Southern Polytechnic State University
Information Technology Department
IT 3204 and IT 5123 – Introduction to Web Developmment – Fall, 2006
Course Syllabus

Instructor:	Bob Brown	(678) 915-7505
	http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/it3204/2006_08/

Office hours: (J-382) M/W 3:00 to 5:00 and T/Th 5:00 to 5:50. Also after every class and by appointment. I will try to respond to email within 24 hours during the work week if you include "IT3204" in the subject.

Required Text: Sebesta, Robert W., Programming the World Wide Web, Third, Addison Wesley, 2006. ISBN: 0-321-30332-6 (Noted as S in the reading assignments.)
Recommended Text: Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition, O'Reilly, 2002. (Noted as R in the reading assignments.)

Course outcomes: Students who complete this course successfully will be able to:

• Design and create Web pages using HTML
• Transfer information to and from a Web server
• Create and use cascading style sheets
• Create and process HTML forms
• Use JavaScript for information processing
• Use JavaScript to create dynamic Web pages
• Design and create XML documents
• Use XSLT to display XML documents
• Use PHP for server-side programming
• Access database information using PHP
• Develop and run basic Java applets
• Choose between server-side and client-side programming depending on the task to be performed
• Choose the appropriate programming tool given a Web development task
• Apply the concepts and principles of information architecture to Web page design

Academic conduct: Collaboration with your classmates in studying and understanding the material is part of the collegiate experience, and is strongly encouraged. Collaboration on HOMEWORK assignments is permitted and encouraged, but each student must turn his or her work. Copying another's work will be considered cheating; all students involved will receive a grade of zero, a reduction in the course grade, and possibly other penalties including failure of the course and dismissal from the University. Unless you are specifically advised otherwise by the instructor, any work submitted for credit, other than homework and lab assignments, must be completely the work of the individual student.

Collaboration or cheating on examinations will result in a grade of zero, a reduction in the course grade, and possibly other penalties including failure of the course and dismissal from the University. Plagiarism, fabrication, or other academic misconduct will result in a grade of zero, a reduction in the course grade, and possibly other penalties, including failure of the course and dismissal from the University.

Unsatisfactory grades earned because of academic misconduct cannot be removed from your grade point average by repeating the course. However, you may be required to repeat the course in order to graduate.

It is very important that you understand the concepts of academic honesty. If any of the above is not clear, or if you are not certain what some of the terms mean, please ask me. A misunderstanding in this area could end your academic career.

Assignments and labs:  Assignments will be posted on the class Web page about a week before they are due. Lab assignments will be handed out at the beginning of class on the lab days.

Important note: The grading is established so that you cannot pass the class without getting at least most of the homework points.

In general, I will use the following scale to assign course letter grades. However, I reserve the right to make adjustments (either up or down) for borderline cases.

Grading Scale:  90 and above: A. 80-89.9: B. 70-79.9: C. 60-69.9: D. Below 60: F.

Class attendance policy: Attendance and participation in class are expected. A significant percentage of your course grade is based on class participation. If you are absent or tardy more than a very few times, your participation grade will be reduced substantially. You should be aware that information not in the book will be presented in class and you will be held responsible for it on examinations. You are responsible for announcements, assignments, and syllabus revisions made in class. If you must miss a class, please arrange to borrow another student's notes. Often you'll get better notes if you make such arrangements in advance.

Historically, students with good attendance records have done significantly better in my classes than students with poor records.

Submission of work for this course:  All homework assignments will be uploaded to the class Web server.

Students with disabilities: Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the counselor working with disabilities at (678) 915-7244 as soon as possible the better to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Examinations: Examinations will consist mainly of short-answer questions. Makeup examinations will not be given unless you make prior arrangements with me. The final examination will be comprehensive.

Final examination dates:  The dates of final examinations are set by the Registrar after the beginning of the term. All final exams will be completed by December 13. Do not schedule travel until you know the dates of your final exams!

