Electronic Portfolio (eFolio)

CS 50.25, section 5409, Spring 2010

presented by Muiz Brinkerhoff

email is the BEST way to contact me - classes@insideSkills.com

Welcome to Electronic Portfolio (eFolio)

This course focuses on creating a Portfolio Website, where self-promotional information, work examples, a resume, and contact information can be displayed online, in order to use the Internet as a tool for finding employment or clients. In the process of creating their own portfolio websites, students will read online articles discussing various aspects of using the Net to secure a job or attract clients, view a variety of work related web sites, examine and critique the portfolio sites of previous students, and become familiar with how to register their portfolio with on-line career databases, job boards, and freelance directories.

Students will be required to produce an integrated 5-7 page portfolio web site, however no instruction in web page creation will be provided, as the website creation course is a pre-requisite for this course. Students must therefore be proficient enough in X/HTML and CSS, or one of web authoring programs such as DreamWeaver, to produce their websites without any major assistance from the instructor.

Student portfolio websites must be stored at their SRJC student account (student.santarosa.edu) which should already be available from prior courses.

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Contacting Your Instructor - Muiz Brinkerhoff

Email:

classes@insideSkills.com
for personal communications with me, email is the BEST way to contact me.

NOTE: All requests for help with course work and assignments should be posted in the Discussion Forum. See Discussion Forum section below.

You MUST put 'CS-50.25' at the BEGINNING of the Subject line of EVERY email to me. There is NO GUARANTEE I will find your email and respond to it, if this beginning designation is missing.

NOTE: ALL requests for help with COURSE WORK and ASSIGMENTS, MUST be posted in the Discussion Forum, so that all students can see the question and can benefit by the answer or answers posted, and also to avoid my having to answer the same question multiple times in multiple private emails.
 
Requests for help of a non-personal nature sent via email will be returned, so they can be posted in the appropriate Forum area.

Also ALWAYS use a descriptive Subject so that it is easy to determine the focus of the email or discussion topic, as well as locate it again if needed. It's pretty frustrating to have a series of emails in my box, or topics in the forum with no Subject line, or just the generic word 'Help' as the subject.

Thanks in advance for honoring these 2 requests. There is NO GUARANTEE that I will respond to any email that is missing either of these 2 features.

Email is usually answered within 24 hours, if not sooner.

Phone:

707.527.4999 ext 9203 (does NOT take messages -- send an email instead)

Discussion Forum:

This is where you'll post ALL requests for help with ASSIGNMENTS and COURSE WORK, so that everyone in the class can benefit from the answers. It is also where you'll post your replies to the various assignment segments and Discussion Topics, and where you can also post Tips, Tricks, and other Resources that you've discovered that you'd like to share with the class.

Registering a login name and password, and having it approved by me is one of your preliminary steps, as desribed on the Start Here page, and you should already have completed this step. It is also an assignment for credit, see the Lesson 01, and Assignments 01 pages.

Online "Office" Hours:

Mon mornings, 9:30 - 10:29 am
using CCC Confer Virtual Office/Classroom powered by Elluminate!

--login at cccConfer.org, in the Office Hours section
http://www.cccconfer.org/products.aspx
and enter your first name, last name, email address, a screen name (your first name and first initial of your last name) plus the passcode 319934.

NOTE: You CANNOT use your computer's built in microphone and normal speakers for the Online Office Hours session, as they will produce a very annoying echo of everything you say and hear, which will make clear communication for all of us in the session too difficult to manage.

Instead you can use your telephone handset as your mic and earphone, by dialing into the session on a toll free number, as well as viewing the session on screen. NOTE: you cannot use your phone's speakerphone feature as it will generate the echo just like your computer speakers and builtin mic.

For those without a fast internet connection, you probably won't be able to use the on-screen session as it will be too slow. However, you can simply dial into the session via the toll free number and join the Office Hours session using your telephone.

What Is This CCC Confer?
(more info on connecting to, dialing into, and using CCC Confer's Elluminate! Virtual Classroom)

In-Person Lab Hours: (for any students who are local, and can come to the lab)

Santa Rosa Campus - tba (I'm teaching a face to face HTML-2 class on Thurs morns)
Petaluma Campus - none

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Muiz's various Websites & Homepages -- Keeping Oriented and Clear:

www.insideSkills.com/classes
This is where you are right now. It is my own personal domain (a subsection of my InsideSkills.com domain), not connected to any of the official SRJC websites. This is where all of my class section websites are located. Each of the official college class section pages you may see at CATE (online.santarosa.edu), have links that point back here to this domain, and the appropriate class websites located here.

online.santarosa.edu/homepage/mbrinkerhoff
This URL leads to my official SRJC homepage. It is located at the SRJC CATE system website. CATE stands for Center for Advanced Technology in Education, which is a course management system where instructors can create entire course websites, with tests, gradebooks, mailing lists, and bulletin boards, etc. Many instructors at the college, and especially those who don't have the time or interest in creating their own separate course websites, host their course websites, course materials, and gradebooks for their online classes at CATE.

