HTML - Level 3

CS-50.11C, section 8412, Summer 2010

presented by Muiz Brinkerhoff

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

Welcome to CS-50.11C (aka HTML-3 or CSS)
Creating Web Pages with XHTML & CSS

CIS 58.51-C is a 3-unit, online, semester-long course (also offered in an accelerated, 8-week format, during the summer session) designed to focus exclusively on CSS, which was introduced briefly in HTML-A and HTML-B.

After completing the course material, practice exercises, and assignments which all revolve around writing CSS that applies styles to actual web pages, students will have a working understanding of how CSS operates, and will know how to read and understand CSS code written by others, and how to debug and fix code that doesn’t work.

In addition by the end of the course, they will have produced a variety of sampler, example, and demonstration pages that will be usable as future resources, as they continue working with CSS. 

Contacting Your Instructor - Muiz Brinkerhoff

Email:

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

You MUST put 'CS-50.11C' at the BEGINNING of the Subject line of EVERY email to me. This will identify your email as being SRJC class related, among all of the other college and non-college emails that come to my In Box every day. I look for and respond to class related email every day. Non-college related email can sit in my In Box for several days before I get to it.

NOTE: Use Discussion Forum for Help Requests
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 use a descriptive Subject so that I can easily determine the topic, as well as locate the email again if needed. It's pretty frustrating to have a series of emails in my box with no subject, or just the generic word 'Help' in 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.

Class related 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.

Online "Office" Hours:

Mon & Wed mornings, 9:30 - 10:30 am
using CCC Confer Virtual Office/Classroom powered by Elluminate!
--toll free dial in for those without built-in microphone & speakers, or plug-in headsets
1-888-886-3951 (enter passcode 218642, followed by # sign when prompted)

AND
 
--login at cccConfer.org, in the Office Hours section
http://www.cccconfer.org/products.aspx
on the login screen, enter your first name, last name, email address, a screen name (your first name and first initial of your last name) plus the passcode 218642

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

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The 3 Different Websites You'll Be Using

Main Class Site - insideSkills.com

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 to the appropriate class websites located here.

The CATE System - online.santarosa.edu

online.santarosa.edu/homepage/mbrinkerhoff
This is the URL for 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" homepage at CATE has a link which points back to this insideSkills.com/classes site, as do all of my individual official Class Section web pages for the sections I'm teaching, also found at CATE (online.santarosa.edu).

I'm using the CATE website for 3 things only, during this course: 1) the online Check In procedure, 2) the online Gradebook, and 3) the 2 exams you'll take -- Midterm and Final. You'll find the links for the Gradebook and exams here at this website on the Assignments Calendar page. All other course materials, instructions, policies, and resources are located here, at www.insideSkills.com/classes.

Your Class Website Location at student:

student.santarosa.edu/~username
This is the generic 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, or your website will not be found.
 

Be AWARE that though the primary domain is santarosa.edu, it is a DIFFERENT location than CATE (online.santarosa.edu) -- a sub-domain actually -- and it is different from the main college website (www.santarosa.edu), and also different from this website (www.insideSkills.com/classes).
 
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.
 
The important thing to keep in mind is that the 3 websites used in this class 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.

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Texts and Materials

Students may purchase the text for this course at the campus bookstore, at Amazon.com, or any other bookseller that carries it. The DVD is available both at the bookstore and at CC Now.com. If you live out of the area, the campus bookstore will ship you the text, the DVD, or both -- contact Monica Miklaucic (707.524.1828, mmiklaucic@santarosa.edu). Make sure you let Monica know the course number, your section number, and whether you want the text, the DVD, or both.

Required Text

Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide - 2nd Edition, paperback

by Charles Wyke-Smith

ISBN 0-321-30525-6

(this is the green cover 2nd Edition, NOT the black, brown, and orange cover 1st Edition)

Amazon.com link for the correct version of the text

Required DVD

Cascading Style Sheets, self published by Linda Hemenway, instructor and course chair for SRJC's Web Development training program

The DVD has video demonstrations and written instructions for each lesson within the course. It can be purchased online at CC Now.com, or through the campus bookstore. When at the campus bookstore you need to ask for the DVD, it won't be displayed on the shelf along with the text.

