Deadlines
Students must meet the deadlines in order to receive full credit for assignments, quizzes, and projects. 10% will be taken off for each day the assignment is late up to 40%. If 10% of the assignments in the course are late, then your final grade will be deducted by 10% which means you will not receive an A.

Final deadline for all 1^st 4 week assignments – April 12

Final deadline for all 2^nd 4 week assignments – May 7

Failure to meet the above deadlines may result in your being dropped from the course by the first 4 week deadline or a failing grade on the 2^nd 4 weeks.

Important Dates

March 11 Classes Begin

March 22-26 Spring Break No Class

April 15 Last day to drop (2^nd 8 week)

May 7 Last Day of Class (2^nd 8 week)

Words of Wisdom

When you take a course about computers, you get out of it what you put into it. Computers are constantly changing and you must be constantly learning to keep on the cutting edge. A class in computers will help you get started, but it is up to you to go that extra mile to become an expert. Working with computers is like learning a musical instrument. You don’t become a good musician without practice. It is the same with computers. If you don’t practice and develop your skills on your own, then you’ll never be a true techie. No computer class can teach you everything you need to know on a topic. Computer courses are a jumping off point to a journey, not a destination.

Getting Started with WebCT

WebCT Directions

If have never taken a web course, please do the following.

1. Go to: http://salsa.nmsu.edu

2. Click "Create Your ID" on left side of screen

3. Enter your social security number and your date of birth.

4. Click Continue and follow directions.

5. When you are done, email your instructor (Doug Bocaz-Larson) at dbocaz@nmsu.edu so you can be added to the course.

6. Please allow for 24 hours between the time you create your idea and the time you can enter the course.

7. Return to http://salsa.nmsu.edu, enter your username and password and click the link to your course.

(If you have any questions you can email me at dbocaz@nmsu.edu, call my cell 290-1739, or my office 287-6656)

Important Notes to Students (the fine print):

If you have, or believe you have, a disability that would benefit from any accommodation(s), you may wish to register with the Student Services Office on the first floor of Martinez Hall. All medical information will be treated confidentially. After you have registered, please make sure that I receive a copy of the accommodation memorandum from Student Services within the first two weeks of class. It will be your responsibility to inform me or the office of Student Services (in a timely manner) if the services/accommodations are not meeting your needs. If you have a condition that may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or that may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with Ms. Irene Charles-Lutz, Campus Student Services Officer at 287-6629, or with me at 287-6656.

Any student found guilty of academic misconduct shall be subject to disciplinary action. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, the following actions: cheating; plagiarism; unauthorized possession of examinations, reserve library materials or laboratory materials; unauthorized changing of grades on an examination, instructor’s grade book or grade report; nondisclosure or misrepresentation in filing out applications or other college records; or violation of computer use policies. The following disciplinary actions and sanctions may be imposed for any of the above infractions of regulations: disciplinary probation, disciplinary suspension, dismissal, expulsion.

Tentative Schedule for OECS 216 (subject to change)