My official college homepage at CATE has a link which points back to this insideSkills.com/classes site, as do all of my individual, official CATE Class Section web pages also found at CATE (online.santarosa.edu).

The important thing to keep in mind is that the various websites are separate, though they may have links that point to the others, and that each system, and possibly each class section, may have its own login username and password. You need to stay clear about where you are, and which username and password is appropriate for the site your browser is showing you.
 
In the past students have gotten confused and have had a lot of frustration trying to use a username and password from one site to access another site, because they just assumed that a single username and password would work for every login, no matter where they were.

If you're having trouble logging in, and ask for help in the Forum, REMEMBER you MUST include the URL of the page where you are trying to enter your Username and Password. If you don't include that crucial info, I'll just have to ask for it, and it will delay getting you the help you want.

Your Class Portfolio Website Location at student:

student.santarosa.edu/~username
This is the generic browser URL of the student webserver where you'll upload your class website and other assignments. Notice the generic student "username" in place of an actual account/login name. Also CRUCIAL is the tilde character ~, which precedes the login name. You must always include this character in the URL for your website, or the browser will NOT be able to find your website.
 
Be AWARE that though the domain is santarosa.edu, it is a DIFFERENT location than online.santarosa.edu, and different again from this website (www.insideSkills.com/classes), and the login username and password used to access your web account at student.santarosa.edu may be different from those you have used in previous classes, or to access other locations or accounts.

Also keep in mind that this URL with the tilde (~) character and a username is to be used ONLY in your browser. When you use your SFTP program to upload files to your web account at student, the hostname is just student.santrosa.edu, and the username is whatever you username might be WITHOUT the slash and tilde characters.

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Texts and Materials

There are no required textbooks for this course. While there are a variety of books focusing on various aspects of using the Net to promote you and your skills to employers or clients, none of them seem to cover all of the topics that this course presents. Instead of reading selections from textbooks, each week there will be a variety of links to online articles which you will read, as well as other links to online resources which may (or may not) be of value to you. Remember -- resources are NOT required, they are provided because you may find them helpful and useful.

Before spending any money on books, take a look at the class material, and the links to online articles, and the links in the resources section, to see what is available online. Then, if you still want a book, scan through several to see which, if any, will meet your needs. The books listed below are several years old now, and there may be others, published more recently, that might be better. Browse Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc for topics you are interested in.

Resumes in Cyberspace : Your Complete Guide to a Computerized Job Search
by Pat Criscito 304 pages
Published by Barrons Educational Series Publication April 1997
ISBN: 0812099192

Electronic Resumes: A Complete Guide to Putting Your Resume On-Line
by James C. Gonyea, Wayne M. Gonyea 255 pages
Published by McGraw-Hill Publication date: June 1996
ISBN: 0079121667

Using the Internet and the World Wide Web in Your Job Search
by Fred Edmund Jandt, Mary B. Nemnich 300 pages, 2nd edition
Published by Jist Works Publication date: Dec 1996
ISBN: 1563702924

The Right Portfolio for the Right Job
by Supon Design Group (Editors)
Published by Madison Square Press Publication date: Sept 1999
ISBN: 0942604369

Other Required Materials

Since this course focuses on creating a Portfolio Website, you MUST have regular, dependable access to:

• a computer (Mac or Windows)
• a web browser (Firefox v3 is recommended as your Primary browser, Safari, and Internet Explorer can be used as secondary browsers to see how they render your pages)
  
  
  If you are an AOL user, you should download and install Firefox for use in this class. The AOL browser is problematic and since I'm not an AOL subscriber, I can't help you troubleshoot any problems that may arise as a result of the AOL browser.
  