If you are an online student you are required to purchase the DVD, or to use the one in the Santa Rosa or Petaluma labs. Classroom students are not required to use the DVD as they get to see the coding presentations in real time, during the class sessions. However, it is a very useful study guide, and resource to supplement notes taken during the in-person class demonstration.

Other Required Materials

Since this course focuses on creating Web pages, you must have regular access to:

• a computer,
• a variety of web browsers,
• the Internet
• a working email account that you check frequently
  (at least once a week, and every time you work on your assignments)
• 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 see the Lesson 01 Assignment Details page or the Resources section of this website).

• Required Software:

  • HTML/CSS Code creation and editing software
       PC - Notepad, Homesite, Dreamweaver (includes SFTP upload client), or equivalent
       Mac - Textedit, BBEdit, Dreamweaver (includes SFTP upload client), or equivalent
  • SFTP (Secure FTP, not regular FTP) Software to upload your pages
       PC - WinSCP, SSH/SFTP client, or other Secure FTP client
       Mac - Fugu, SSH/SFTP client, or equiv SFTP client
  • Web Browser(s)
       Firefox ONLY until the mid-term, afterwards IE, Opera, Safari, etc
       NOTE: Because of the number of differences in how the various browsers have implemented CSS, we'll ALL concentrate on getting the CSS code to work with a SINGLE browser for the first half of the class.
     
    After the mid-term, we'll open our horizons to incorporate other browsers, and some of the fixes, hacks, and tricks needed to keep the page layouts working despite the different implementations of CSS.

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Grade Status: Pass-No Pass (P/NP) vs Letter Grade

This class is available to be taken as Pass/No Pass, as well as for a letter grade. Students may change their status until the end of the 6th week of the semester (). 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.

Dropping the Class

If you decide to drop this course, or if your life becomes too busy or 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. Also please do me the courtesy of letting me know that you're dropping, rather than just disappearing.

Instructors no longer automatically drop students who stop participating in a class. If you have checked in, you have begun the course and it is YOUR responsibility to drop it if you cannot continue.

Dropping Deadlines

• To get a a refund, drop before 19 Jun 2010
• To avoid a 'W', drop before 24 Jun 2010
• To drop with a 'W', drop before 24 Jul 2010

Any students still officially on the class roster after 24 Jul 2010 are required to have a grade issued. Petitions to drop courses after this deadline are no longer approved as readily as they were in the past.

Class "Attendance"

Because this class meets online, I won't see you in person. 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.

If situations arise in your work, family, or home lives that 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 via a private email, or by posting a request for help in the Discussion Forum. Others may be experiencing the same frustration, but if you don't speak up, you are forcing yourself to suffer alone.

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Late Assignment Submission Penalty - 20% Deduction

Even though this is an online class, it is NOT like a Self-Paced class, where you might work completely at your own pace. Assignments are due EACH WEEK by a certain deadline, in order to keep everyone on track and moving through the course material together, although you have the freedom to decide when during each week to work on them, as long as you are able to submit them by the published deadlines.

All assignments are due before 11:59:59 pm (midnight) PST/PDT (ie GMT -8/-7) on the Due Dates published on the Assigments Calendar.

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.

Late submissions, without a pre-approved deadline extension from me, will receive a 20% late penalty deduction.

If your schedule gets jammed, if family or work obligations interfere, so that it looks like you won't be able to meet the Monday midnight deadline, contact me ahead of time and request an extension of the deadline, to avoid the late penalty deduction. I usually approve most requests.

Only 2 Late Submissions

Only two (2) late assignments will be accepted, with or without deadline extensions. Once this limit of 2 late submissions has been reached, any further late submissions receive no credit. There is far too much material to work through, and only 8 short weeks in which to accomplish it, and we need to keep moving forward.

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.

No More Than 1 Week Late

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

I Have a Life Outside of This Class

Since I also have a life outside of this class, and am not online 24/7, if it turns out that you need to request a deadline extension, try to email the request at least 24 hours in advance of the deadline, if not earlier in the week, in order to give me sufficient time to see it, and respond to it. I go offline on Monday afternoons around 4pm, for an ongoing Monday evening commitment, so any requests after that point are unlikely to be seen until Tuesday morning, well after the deadline.

Plan Ahead, Budget Your Time

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, and if you get stuck and need assistance, there won't be time to post a request for help and wait for the answer, before the deadline.

Do a reality check on Friday evening or Saturday morning, and if it looks like you might not be finished by the deadline, request a deadling extension. If it turns out you don't need it, no harm done.

