Syllabus

Fall 2003, Tuesday/Thursday mornings, 10:00 - 11:15 p.m. in Campus Center 42. Section 001, #27038. 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, 11:20 - 12:20 or by appointment

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades

Purpose

In his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida examines the rise in the global economy of a group of people whom most of you will likely join. The function of this emergent group, says Booklist in its review of Florida's study,

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 group whose work adds creative value not only to the economy, but to our civic and cultural lives. This course emphasizes, therefore, creative and cultural problem solving in Web design, rather than just the mechanics of producing HTML pages and Web sites. While I assume you have no prior knowledge of Web design, and will provide you with introductions and resources to master to the basic skills, this will be a class dedicated to the creative and effective use of these tools, rather than just their functions.

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

As described on the Assignments Page, the four Web-design projects (numbers 1-3, and 5) are sequenced to lead 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.

There is a three-point penalty per day for late projects, including the annotations that are explained below.

Due dates for all requirements are included in the online schedule, which will be updated throughout the semester.

Annotated Printouts

The directions for submitting the finished projects will depend on the whether they're print or electronic products.

For all projects except the essays, however, you will turn in an "annotated" printout of the project on the due date (or the next class meeting). By "annotated" I mean that you should write some brief comments on the printout, pointing to and commenting on particular features that you want me to pay attention to or understand. Annotate items that show you understood and fulfilled the goals of the assignment, that you are especially pleased with, that show what you've learned in class, that you had trouble with, or that raise unanswered questions for you.

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). Also, print out all exercises and include them in the journal explained below.
• 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 and exercises will be kept in a journal, sometimes as numbered "journal entries," which you will turn in at the end of the semester and perhaps periodically during the semester. Keep these materials in a flat binder (no ring binders please).

Readings

On days when readings are assigned, please do the following:

• have the readings done by the beginning of class;
• before class, post a short paragraph to the discussion board describing what you consider the reading's "muddiest," most confusing, or problematic point;
• expect brief quizzes or guided reading responses at the beginning or end of class. There are no make-ups on these responses if you are absent, late or leave early.
  

Peer Technique Presentation

Once during the semester, you will lead a short, eight-minute demonstration in class of a technique that you've found using Dreamweaver, Photoshop or some other software available to the class. Much more on this demonstration can be found on the Peer Techniques Page.

Attendance

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

• Absences in excess of 3 (over 10% of the class meetings) will deduct 3 percent each from your overall grade.
• These 3 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 3 instances of arriving late or leaving early to use (with or without an excuse) if necessary. Instances in excess of 3 will decrease your overall grade by 2 percentage points each. If on some occasion during the semester you need to leave class early, even if it's one of your three 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.

Incompletes

Incompletes for the semester will be given only in the following very limited circumstances:

• you must contact me to make the request;
• no more than one or two weeks of class, or one or two assignments, can have been missed;
• you must already be in good standing (not already behind, in other words);
• you must have a documented family or medical emergency, as required by university policy;
• you must arrange a time table with me for completing the missed work that is acceptable for both of us.

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Resources Needed

• Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability. New Riders Publishing, 2000.
• J. Tarin Towers' Dreamweaver MX for Windows and Macintosh. Peachpit Press, 2001
• David Trend (editor), Reading Digital Culture, Blackwell, 2001
• 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 and exercises. See the journal page. (No ring binders please)

Grades

• Your work on the six projects (weighed variously according to the size and complexity of the project): 65% total
• The quality, insight and regularity of your exercises, written annotations, peer responses, peer technique demonstration, and other writings (including the journal entries): 25%
  
• Participation in class generally, including in-class activities and contributions, online discussions, attendance, quizzes and other reading responses, promptness: 10%

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades | Top