• reliable, regular access to the Internet
  • you need to keep in frequent touch with the Discussion Forum, and the Announcements section on the Home page of this class website. ( frequently means at least 3 times a week, PLUS every time you work on your assignments )
• a working email account that you check frequently ( same definition as above )
• a working web account at student.santarosa.edu the college's student web server, where you'll upload your assignment web pages
  • if you don't have an account, or
  • if you've forgotten your password,
    • see the instructions and links at student.santarosa.edu.
  • If you need some extra assistance, BEFORE posting a Help Request in the Forum, or contacting me individually, make sure you have read the appropriate sections of the Start Here, the Instructions for Preliminary Steps page (which is also accessed from the Start Here page in the several Step by Step Instructions sections), and FAQ page of this website.

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Pass/No Pass vs Letter Grade

This class is available to be taken for Pass/No Pass (P/NP -- previously known as Credit/No Credit), as well as for a letter grade. Students may change their status until 09 Apr 2010. The appropriate form must be submitted to Admissions & Records before that deadline -- A&R will not allow status changes after that date.

Students working towards a WEB CERTIFICATE from SRJC or planning to transfer credits to another school, the MUST take the class for a letter grade. Be aware for transferring credits that some colleges and universities translate a "Pass" into a letter grade of C, while others translate it into a D ... possibly shocking, but true.

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Dropping the Class

If you decide to drop this course, or if your life becomes too busy or too complicated to do the course work and submit the assignments, it is your responsibility to officially drop it, online or by submitting a drop form to Admissions & Records. Instructors no longer automatically drop students who stop participating. Only No Shows (students who have never checked in and never participated) are dropped by the instructor during the 2nd week of a class. If you submit the Check In form, you have "attended" the first class, and cannot be dropped as a No Show.

If you stop submitting assignments and do not drop the course yourself, you will receive an F (or No Pass) as a final grade. This is college policy, which instructors must follow.

Also please do me the personal courtesy of letting me know that you're dropping, rather than just disappearing.

Dropping Deadlines

• To get a refund, drop before 28 Mar 2010
• To avoid a 'W', drop before 03 Apr 2010
• To drop with a 'W', drop before 05 May 2010
   

Any students still officially on the class roster after 05 May 2010 are required to have a grade issued. Petitions to drop courses late, submitted once this deadline has passed, are no longer approved by Admissions as readily as they were in the past.

Class "Attendance"

Because this class meets online, I won't see you in person, unless we happen to meet somewhere on campus. The ONLY way for me to know that you are making satisfactory progress with the course material, is for you to regularly submit your assignments, and to interact with the Discussion Forum.

The class format is NOT self-paced. There are assignments which are due each week, though you decide when during each week to work on them.

If situations arise in your work, family, or home lives, which impact your ability to stay on track with the assignment deadlines, please communicate with me. If you encounter difficulties with the assignments, don't isolate, don't try to 'tough it out', don't wait until you've gone into overwhelm ... let me know what's going on -- either by posting a request for help in the Discussion Forum, or if the situation is personal, via a private email. Other students may be experiencing the same frustrations and difficulties, but if you don't speak up, you are forcing yourself to suffer alone.

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Standards of Conduct

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner which reflects their awareness of common standards of human decency, politness, and the basic civil and human rights of others. By registering for a class at SRJC, students agree to make themselves aware of, and to actively abide by, SRJC's official Code of Student Conduct as published at www.santarosa.edu/admin/scs/index.html and the three additional pages entitled: Sections 1, 2, and 3. Please familiarize yourself with the Code of Conduct, so that you are clear about it.

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Doing Your Own Work vs Plagiarism/Cheating

All students enrolled in courses at SRJC are expected to do their own work. Plagiarism is defined as any work created by someone else which is stolen, copied, 'borrowed', or otherwise submitted as your own work, or included as part of your work, without permission from the original owner, and/or a clearly stated attribution of true ownership. This includes the work of other students, other authors, from textbooks, from web sites, or from any other sources not produced by the student her/himself. Any work submitted under a student's name, without clear attibution to the contrary, is deemed to be represented as the work of that student.

By registering for a class at the college, students agree to do their own work, and not to steal the work of others and submit it as their own.

If plagiarism is discovered the student will receive a 0 grade for that assignment, an email warning, and the Department Chair will be notified. If it happens a second time, the Dean will be involved, and the student may be given an F for the class.

Guidelines: How Assignments are Submitted for Grading

for more info, open: Assignment Submission Guidelines

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Late Assignment Penalty - 20% Deduction

All assignments are due before 11:59:59 pm (midnight) PST/PDT (ie GMT -8 (-7 during Daylight Savings Time) on the Due Dates published on the Assigments Calendar. Late submissions, without a pre-approved deadline extension from me, will receive a 20% late penalty deduction -- that is, 20% deducted from the number of points available for that submission.

