©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College1 Maximizing Teaching & Learning A Faculty Designed Integrated System

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College2 Who Says…  A learning system has to be a commercial product?  A commercial product is the answer when you want to provide the students with a real world experience?

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College3 A Little Background  WebCT at Broome Community College WebCT  Publisher's E-pack to supplement course content  Blackboard at Binghamton University Blackboard  Used to support committee work & class work

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College4 So What’s Missing?  In a Web development course …  Students need to experience all aspects of Web design  Course management systems prevent the instructor from providing good models  Students are limited in their abilities to interact with the Web site  Once the course is completed, students no longer have access to reference material

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College5 Who’s Our Audience? A Little Course Information

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College6 CST 135  Introduction to the Internet & World Wide Web  Site was initially developed for this course  1 credit short course (5-week) taught at Broome Community College (course inactive)  Met 3 hours per week in a laboratory classroom equipped with a projection unit  Content  How to use & search the Web  Discussion of ethical issues  Creation of basic Web sites

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College7 CST 120  Java Programming  Introductory course focusing on Web applets  3 credit taught at Broome Community College  Meets weekly: lecture (2hrs) & lab (2hrs) instruction  Content  JavaScript to introduce Web-based programming  Standard programming topics such as data types, program control, & input/output  Animation  Arrays

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College8 CS 205  Advanced Microcomputer Applications  4 credit taught at Binghamton University  Meets weekly: lecture (2hrs) & lab (1½hrs) instruction  Content  Advanced networking applications  Web page development using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript  Effective computer-based presentations  Project planning & scheduling tools  Effective Internet research  Marketing Trends & Competitive Analysis A sneak preview!

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College9 CST 119  Computer Concepts & Applications  Taught by other instructors  3 credit taught at Broome Community College  Meets weekly: lecture (2hrs) & lab (2hrs) instruction  Content  Computer architecture & data representation  Operating Systems (including UNIX) & Networks  Database systems, Systems Analysis, & CASE tools  Programming languages including C++ & Java  Web page development using HTML  History & Ethics

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College10 For Most of these Classes…  Skill levels range from:  Those with little computer skills to  Those with a programming background & have already created some Web content So what does this mean?

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College11 Two main questions arise:  How can you maximize course content delivery?  How can you keep more advanced students interested while still maintaining an appropriate course content level?

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College12 Methodology & Web Site Content Addressing the 1 st Question

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College13 Immersion  Separate Home page created for each class  Accessible from personal Home page   Online Content  Presentations (for some of the courses)  Study Guides & Examples  Assignments sent via in programming classes  Students forced to work in Web environment for many phases of the class  Available outside of class

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College14 Web Site Content  Designed (for the most part) to teach good design principles  Navigation methods  Page dating  Layout  Screen resolution  Displaying information in the browser title bar  etc

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College15 Web Site Content  My Web pages contain these elements & serves two purposes:  Site is easier for the students to use while learning the course material  Access to standard course documents, such as Course Policy & Class Outline  Study Guides & examples serve as lecture tools as well as reference documents for assignments  Links to textbook Web Site  As students repeatedly use the site…  They realize why the design principles are important  They are likely to include them in their own projects

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College16 Pedagogy Dictates I Break the Rules!  While consistency is an important feature in good Web site design, this rule wasn’t strictly enforced  Students are told up front that this was done to provide as many online examples as possible

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College17 Pedagogy Dictates I Break the Rules!  Consistency is illustrated in my design of the menu system for the Study Guides pages  All menus associated with the Study Guides use the same screen layout  While the backgrounds for each individual study guide are different, each provides a similar format  After the heading, most pages provide a topic overview followed by the details, which are organized by subtopic  Most pages not only provide sample code that can be copied and pasted to a student’s file, they also present the material using that method  See Lists screen shot See Lists screen shot  Aside from links (for navigability), each page builds on the previous topics, reinforcing their concepts

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College19 Web Site Content Addressing the 2 nd Question

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College20 Why is keeping the interest of more advanced students considered difficult?  Common approach is to write the information for two different audiences  A better solution lies in subtlety, enhancing the way the information is presented  On the surface, Web pages look very straightforward

The Home pages are menu-based providing access to all other areas of the Web site & a link to the textbook’s Web site

Study Guides teach students how to create a basic Web page, show programming examples, & provide access to outside resources

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College23 Piquing Their Curiosity  Advanced techniques are embedded in most of the pages  Usually not apparent to novice students  Students are encouraged to review the source code for all the pages on the site  In fact, in some of the classes. the first HTML lesson teaches the students how to look at a Web page’s source code

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College24 Sample Techniques How many did YOU notice?

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College25 Page Loading Effects  Home page contains JavaScript forcing the window to open in a 800 x 600 window or smaller depending on the available screen space  Opening Web pages  Links to Web pages I created open in the current browser window  Links to Web pages at remote Web sites open in a new window

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College26 Text Effects  Way of capturing the user’s attention  Implemented on both sample pages  Internet Explorer & Netscape provide different effects  These Web pages contain the code for both types:  In Internet Explorer the title scrolls across the screen  In older versions of Netscape the title blinks

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College27 Displaying Different Fonts  Need to know the font’s name  Default Web page font is Times New Roman  These pages are designed to support a range of fonts that might be installed on a user’s machine  Student can download a self-extracting Zip file containing a set of fonts designed work with the site  Instructions for installing them are provided

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College28 Displaying Special Characters  Need to know the special character’s HTML code or its numeric Unicode value  Each guide provides sample code that a student can copy & paste into a file they are creating  The advanced student will wonder how the tag brackets (<>) were displayed

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College29 Pushing Them Forward  Links are provided to more advanced resources  As I learn new techniques, they are incorporated into the Web site’s design  When I have time, I plan to add guides about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

©2003 R. Hinton, Broome Community College30 Instructor Information  Rachel E. Hinton  Assistant Professor/Adjunct Lecturer  Broome Community College/Binghamton University   Takes you to my personal Home page which has links to this & other sites I’ve developed