University of North Texas
Department of Library and Information Science
SLIS 5960 Advanced Website Design
Course Details:
- Instructor: Jimmy Newland
- Contact: newton@jayfox.net; Facebook; Twitter
- Meeting Times: 1/26, 2/9, 2/23, 3/8, 4/5, & 4/26
- Meeting Place: M. D. Anderson Library University of Houston Lab10G
- Online Coursework: Blackboard Vista (eCampus)
Course Description:
Advanced Web Site Development. 3 hours. This course is designed to meet the needs
of librarians / information professionals in creating web 2.0 applications at an
introductory level.
Course Objectives:
Upon completion of the course students will be able to:
- identify current trends and technologies related to advanced web design
- create a multi-mode standards-compliant web 2.0 information resource (a web site)
- understand usability and accessibility issues as they relate to information organization and retrieval
- create simple web applications to meet specific information-resource needs
Course Philosophy:
In reality, web design is a creative, messy, frustrating, and fun effort
involving lots of planning and lots of coding that is meant to be done in
small groups.
Generally the goal of this course is to create a knowledge base from a
set of experiences centered around designing, deploying, and maintaining
a moderately complicated set of web applications. Specifically, when
appropriate, an effort will be made to offer these experiences in the
domain of library and information science as a whole.
Mainly, learning to create the sorts of leading-edge web applications
used in library systems is the overall goal.
Texts for the course:
- HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide) – book website
- PHP for the World Wide Web, 4th Ed. – book website
Assessment:
There will be in-class and online assignments, in-class and online
discussions, individual project work, group project work, and exam work.
All assignments will be given a point value. Grades are assigned based
on points earned as a percentage of all possible points.
- A: 90% or higher
- B: 80% – 89%
- C: 70% – 79%
- D: 60% – 69%
- F: < 60%
Assignments will be turned in via FTP to the assigned web folder.
These are the projects we will be working on throughout the semester:
- 40% Group Project: Registration Application (using all the tools from the course)
- 20% Individual Assignments:
- Creating headers and footers;
- Implenting a JavaScript navigation menu;
- Creating a Mail-form;
- Creating an interactive database-driven menu;
- Implementing a web-log (“blog”)
- 20% Online Discussions: Discussions & Online Assignments via WebCT
- 20% Course Participation: Involvement in face-to-face coursework as well as online coursework (attendance appreciated!).
Students with Special Needs:
Any student with a disability that will require accommodation under the
terms of federal regulations must present a written accommodation
request to the instructor on or before the second class meeting. Copies
of the School’s ADA Compliance Policy, ADA Policy on Auxiliary Aids and
Reasonable Accommodation, and ADA Grievance Procedures are available
through the School Office (ISB 205; 940-565-2445). It is also
recommended that the student register with the Office of Disability
Accommodation (University Union 318-A; 940-565-4323).
Schedule(course calendar):
In-Class (assignments page)
- HTML Review: Chs 1 – 17 (quick overview)
- Introductions
- HTML & CSS review
- PHP: Ch 1 Getting started with PHP
- PHP: Ch 2 Variables
- PHP: Ch 3 – 5
- PHP Variables and HTML Forms
- Manipulating web data with PHP
- Using Numbers and Strings
- PHP: Ch 6 – 7
- Control Structures and Arrays
- Making Web Apps: Sticky Forms and Sending Email
- PHP: Ch 12
- Introduction to MySQL
- Creating a simple blogging tool
- PHP: Ch 12 cont’d
- Adding Entries to a blog with PHP
- Editing and Deleting entries from a blog with PHP
- Last meeting:
- Final Presentations
Online
- Embedded Technology Threaded Discussion
- Interactive PHP & HTML assignments
Scripts & Notes
Test and view the code for scripts. The assignments page has a list of what assignments should be completed.
Downloads
- Windows Downloads
- Download the free FTP client – Filezilla.
- Notepad++ is a great free text & web-code editing tool.
- Mac Downloads
- Download the free FTP client – Filezilla (Intel Macs).
- TextWrangler from BareBones Software