Submissions more than 1 week late are not accepted for credit, without prior approval from me.

Also please be aware that the midnight deadline actually means midnight, not "before the start of the business day, the following morning". I'll allow a few hours "wiggle" room (until 3 am), once or twice, but anything submitted after 3am is late, and without having received approval for an extension, the late penalty will apply.

Also, if you're regularly submitting in between midnight and 3 am, you aren't starting your assignments early enough, and the late penalties will apply.

PLAN AHEAD and budget your time accordingly, rather than leaving things to the very last minute. DO NOT WAIT until the evening of the deadline day to begin your assignments, as they will often take longer to complete than you anticipate. You can expect to spend 6 - 10 hours each week on the work for this course. Some students will be able to do the work in half that time, and others may require twice that long, or even longer if they find the material particularly challenging.

Since I also have a life outside of this class, if it turns out that you need to request a deadline extension, make the email request at least 24 hours in advance of the deadline, in order to give me sufficient time to see and respond to it.

FAIR WARNING: If you make a deadline extension request after noon on the deadline day, there is no guarantee that I'll see it and approve it before the deadline. BE PROACTIVE, look ahead, budget your time -- and if need be request a deadline extension. If it turns out you don't need it, no harm done.

2 (two) Late Assignments ONLY

You may submit ONLY 2 assignments late during this 8 week course, whether or not you have requested and received deadline extensions for them. After those 2 late submissions, all subseqent late submissions receive NO CREDIT.

If your life is so busy that it requires you to submit more than 2 assignments late, you are probably too busy to give this course the time and attention that it requires, and should seriously consider dropping the course before you fail it, and taking it again in the future when you schedule is less busy.

Students falling behind by more than 2 lessons and the corresponding assignments may have difficulty catching up, and may be advised to drop the class rather than risking an unsatisfactory grade. This will be determined on a case by case basis, in communication with the student. 

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Grades

Scores for Individual Assignments

If I deduct any points for an assignment, I will EITHER send you an email explaining the reason for the point deduction, or I will record the reason in the comments section of the online gradebook that pertains to that assignment. It will be a very brief explanation -- "missing <title> tag, -2 points", "one sentence not sufficient for Discussion Topic, -5 points", and so on.

I'm sorry but though I might want to take the time to give each student regular, positive encouragement with every assignment, I won't be sending any individual acknowlegements or praise for doing a good job when I give full points for an assignment. There simply isn't the time to do this.

Instructors who teach this course get paid for only 2.9 hours a week, per section, no matter how many students, no matter how much time it actually takes to prepare the class, answer emails, post explanations in the Forum, and grade assignments. I sincerely wish it were different. Please remember that if I give full points, you ARE doing a good job, and I'm aware of it.

Scores for each week's assignments will be posted in the online gradebook located at the CATE online.santarosa.edu website. Use the Grades tab link in the navigation tabs at the top right, on any page. If I'm the instructor for mulitple sections, then use the link for the Class Section that you're registered in to access the correct section Gradebook. You'll need to login with the CATE username and you created for this class, on the initial Check In form.

Scores will normally be posted and the Gradebook updated within 7 days after the published assignment due dates. So once you have submitted an assignment for grading, don't make any significant changes to it before I've posted the score for it the online gradebook.

Assignments returned for ReDo:

If a submitted assignment has so many errors or missing elements that less than 70% of the possible points are earned, I may, ocassionally, and at my own disgression, "return" it to be redone for a maximum 'redo' score of 70% of the total points. I'll send an email alerting the student that the assignment needs to be redone.

Redos will normally be due by the next assignment deadline along with the assignments normally due on that date, unless a different due date is negotiated with me.

If a redo assignment is not redone, the student will receive NO credit for the assignment.

ONLY 1 assigment may be redone during this course.

Final Grades

Final grades are calculated by dividing total points earned by total points available, the decimal result expressed as a percentage, and converted to a letter grade in the standard fashion:

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Computer Labs

The SRJC provides several computer labs including:

• Petaluma Open Lab - Petaluma Campus, room PC 641 (Richard W Call Bldg)
• Santa Rosa Open Lab - Santa Rosa Campus, Maggini Hall, 2nd floor
  • (NOTE: The old Maggini Hall 3rd floor open lab is no longer available, as that room is now a classroom. The open lab is now on the 2nd floor, in what used to be the Business Dept open lab. That lab is now being shared by students taking both CIS and BOT courses.
     