Assignment Grades: There are four possible grades for assignments. A grade S (satisfactory) means your work meets expected standards. A grade S+ indicates exemplary work or effort beyond what is normally expected. Both S and S+ receive full credit if submitted on time. A grade of U (unsatisfactory) indicates that one or more areas of the assignment weren't completed satisfactorily. You may resubmit work which receives a grade of U after revising it based on the instructor's comments. Resubmit only those items requested, and attach your original paper to the resubmittal. You will receive full credit for resubmitted work that meets standards. Except at the end of the term, you have one week from the time graded work is available to the class to resubmit your work. If you do not resubmit within one week, you will receive a grade of zero. The last date to resubmit assignments is the last day of this class. There is no partial credit. You must get a grade of S+ or S on all parts of an assignment to receive credit for that assignment; otherwise, that assignment will be counted as a zero. If your work is turned in very late or does not show an honest effort to complete the assignment, you will receive a grade of zero.

You may resubmit only items that were part of your original submission. In other words, if you don't attempt a item on your first submission, you may not receive credit for it by "resubmitting" it later. (Note that not attempting all parts of an assignment by the due date is very likely to lead to a grade of zero for the entire assignment.) However, if you do not understand an assignment item, you may submit a substantive question about the assignment in place of an answer. I will answer your question and you may then submit an answer without penalty.

Examinations will be based in part on the contents of the assignments.

Due dates: Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the date shown in the syllabus. Late assignments, including assignments turned in after class has started, will not be graded and will be recorded as zeroes. As university students, I expect you will manage your time well enough to be able to complete your assignments on time in spite of both usual and unanticipated events. However, I do recognize that sometimes, no matter how well one plans, outside events interfere with one's plans. Therefore, each student will have five "late days" that may be used to submit late assignments without penalty. You may submit one assignment five days late, five assignments one day late each, or any other combination that adds up to five. I encourage you plan well so that your late days will be available in case of a true emergency because, when you have used up your late days, there will be no other exceptions for any reason whatsoever.

To use your "late days" you must notify me by email (and include IT3204 in the subject) of your intention to use your late days and the assignment for which they will be used before the due date and time of the assignment. (In emergencies, I will accept a telephone call to me or my SPSU voice mail as notification.) The "clock" starts when the assignment is due and stops when you turn in your assignment to me or the Department office. Please note that if you notify me of your intention to use your late days, but never complete the assignment, the "clock" runs until all of your late days have been used up. It is very important that you complete an assignment for which you are using late days as quickly as you possibly can.

Homework assignments will not be accepted by email. Everything must be on the Web server.

Technical difficulties: Explanations of "technical difficulties" will not be accepted as excuses for late or unsatisfactory work. As university students, I expect you to manage your time and your facilities well enough to be able to complete your work in a timely and satisfactory manner.

Term Paper: (IT 5123 only) Pick an area of the text that interests you, or a subject from outside the text but which relates directly to Web development, as the subject of your paper. Your term paper must be prepared according to the "Format and Outline for Term Papers" which you can find at http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/papers/term_paper.html.

Turn in (on paper) a term paper idea by the date shown in the schedule. Your term paper idea should give the proposed title of your paper, a one-paragraph description of the material you intend to cover, and list at least three of the required references. Prepare your idea paper as described in the "Style Guidelines" below.

Along with your term paper idea paper, turn in on a separate sheet of paper your "own words" definitions of plagiarism, fabrication and reference padding. You may consult any reference material you like to gain an understanding of these terms, but what you turn in must be in your own words. Do not use more than one typed page. Prepare this paper as described in the "Style Guidelines" below. Below the definitions, write in your own hand, "I understand the definitions above and I understand that plagiarism, fabrication, reference padding or other academic misconduct will result an a grade of F for the course." Sign your name to this statement. Your term paper will not be graded without the definitions and statement.

You may change the topic of your paper after your proposal has been accepted, but the change must be approved. Submit a revised idea paper if you wish to change your topic.

About a week before your term paper is due, and on the date shown in the syllabus, turn in a term paper draft. Your term paper draft must have all the required sections, and the problem statement must be in final form. The literature review may be in draft form, but should be mostly complete. The discussion and conclusion may be in draft or outline form.

Your final paper must be at least six and no more than 12 typed, double-spaced pages, exclusive of references, figures, and footnotes. It must be prepared according to the "Style Guidelines" below. You must cite at least four references, of which one may be the class text. Your remaining references must come from books or papers published in refereed journals. At most one reference may come from a popular publication or an Internet publication.

