COAP:COAP-3120

Introduction

Disclaimer: This is not the official syllabus or course program. EdutechWiki is just used as support site.
The course is organized in weekly programs (available through the menu to the right...)

The course-level outcomes as announced in the syllabus are:

Design a web page using Cascading Style
Code pages using inline and external styles
Evaluate web page styles
Edit and code external style sheet files
Create pages that display effective use of images, color, backgrounds
Explain the differences between inline, embedded, external style
Be able to explain when and where various styles should be used

Practical learning outcomes:

Be able to create web pages that are visually pleasing
Be able to adapt existing style-sheets (e.g. for a portal)
Understand some visual design principles

Subjects/fields covered (somewhat)

CSS
Some HTML 4, HTML 5, XHTML
Some web design principles
Web style
Some User experience and user experience design principles

Weekly programs

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5 (and mid-term)

Grading scale

A	3.8	Very good		92.00	
A-	3.5	Almost very good	89.00
B+	3.1	Pretty good 		85.00
B	2.8	Good			82.00
B-	2.5	Reasonably good		79.00
C+	2.1	Fair	   		75.00
C	1.8	Rather weak / minim.	72.00
C-	1.5	Minimalist / Weak	69.00
D+	1.1	Pass
D	0.8     Pass			62.00

Software

(1) Komposer

Download: http://www.kompozer.net/download.php
Take the development version 0.8b3 (2010-02-28)

(2) Notetab or another HTML/CSS aware programming editor

Download for Notetab: http://www.notetab.com/downloads.php
See Web authoring systems and text editors for alternatives.

(3) Various Firefox browser extensions

(more to be announced)

HTML VALIDATOR is a Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing. The details of the errors are seen when looking the HTML source of the page.
There doesn't seem to be an integrated CSS validator. For convenience, you can install CSS Validator which will use the online W3C CSS Validator. Since it will forward an URL, your page must be published on a web site.
Web Developer and DOM Inspector. Tells you most everything about your HTML page.
ColorZilla includes an Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
Codeburner for Firefox provides searchable reference information and code examples for HTML and CSS. It's a standalone version of the original CodeBurner for Firebug, but with an independent interface, and more dedicated search tools.

Important teaching materials

Contents addressed within these texts may come up in exam questions. You are not required to memorize any of these, but be able to retrieve information.

Mandatory reading

Selected sections from the "official textbook": Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design, York, Wiley Pub./Wrox, 3rd edition, ISBN: 978-0470891520

Recommended free on-line textbooks

Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton, Web Style Guide.
Horton, Sarah (2005). Access by Design (online) at Universal Usability: A universal design approach to web usability.

On-line HTML and CSS manual

http://reference.sitepoint.com/
CSS Reference at w3Schools.com (includes CSS3)

Handouts

CSS tutorial (a quick CSS summary)
CSS text styling tutorial (several textbook chapters summarized with respect to week 2 topic)
CSS color and background tutorial (week 3 topic, summarizes chapter 7 or textbook and adds extra CSS3 information)
CSS box model tutorial (week 4)
CSS float tutorial (week 4)
CSS positioning tutorial (weeks 5/6)