Syllabus

Spring 2003, Wednesday evenings, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. in Campus Center 42. Section 90, #47065. Course home page: http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/5230/

Dr. Craig Stroupe, 726-6249, Humanities 424
cstroupe@d.umn.edu; Office hours Tues and Thurs mornings, 9:30 - 10:30 or by appointment

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades

Purpose

In his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida examines the rise of a group of people in the global economy "whose function," says Booklist, "is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. In general this group shares common characteristics, such as creativity, individuality, diversity, and merit. The author estimates that this group has 38 million members, constitutes more than 30 percent of the U.S. workforce, and profoundly influences work and lifestyle issues. The purpose of this book is to examine how and why we value creativity more highly than ever and cultivate it more intensely." (You can see more on this book from amazon.com.)

The purpose of this course is to help ensure that you are well prepared to join this economic group whose work adds creative value not only to the economy, but to our civic and cultural lives. For this reason, the emphasis of this course must be on creative and cultural problem solving, rather than on the mechanics of producing HTML pages and Web sites (though I don't assume you have any prior knowledge of these matters, and will provide you with introductions and resources to master to these basic skills). The goals of this course are to enable you to gain practice and expertise in the following areas:

1. applying principles of rhetoric, design, cultural theory and creative thinking to your Web-design work and writing;
2. discussing your work in critically informed ways;
3. writing critically and knowledgeably about issues and questions raised by the digital culture;
4. conceiving and carrying out writing/design projects that engage potential audiences on a variety of levels, especially socially;
5. participating in and contributing to a community of writer/designers;
6. learning to develop successful working relationships with clients and support teams, which are especially necessary in the creation of documents for institutions, businesses, and civic organizations;
7. using a variety of software to create documents for delivery via the Internet.

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Expectations

The Projects

The four Web-design projects (numbers 1-3, and 5) are sequenced to progress from smaller assignments using basic Web-design techniques to larger projects, culminating in a "Client Project" for a real-life organization, individual, business, professor or campus unit. Projects 4 and 6 are analytical essays, which will give you an opportunity to reflect on the readings and on your experience creating digital cultural objects. On the Assignments Page, these major projects are listed as numbers (1-6). In addition to posting these Web projects, I will also ask you to print out the pages and hand these hard copies in on the due date (or the next meeting after a non-class-day due date). I am assuming no background in HTML- or image-editing software to take this course.

There is a three-point penalty per day for late projects, including the hard copies.

Other Writing and Design Work

In addition to the design, creation and writing of the projects themselves, you will complete

• exercises to learn and practice technical skills in Dreamweaver and Photoshop (done in class, though you have 24 hours after the class meeting if necessary to post the completed exercise for credit)
• analytical or speculative writings on the readings in our textbooks,
• plans and preliminary writings or designs for your projects,
• peer critiques,
• other writings.

Many of these writings will be kept in a journal, as numbered "journal entries," which you will turn in at the end of the semester and perhaps periodically during the semester. The exercises will be designated by letters (A-Z) on the Assignments Page to distinguish them from the major projects (labeled numerically). On days when readings are assigned, you can expect brief quizzes or to write and turn in "pop" responses at the beginning or end of class. There are no make-ups on these responses if you are absent, late or leave early.

Attendance

Since this class will function as a community of writer-designers, your regular attendance is absolutely necessary.

• Absences in excess of two (over 10% of the class meetings) will deduct 3 percent each from your overall grade.
• These two possible absences can be spent however you wish and so there are no "excused" or "unexcused" absences. Save your "free" absences for a rainy (or snowy) day.
• If you are absent, you are responsible for all material covered in class.
• In the case of absences or lateness, some requirements like quizzes and guided in-class activities cannot be made up when timeliness or group interaction is critical.
• In addition to your budget of allowed absences, you also have two instances of arriving late or leaving early to use (with or without an excuse) if necessary. Instances in excess of two will decrease your overall grade by two percentage points each.

If on some occasion during the semester you need to leave class early, even if it's one of your two allowed instances, please arrange it with me in advance.

Participation

A larger goal of this course is to establish a community or network of writer-designers--with a wide variety of backgrounds, expertise, and interests--to enhance your learning and enjoyment during the next sixteen weeks. The class is designed to provide a number of avenues for this community building, including peer workshopping and critiquing, in-class production work, support groups, and various Internet-based communications and collaborations. Your sincere and regular contributions to maintaining this collaborative environment will count in your grade, and of course will greatly benefit your final products in the course. Because your work is the subject matter for this course, turning in all projects and writings on time is critical; work turned in late will be assessed a 3% penalty per day.

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Resources Needed

• Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability. New Riders Publishing, 2000.
• J. Tarin Towers' Dreamweaver 4 for Windows and Macintosh. Peachpit Press, 2001
• David Trend (editor), Reading Digital Culture, Blackwell, 2001
• Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas, Photoshop 7 for Windows and Macintosh, Peachpit Press, 2002
• a UMD e-mail account
• a 100 MG Zip disk for saving and transporting your work
• occasional access to a digital camera, or several high-density, IBM-formatted floppy disks for use in a digital camera to be checked out from UMD
• access to a printer, or funds for printing
• a flat binder to organize and keep in-class writings (journal)

Grades

• Your work on the six projects (weighed variously according to the size and complexity of the project): 60% total
• The quality and consistency of your exercises; insight and extent of your assigned, occasional writings (including the lettered assignments and journal entries); performance on quizzes and guided readings: 30%
  
• Participation in class generally, including in-class activities and contributions, peer workshops, group work, promptness, attendance in class and individual scheduled conferences: 10%

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