Course Synopsis:
This course is designed to increase your computer skills while further learning the importance of literature and culture to constructions of history. Your experiential learning opportunity will involve training to develop, coordinate, and enhance a website. Your work will make hard-to-find but highly useful documents more accessible for researchers now and in the future. In connecting this work experience to your academic discipline, you will write a series of short critical reflections and a research paper that includes an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of websites and their uses for historians.
Method of Delivery: You will be conducting independent work and attending four scheduled class meetings throughout the semester (to be determined during the first week of class).
Learning Outcomes:
The primary skill will be to learn how to create a professional and engaging website and to reflect on its uses for historians.
- Honing of historical understandings of relationships between literature, culture, and history.
- Self-reflection on learning skills.
- Front-end development. The skills for this will be to establish proficiency in coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery; understanding server-side CSS; improving graphic design applications (e.g., Adobe Illustrator); and learning the principles of SEO;
- Back-end development. The skills here include the creation of a core database; mastering application program interfaces (APIs); and testing back-end processes so that the programs will run effectively;
- Communication skills – collaboration on website work and being as clear as possible about what is needed and why – and how to make changes.
Methods of Evaluation:
- Bi-weekly Critical Reflections: 30%
- Term Paper: 40%
- Timely completion of training: 30%
It is expected that work for this course will be 10 hours per week.
Week 1 – Meeting with Dr. Smith; acquainting yourself with the website; start work with Campus Press – completing relevant work with Campus Press should be by Week 4.
Week 2 – Self-reflection on interactions with Campus Press, identifying any issues.
Week 3 – Continue Campus Press training. Meet with Dr. Smith (1/2 hour).
Week 4 – Self-reflection on completing computer training.
Week 5 – Start work on the website.
Week 6 – Self-reflection on applying skills. Meet with Dr. Smith (1/2 hour)
Week 7 – Continue work.
Week 8 – Self-reflection; identify term paper topic.
Week 9 – Continue work, half your time from week 9-11 will be spent on the term paper.
Meet with Dr. Smith (1/2 hour)
Week 10 – Self-reflection.
Week 11 – Continue work.
Week 12 – Work on term paper only.
*Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.
**Please login to WebAdvisor, once the course schedule goes live, for instructor and room information.