You will "turn in" your term paper by uploading a copy to turnitin.com. The class ID for this class is 1594672; the enrollment password is "webdev". There is a "test upload" assignment area for you to experiment with as well as the real assignment area for your term paper.

Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Take note: If you upload an early draft of your paper to the test upload assignment, then upload the final, the final originality report will show that a substantial part of your paper is identical to your draft. That is OK; I am expecting it, so don't panic!

You can read more about turnitin.com here: http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/papers/turnitin.html

Refer to the section on academic honesty above, and be careful to attribute comments, observations, and ideas which are not your own.

Your term paper will receive a letter grade which will be converted to a numeric grade as follows: an A+ converts to 100% of the available points; a grade of A converts to 95%, A- 92%, B+ to 89%, and so on. Information about how I grade term papers is available on the class Web page.

Style Guidelines: Homework and lab assignments must be done on the class Web server, using only an ASCII editor such as vi or pico. I will read your work from the server and assign a grade based on what you have put there.

Written work for IT 5123 must be typed or computer printed. Handwritten material is not acceptable. Type only on one side of the paper you turn in. Use only 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper.

If the work you are turning in has more than one page, staple the pages together in the upper left corner. This is the only way to organize your work; do not use notebooks, folders, etc.

In the upper right corner of the first page of each item you turn in, put the following information in the order shown:

Your name

IT 5123 -- BROWN (be sure to put my name here)

The date of the class when the item is turned in

Identification of the item (Term Paper Idea, etc.)

If the item is being resubmitted, the word "resubmitted"

Put this information as close to the top right corner as you can. Do not use a cover page.

How to Succeed in this Class:  Here are five things you can do that will greatly improve your chances of making a satisfactory grade in this class:

• Read the syllabus:  It is a lot of trouble to prepare so detailed a syllabus. You should assume I had a reason for it. You should read every word in the syllabus before the second class. I will not be sympathetic to complaints that you didn't understand something about the course if it's written down in the syllabus.
• Read the textbook:  You will get a lot more out of this class, and so be able to give back more on the assignments and examinations, if you read the assigned parts of the textbook before class. In my experience, students who don't complete the reading before class either never complete it or try to cram it all in just before the exams. That doesn't work.
• Come to class:  Participation forms a part of your course grade. Furthermore, if you miss class, you are missing an opportunity to have things that may not be clear explained to you, to ask me questions, and to interact with your colleagues and me. If classes weren't important, we wouldn't have them.
• Do the homework:  You cannot pass the course without doing at least most of the homework. The homework assignments build upon one another. If you get behind, you will find it very difficult to catch up. Moreover, there are substantial penalties for late or incomplete work.
• Allow enough time:  More unsatisfactory grades are due to procrastination than any other cause. Do not assume that you can complete the homework and reading assignments in the thirty minutes before class; you cannot. The most successful students complete this work the weekend before it is due.

World Wide Web: Questions and answers, class announcements, assignments and other material will be published from time to time on the school's Web page for this class. You should get into the habit of checking http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/it3204/20056_08/ for class information. You will also find copies of the handouts, this syllabus, notes on the homework and other useful information there.

However, you are cautioned that the presence of this Web page does not relieve you of responsibility for material, including announcements, assignments, and syllabus revisions made in class. In other words, I'll put material on the Web, but you still have to come to class or make sure you find out what happened in each class meeting.

Administrivia: Form of address: Call me Bob or Mr. Brown, whichever is more comfortable for you.

Contact information: If I need to communicate with you by email during the term, I will use your official SPSU email address. It is your responsibility to check that address frequently.

Class format: There will be no scheduled breaks. Questions will be taken at the beginning of class, during the lecture, and near the end of the class.

Appointments: I will be available after class until all questions have been answered and any other concerns have been discussed, or my next class begins, and at other times during my office hours (see the first page of this syllabus) and by appointment.

Decorum: If you have something to say in class, please address yourself to me. Keep beepers, phones, watches, etc. quiet in class; you will be asked to leave the class if you or your "gear" cause disruption. You will be highly embarrassed if you get kicked out of class because your cell phone rings; don't let it happen!

If you must leave the classroom while class is in session, please take your belongings with you. You may not return to the classroom while class is in progress.

Belongings left in the classroom:  If you leave belongings in the classroom and I notice them, I'll take them to the campus police office on the ground floor of Norton Hall.