and problem sets will come from this book.

The following books provide excellent reference material if you want to learn about javascript or perl in more depth:

• Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, 2nd Edition, A Comprehensive Resource for HTML, CSS, DOM & JavaScript Danny Goodman, O'Reilly, 2002.
• JavaSCript, the definitive guide, 4th ed., David Flanagan, O'Reilly, 2002.
• Learning PHP 5. David Sklar, et. al. O'Reilly, 2004.

These last three books will not be used directly but are excellent reference books. If you're trying to learn how to do something for your project, for example, it will be much easier to find out how from these books than from the previous two books. The Thomson Learning books provide good step-by-step instructions on how to use the languages, but often do not cover alternative methods. Further, it is often hard to reference techniques in the Thomson books. So, though the O'Reilly books are not required in the sense of the Thomson books (for example, problem sets will only come from the Thomson books), the O'Reilly books are the ones that you'll want to keep after the course is over.

Other Expenses/Actions

• You must activate your Nova account. This is free, but must be done in the first week of class. You can go to the ACCS office in Friends to do this.

• You may find it helpful to have a flash drive.

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Communication

• Class lectures will not exactly follow the texts. You are expected to attend all classes and attendence will be taken.

• You are accountable for all material covered, all announcements made, and all handouts given out during class.

• Ways to reach me:

  • Come during office hours!!!

  • Send electronic mail to barr@ithaca.edu
    

  • Leave a note (including your name, schedule, phone number and userid) either under my door or in the Math/Computer Science Department Office 2nd floor Williams.

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Grading

Grading will be based on the following events. Note that half of your grade comes from the exams. Thus, if you score perfectly on assignments and projects and have a 70% average on the exams, you will receive a "B" for the course.

Assignments (all kinds)	20%.
Exams (2 exams)	50%.
Term Project	25%.
Class Attendence and Participation	5%.

There will be 2 midterm exams and no final. The first exam will take place on Thursday, 20 October, at 6PM in a room TBA. The second exam will take place on Thursday, 1 December, at 6PM in a room TBA.

The final project presentation will take place at the final exam time. For this class, the college has scheduled this time at Tuesday, December 14 at 10:30AM in Williams 310.

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Assignments

1. Class attendance is mandatory. You are responsible for all material and announcements given in class. If you miss a class you are responsible for obtaining the missed material/announcements. 4 unexcused absences will lower your grade by one half of letter, e.g., an A becomes an A-. If you miss more than 8 classes I will withdraw you from the course. Note that verifiable health issues or family emergencies, religious holidays, court appearances, and most College-authorized cocurricular and extracurricular activities such as athletic events, musical and theatrical performances, and professional conferences are considered excused absences.
   

2. I will take 2 points off of your final point total for every class missed. The first two misses are free.
   

3. All assignments must be turned in within 2 days of the due date. Your assignment will be docked 25% if it is a day late and 50% if it is two days late. You may not turn in an assignment any later that 2 days late. Always turn in whatever work is done at the due time. You should have something FINISHED (i.e., functioning and commented), even if the entire assignment isn't completed. Individual exceptions should be discussed with me in advance.
   

4. I will take one-half letter grade off your final grade for every assignment that is not turned in within the required time period. You may miss one assignment without penalty. If you must miss an assignment or turn it in late, you must talk to me 24 hours before the assignment is due.
   

5. Assignments will be checked in class. You will be required to turn in hard copies of all html, javaScript, Perl, CSS, etc. Every copy must have your name and the assignment number at the top of the page in a comment.
   

6. No make-up work is available. If you miss assignments there is no way to make up the work.
   

7. All assignments are expected to be INDIVIDUAL work. All work handed in must be original. Duplicate or very similar assignments receive negative grades. Flagrant cheating (on an exam or project, or assignment) will result in (at minimum) a FAILING GRADE for the course. General discussion is allowed, but not sharing of answers, algorithms, or work.
   

8. The term project is the exception to the above rule. This assignment will be completed in teams.
   

9. SAVE your intermediate work until an assignment has been graded, returned, and recorded. KEEP backup copies of the final versions of your assignments and projects. KEEP copies of returned work (I may make a mistake in recording the grade).
   

10. Graded assignments will be returned in class. Work unclaimed in class may be picked up later from outside my office. If you have a question on a grade, bring it to my attention within one week of the assignment's return.
    

11. Periodically, I will post grades as we have them recorded. It is your responsibility to check these listings to ensure their correctness, within one week of the posting.
    

12. Handwritten assignments should be neat and easy to read (Or else type them!). Include your name and section number on every page and in every stack. Your term project design statements must be typed.
    

13. It is more productive to use the computer for entering, editing, and running scripts, and then spend time AWAY from the machine debugging a script.
    

14. Don't get behind in this class! Start each assignment as soon as it is handed out, so that you have time to ask questions and can use your time wisely.
    

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Last updated on 27 Aug 2008 by John Barr