Estimated Time Commitment

You can expect to spend 12 - 20 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.

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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, at my disgression, "return" it to be redone for a 'redo' score of 70% of the total points. I'll send an email alerting the student to the need to redo the assignment. 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.

ONLY 1 assigment may be redone for a 70% score.

Assignments returned for a Redo, which are not re-done by the Redo deadline (normally the next regular assignment due date), will receive No Credit.

Documentation Required
to Waive Late Penalty or Late Submission Limit

It's not that I'm heartless, cruel, or insenstive. It's just that from having been a teacher for as long as I have been, I've probably heard every phoney excuse in the book (and to be perfectly candid, I used many of them myself when I was a lot younger). There are some poor grannies out there who have died and been buried multiple times, before their bereft grandchildren finally graduated.

I don't want to be put in the position of trying to evaluate a student's honesty, based solely on email communication. I don't even like trying to do that in person, but via email, it's like floundering around in the dark.

So, if you want to waive the penalty or the late limit, please provide some supporting documentation along with your request.

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Grades

Scores for Individual Assignments

Scores for each week's assignments will be posted in an online gradebook located at the CATE website (online.santarosa.edu -- where you Checked In, and you'll need to use the login name and password you created during Check In to access the gradebook). Use the Grades link in the nav bar on any page to view a Scores Posted Through Lesson 'X' Grades Overview page, and for the link to the actual gradebook. For example, if the page shows Scores Posted Through Lesson 3, then scores for any subsequent lessons have not been entered yet. You'll identify the column that contains your assignment scores by looking for the column containing the last 4-digits of your student ID.

In addition, below the columnar display of the gradebook, you will find an itemized listing of all of your assignments, with individual scores, and any comments I've entered -- usually the reason for receiving less than full points for the assignment.

Scores will normally be posted and the Gradebook updated, 2 - 3 days after the published assignment due dates. From time to time it may take me a bit longer to get the assignments graded, but almost certainly by the following assignment due date.

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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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Guidelines: Using the Discussion Forum for Help

for more info, open: Discussion Forum Guidelines

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Guidelines: 7 Pertinent Details When Requesting Help

As mentioned above ALL requests for help with course work and your assignments should be made by posting a help request in the class forum. The reason for this is that it is the best use of my time to answer a question once, in a venue where everyone in the class can see and benefit from the answer, rather than multiple times in separate emails. In addition, if it takes me longer than normal to get to the help request, another class member may see the question and post an answer.

Please word your request for assistance carefully and completely, so that it is clear what you're working on, and specifically what the difficulty is. If you provide only very general info -- for example: "My page won't validate", "This style isn't showing up", "I can't see my images" -- I'll just have to ask for more concrete details anyway.

I'm good at troubleshooting, but I'm not a mind reader and not clairvoyant, so the above type of general info isn't sufficient for me to respond with anything helpful. Please use the following guidelines for providing helpful info when requesting help.

for more info, open: 7 Pertinent Details Guidelines

Guidelines: When to Ask for Help

for more info, open: Asking for Help Guidelines

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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.

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 that is stolen, copied, 'borrowed', or otherwise submitted as your own work, or included as part of your work, without permission and/or a clearly stated attribution of true ownership -- including 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 represent it as their own.

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

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Special Services (DRD)

If you need disability-related accommodations for this class, such as a note taker, test-taking services, special furniture, etc., please provide the Authorization for Academic Accommodations (AAA letter) from the Disability Resources Department (DRD) to the instructor as soon as possible.

You may also speak with me privately about your accommodations. Disability Resources (707-527-4278), is located in Analy Village C, on the Santa Rosa Campus, and in Petaluma Village on the Petaluma Campus.

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 -- almost all of the computers in that lab are dual-boot machines, running 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 Lab door, and often there are copies at the lab assistant's desk.

During the summer session the labs have a different, more 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.

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Net-iquette: 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.

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 send an email 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, 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 message so that the reader can quickly locate the message and determine its importance.
• Never assume your email messages are private, or that they only will be read by yourself or the recipient -- copies are always kept 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 PHRASES AND SENTENCES 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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Weekly Class Topics, Reading and Homework Assignments

See the Assignments Calendar for specific details about each week's reading and watching assignments, from the text and the DVD, and homework assignment details, and due dates.