Due Dates	Assignments
March 15	The majority of this class will be completed in the Discussion part of WebCT and by completing activities on Target Global (an online learning software). Complete the WebCT Discussion on: Introductions Welcome to class. Please tell the other students in the class something about yourself. Talk about your experience you’ve had with web design and web programming (what languages you’ve learned and played with). List the addresses of any websites you’ve created. Complete the WebCT Discussion on: Goal Setting Make a list of goals you have for yourself related to web design. What do you want to learn about web design now and in the future? What would you like to be able to do with your web design knowledge?
March 16	Complete the WebCT Discussion on: Trends in Web Design Research on the internet and explore the latest trends in web design and technology in general. What do most web designers seem to know? What are some new developments in web design that people are trying to learn? What languages are people learning? Are web designers using programs like Word, FrontPage, or Dreamweaver? Do they even need to know how to program? Complete the WebCT Discussion on: Certification Certification is a great way to prove that you know something. Computer repair technicians often get A+ certification. Network specialists are CISCO or MCSE certified. What about web designers? There is a certification for web designers too… CIW. What is CIW? Do you think it would help you find a job if you’re certified?
March 17	Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Interview Questions As a class, we will be doing some research about the technical skills needed for computer related jobs. As a class, let’s develop some interview questions for potential employers and working web designers. What are some things you’d like to know from a business that is hiring web designers? What would you ask a web designer who has a job now? I would like everyone to come up with five questions they might ask someone who hires web designers or is a web designer. Then I would like you to respond to another student in this class and pick the best question they came up with. In the end, we’ll have a good list of questions you can use for the discussions below.
March 18	Take a look at the following WebCT Discussions. The following discussions require some research and response time so you’ll want to start your research now. All the discussions below will be due April 6 but you’ll be doing some surveys (which require time for a response), so please start now. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: What do employers want? We are going to try and find out what employers are looking for. I would like you to email an ISP (Internet Service Provider such as zianet.com, cia-g.com, 7cities.net, etc.) or you can contact a local Cibola County business that hires people with computer skills (such as Channel 10 and Sky City Casino). Use the interview questions we created in the last discussion. Feel free to call a local ISP if you don’t get an email response by April 1. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Classified Ads Check the classified ads in the Albuquerque journal under the link for Computer Personnel (sometimes Technical has jobs too). If you check on Sunday, you’ll find the most ads. Check other sources such as Monster.com as well. What kind of web design skills are employers looking for? Where did you find the most web design jobs listed? What part of the United States had the most web design jobs? Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Web Masters Find a website you like. Email the webmaster. Use our interview questions and try to get some tips on how you might be a web master too. Find a local website. Interview the webmaster and see if they are a full time web designer and if they think there is a local job market for web designers. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Needs of Local Businesses Search the internet and make a list of local businesses that have websites. What are some businesses in town who you think need to have a website? Why? Pretend you are hired by that business to make a website. What kinds of questions do you need to ask them to know what kind of website to make?
March 30	As a way to get you very familiar with web master certification (CIW), everyone has access to a learning program through *Target Global.* I will need your regular (non-WebCT) email address in order to get you the instructions for accessing the program. You will complete ten lessons that cover a variety of topics on CIW and should give you a solid understanding of the web and web design. You may complete the optional lessons for extra credit. On each section you will take a pretest. If you do well on the pretest, you will be allowed to skip certain parts of the lesson. At the end of the lesson, you will be testing again to see what you learned. I will receive these scores and you will be graded on how well you do, so please read everything carefully and do your best on the tests. *You will complete the following lessons from Target Global:* *CIW Foundations 1D0-410* *1 The Internet and the World Wide Web (Deadline: March 30)* *2 E-mail, FTP, Newsgroups, and Telnet (Deadline: April 1)* *3 Objects, Plug-Ins, Viewers, and Security (Deadline: April 6)* *4 Search Engines and E-Commerce (Deadline: April 8)* *5 Web Page Authoring and HTML Coding (Deadline: April 12)* *6 Graphical Elements, Hyperlinks, and Tables (Deadline: April 15)* *7 Forms, Images, and Frames (Deadline: April 20)* *8 HTML Editors and Extensions (Deadline: April 22)* *9 Networking, Protocols, LANs, and WANs (optional)* *10 TCP/IP, Internet Addressing, and Servers (optional)* *11 Scripting, Connectivity, and Security (optional)* *12 Practice Exam for Internet Fundamentals (Deadline: April 27)* *13 Practice Exam for Web Page Authoring Fundamentals (Deadline: May 4)* *14 Practice Exam for Networking Fundamentals (optional)*
April 6	Complete all of the following discussions: Look at the WebCT Discussion on: What do employers want? We are going to try and find out what employers are looking for. I would like you to email an ISP (Internet Service Provider such as zianet.com, cia-g.com, 7cities.net, etc.) or you can contact a local Cibola County business that hires people with computer skills (such as Channel 10 and Sky City Casino). Use the interview questions we created in the last discussion. Feel free to call a local ISP if you don’t get an email response by April 1. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Classified Ads Check the classified ads in the Albuquerque journal under the link for Computer Personnel (sometimes Technical has jobs too). If you check on Sunday, you’ll find the most ads. Check other sources such as Monster.com as well. What kind of web design skills are employers looking for? Where did you find the most web design jobs listed? What part of the United States had the most web design jobs? Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Web Masters Find a website you like. Email the webmaster. Use our interview questions and try to get some tips on how you might be a web master too. Find a local website. Interview the webmaster and see if they are a full time web designer and if they think there is a local job market for web designers. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Needs of Local Businesses Search the internet and make a list of local businesses that have websites. What are some businesses in town who you think need to have a website? Why? Pretend you are hired by that business to make a website. What kinds of questions do you need to ask them to know what kind of website to make?
April 12	Midterm 1) Set up a website that features your skills, goals, etc. for potential employers. Be sure to include a list jobs you’d be interested in for the future (list skills the companies want). 2) Set up a web page template that people can pay you to fill in with their information. I’ll set up some examples to show you. Have a price sheet and list of other services (or set up some other kind of web business). This assignment is flexible as to the number of pages. Have a minimum of two pages and set these up on Geocities (or another free website).
April 15	Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Programming Languages Research on the internet. Find websites that have information about different web related programming languages. Find at least five websites that each cover a different programming language related to web design. Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Cup of Java Research on the internet and find websites about Java and JavaScript. In your Discussion posting, answer the question: What is the difference between Java and JavaScript? Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Server side vs. Client side By searching on the internet answer the following questions: What is the different between server side programs and client side programs? Give examples of each.
April 20	LAB: Try one of the following web design programming languages or programs that you never tried before: (JavaScript, Java, Flash, other?) You can come in during the lab times in room 124 do try some of these or you can work on your own. Post your finished product in the Discussion room.
April 22	Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Shopping Online Research free shopping cart software on the internet such as PayPal and Yahoo. Security is the important issue. What kind of security do these shopping cart companies offer? Why can’t you just create a form on your website to act as a shopping cart or simply ask people to send you their credit card information by email?
April 27	Look at the WebCT Discussion on: The Spy Who Bugged Me What is spyware? Research this topic on the internet and share your findings. Find names of common spyware, try to find tips on how to keep your computer free of spyware, and take a look at software to clean up spyware such as spybot and ad-aware. Bonus to anyone who tries a clean up software such as spybot or ad-aware and shares their results.
May 7	Final 1) Create a second template that people can pay you to customize. 2) Set up a shopping cart on website so people can pay you for your templates and other web services.

Getting Started with WebCT

Tentative Schedule for OECS 216 (subject to change)

Take a look at the following WebCT Discussions. The following discussions require some research and response time so you’ll want to start your research now. All the discussions below will be due April 6 but you’ll be doing some surveys (which require time for a response), so please start now.

Look at the WebCT Discussion on: What do employers want?

Look at the WebCT Discussion on: What do employers want?

Look at the WebCT Discussion on: Shopping Online

Final

1) Create a second template that people can pay you to customize.

2) Set up a shopping cart on website so people can pay you for your templates and other web services.