  • If you are a Mac user, there are only 4 MacIntosh computers in the Maggini 2nd floor Open Lab
    
    • So far this has not been a problem for Mac users, however if all 4 are in use when you want to work, you might consider the Petaluma Open Lab -- ALL computers in that lab are both Mac and Windows.
      

If you don't have access to a computer and the necessary software at home, or at work, it is your responsibility to arrange your schedule to use the SRJC computer lab regularly, so that you can submit your assignments.

It is also YOUR responsibility to be aware of the opening and closing times of the lab(s) you use, as well as any restricted hours or early closings in connection with school holidays and exam week at the end of the semester. The schedule for the lab is usually posted on the door, and often there are copies at the lab assistant's desk.

During the summer session the labs have a different, restricted, schedule than during fall and spring semesters.

Open lab times and other information of interest can be viewed at the CS website

CS Lab Info and Link to All Campus Lab Hours

Printing in Campus Labs

For quite a few years, it has been College policy that the printers in the open labs CANNOT be used to print anything but the FINAL copy of the assignment that is being turned in for grading.

This means that students may NOT print the class website, nor any of the instructions pages from the class website, nor preliminary or practice versions of the assignment, nor any anything from any other website. ONLY the assignment to be turned in may be printed.

The reason for this is the expense of paper and printer ink cartridges. With the extremely restrictced State Education budget, the amount of money allocated for paper and ink in the open labs has been slashed without mercy. If the lab goes through the amount of paper and ink allocated for a semester, before that semester ends, the printers will sit empty of ink, and or paper, until the next semester.

Do yourself a favor, by doing your part to conserve ink and paper, and also avoid being busted and embarrassed publicly by one of the lab assistants, who will confiscate any pages that you have printed which are not being turned in for grading.

There are printers in the library where you can pay by the page to print out class Syllabi, or assignment instruction details, or anything else you'd like print. Alternatively, use your printer at home, or at work.

Net-iquette: General Email & Forum Posting Etiquette

Email, forum postings, and other text-based messages can easily be misinterpreted or misunderstood by those reading what has been written, because text-based communications lack the additional layers and dimensions of information available in face-to-face, in person, or voice-to-voice, telephone communications ... the various subtleties, nuances, and emphases of vocal tones, myriad facial expressions, and other body language cues can't be seen or heard in a typed communication.

All of these can make the very same series of words mean completely different things -- a simple statement of fact, a question, a hostile or aggressive challenge or insult, a humorous or ironic commentary or satire, a sarcastic put-down or judgement, and so on.

Keeping this in mind:

• Be brief, polite, patient, and never post a communication when angry
• Always remember that there is no such thing as a single sense of humor, and what one person finds very funny, another can find deeply disrespectful, insulting, or offensive
• Please keep all emails and forum postings focused on the subject matter of the class
• Please DO NOT post or send jokes, humorous items, or any other Off Topic items, including chain letters, political or religious forwards, sales or marketing opportunities, and so on and so on
• Always include a pertinent subject/title for the posting so that the reader can quickly identify the message and determine its importance or relevance to her/him.
• Never assume your email messages are private, or that they will be read ONLY by yourself or the recipient -- backup copies are always kept on some server, somewhere
• Use capital letters (upper case) ONLY to highlight or emphasize an important word or phrase or to distinguish a title or heading. CAPITALIZING WHOLE SENTENCES OR PARAGRAPHS IS RECEIVED AND INTERPRETED AS SHOUTING! -- so use CAPs sparingly
• Be professional, kind, compassionate, and polite when speaking to others, and share your own experiences rather than talking about others. Email is easily forwarded.
• Never forward any personal email without FIRST getting the author's permission

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Guidelines: Using the Discussion Forum for Help

for more info, open: Discussion Forum Guidelines

In Person, Face to Face, Assistance

Since this is an online class, I have no regularly scheduled hours in person, on campus, in a classroom or a lab, however if I am also teaching a face to face class, I will likely have a lab period associated with that face to face class. Check my schedule on my home page to see if I am on campus for a class and which days.

If you would like to meet with me in person while I'm in Open Lab for some one-on-one in-person assistance, please email ahead of time to confirm that I actually will be in the Lab when you come by. The class you're registered for doesn't need to be the same as the class connected to my Open Lab period.

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Guidelines: When to Ask for Help

for more info, open: Asking for Help Guidelines

Guidelines: 7 Pertinent Details When Requesting Help

for more info, open: 7 Pertinent Details Guidelines

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Weekly Class Topics, Reading and Schedule of Assignments

See the Lessons and Assignments Calendar pages for links to step by step instructions for each week's reading and homework assignment details, and due dates.