Requirements for Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Agencies
Online - Summer 2018
- 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): https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/
- 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.