Requirements for Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Agencies

On-campus and Online

Prerequisites
Textbooks
LyndaCampus
Software
Grading
Discussions & Quizzes - 15%
Exercises - 65%
Term Project - 20%
Important Note: individual instructors of a 550 course section may make slight changes to the content of the assignments and/or their respective percentage of course grade. What is presented here provides you with an overall sense what you will be asked to do in the assignments.

Prerequisites

Students are expected to have basic knowledge and/or familiarity with:

Text editing software (such as Microsoft Word): create documents with Microsoft Word displaying formatted text formatting, lists, alignment, and headers and footer
Spreadsheet software (such as Microsoft Excel): create a spreadsheet with Microsoft Excel displaying the use of formatting (for labels and values), formulae, functions, and basic charting.
Presentation software (such as Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple Keynote): create a presentation using PowerPoint that incorporates appropriate use of text and images, textual and basic graphic formatting, and slide transitions and/or custom animations.
Web browsing and navigation: use a program such as Internet Explorer or Firefox to browse the web and bookmark sites; use basic and advanced features of a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.
Basic computing concepts: have an introductory level understanding of terms such as processors, RAM, and storage media (hard drive, CD) and peripherals (monitors, printers, etc.).
Basic networking concepts: have an introductory level understanding of terms such as Ethernet, WiFi, broadband, narrowband, hub/router/switch, protocols, IP and DNS.
Basic computer & network security concepts: have an introductory level understanding of data backups, malware and malware prevention, and safe computing practices.

Textbooks

Required: Castro + Hyslop: HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide 8th Edition - Order | Companion Site

Week 3
Chapter 1: Web Page Building Blocks
Chapter 2: Working with Web Page Files
Chapter 3: Basic HTML Structure
Chapter 4: Text
Week 4
Chapter 5: Images
Chapter 6: Links
Chapter 17: Video, Audio, And Other Multimedia
Chapter 18: Tables
Week 5
Chapter 7: CSS Building Blocks
Chapter 8: Working with Style Sheets
Chapter 10: Formatting Text with Styles
Week 6
Chapter 9: Defining Selectors
Chapter 11: Layout with Styles
Chapter 15: Lists
Chapter 20: Testing and Debugging Web Pages
Week 7
Chapter 16: Forms
Chapter 19: Adding JavaScript

Recommended: Nixon : Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript 1st Edition - Order | Companion Site

Week 8
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction to Dynamic Web Content
Chapter 11: Form Handling (complements what we is covered in class)
Chapter 14: Exploring JavaScript (complements what we is covered in class)
Week 9
Chapter 8: Introduction to MySQL (read 8.1, 8.2, 8.4.2 ; scan: 8.3.3, 8.3.4)
Week 10
Chapter 3: Introduction to PHP
Chapter 4: Expressions and Control Flow in PHP (read up to and including 4.4.4: pages 61-84)
Chapter 5: PHP Functions and Objects (read up to and including 5.3: pages 89 - 97)
Chapter 6: PHP Arrays (read up to and including 6.2: pages 115 - 121; remaining sections are there for reference)
Chapter 10: Accessing MySQL Using PHP (pages 225 - 237)
10.1: how to access & display data in MySQL database using PHP.
10.2: how to add & delete data form MySQL database using a form and PHP.
10.3: practical example that we will try to emulate in part.
Week 11
Chapter 17: JavaScript and PHP Validation and Error Handling
Contains JavaScript validation functions used (in part) in Exercise 4 and shows how to include them in PHP code.
Appendix B: Online Resources
Appendix D: MySQL Functions

LyndaCampus

SC&I is subscribing to a service called LyndaCampus that is a school-wide version of lynda.com, an online training library of over 80,000 video based training movies on over 1400 software titles. LyndaCampus is available for free for students registered in SC&I courses and can be used to learn software, programming skills, video techniques, etc.
Titles include: all of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.), all of Adobe CS5 & CS6 (DreamWeaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, etc.), Fundamentals of Video, iMovie, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, SPSS, Google Docs, HTML5, CSS, MySQL, PHP, Python, C/C++/C#, WordPress, etc. Students can watch the videos, follow along with exercise files, and even print a certificate of completion upon completion of a course.
Login to LyndaCampus (when you first log into lynda, you are given the opportunity to personalize your profile).
Remember: you must be logged into LyndaCampus to be able to access the lynda.com videos included in the Lectures page of this course.
For more information and access instructions, please see http://lynda.comminfo.rutgers.edu. For any difficulties accessing the content of lynda.com please contact SC&I IT Services at help@comminfo.rutgers.edu.

Software

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - you only need to download one:
Filezilla (Windows / Mac): http://filezilla-project.org/
WinSCP (Windows): http://winscp.net/eng/download.php
Fugu (Mac): http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/download.html
CyberDuck (Mac): http://cyberduck.ch/

Simple Code Editor for HTML, CSS, JavaScript & PHP coding
NotePad++ (Windows): http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/ (if the Download on SoundForge is empty then use this download link)
Atom (Windows / Mac): https://atom.io/
Documentation
Videos:Learn Atom: The Basic with Ray Villalobos (LyndaCampus)
Downloading and installing Atom (6:02)
Sublime Text (Windows / Mac): https://www.sublimetext.com/
TextWrangler (Mac): http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
Info on Text / HTML Editors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTML_editors

MySQL Editor for connecting to MySQL database and editing MySQL tables
MySQL Workbench (Windows | Mac): http://wb.mysql.com/

Grading

You will be able to resubmit the individual exercises to improve your score based on the provided feedback. Because of this, the shown grading scale is used.

95 - 100	A
90 - 95	B+
85 - 90	B
80 - 85	C+
75 - 80	C

Discussions & Quizzes (15% of Course Grade)

There will be class discussions conducted online and several quizzes:

Discussions (7.5% of Course Grade)
Discussions will be conducted online, either using Sakai or eCollege, because the online format leads to everybody contributing and better comprehension of the content.
Quizzes (7.5% of Course Grade)
Quizzes will be "open book" to help you to check your understanding of key technical concepts and facts. Quizzes will be accessible via eCollege or Sakai.

Individual Exercises (65% of Course Grade)

There will be five individual exercises that can be resubmitted based on the received feedback:

Exercise 1: Web Services and Wiki – Collaborate and Create Wiki Page with Widgets (10%)
Exercise 2: HTML – Create Information Resource (10%)
Exercise 3: CSS & Multimedia Basics – Enhance Information Resource with CSS & Multimedia (15%)
Exercise 4: Open Source, Forms & JavaScript – Identify & Evaluate Open Source Info Tech Tool, Create Form and Validate with JavaScript (15%)
Exercise 5: Forms, MySQL and PHP Basics – Create Form and PHP Page to Record Form Data in MySQL Table and to Display Form Data (15%)

Term Project: Dynamic Web – Create Dynamic Website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL (20% of Course Grade)

The term project brings together what has been covered in this course and what you have practiced in the exercises to create a website with dynamically created content.