Welcome to COIN74A Adobe Dreamweaver
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- Getting Started
Your Course
This course is an introduction to Dreamweaver CS4, the most recent version of Dreamweaver as of this writing. Please check with the instructor if you wish to use an earlier version of Dreamweaver. And be aware that the screen shots in the lessons are taken using Dreamweaver CS4 in Mac OS 10. If you are using a PC or an older version of Dreamweaver, you may see slightly different menus on your screen.
This is a graphics intensive course. If you are logging on from a dial up modem of 56k or less, please be patient and factor your download time when preparing your schedule for reading the class lectures. I normally would not create a web page with data over 40k, however, in this class I have many images for you to view and analyze and I want to generate the lowest file size yet maintain the highest quality of the image. Detailed images, explanations, pages with movies and multimedia are used on each of the pages in the lessons.
In addition to needing your own copy of Dreamweaver (unless you are using the software on the school labs), you will need the latest Flash Player. You can download the FREE flash player from the Browser Tune-Up section later in this page.
I am using the curriculum originally developed by Marcia Ganales; it includes online lectures with hands on projects, homework from the lectures, and individual projects. All the materials in this website are copyrighted. The images, content, and design of the course are copyrighted by Marcia P. Ganeles, Robert Cormia, and Paula Schales .
Dreamweaver CS4
The current version of Dreamweaver is CS4. It is an amazing application for designing web pages, writing HTML, as well as Coldfusion, Javascript, XML, and XHTML. It is definitely a step above CS3, so my advice is if you can afford it, purchase the student version of Dreamweaver CS4. It is possible to use CS3, but the screen shots won't be identical, and the menus may be different as well.
Educational Software Companies - Software for less with current student ID card. Contact Admissions and Records to get instructions on how to get your Student ID card. The college bookstore should also have copies available.
http://www.software4less.com/
http://www.creationengine.com/
http://www.campustech.com/
http://www.journeyed.com/
http://www.edtech-cps.com/
Your Instructor
Hello and Welcome! I'm Robert Cormia, your instructor for this course. I have been teaching HTML, XML, Web design, and Informatics for several years. My background includes 10 years on the Internet, including an emphasis in e-commerce and Web marketing, and at Foothill College a focus in online teaching.
I have taught Dreamweaver classes since version 3.0 and used it when I was a Web developer for an Internet software company during the dot.com boom. I now train in HTML, Dreamweaver and teaching online. Before my Internet life I was a technologist in materials science, practicing 'nanotechnology' in the early days. Today I also work in informatics, including the use of XML and RDF to support Semantic Web technologies.
Your Classmates
Our current class roster includes students with a diverse list of skills and broad range of experience. Some students have no Internet or design experience and others are professionals in the digital media arena. You will get to know your classmates by selecting a different one every couple of weeks to be your code reviewer and study-buddy.
Your Buddy and Code Reviews
Please team up with one or more buddies each week. Your buddies will review your homework files from a computer OTHER than yours AFTER you upload your work to your web server space. This buddy process will provide you with the opportunity to check one another's work and ensure that you don't submit broken links or broken media to us. It will also sharpen your skills at analyzing code. This skill is critical to develop if you want to design web pages and/or work on a web development team in any capacity.
Have your buddy check all your links and images from their computer while online. You may *NOT* code the path to your links and images correctly and the images may still appear fine to you when you view your site through your authoring or local computer. You'll think you've done everything right. Images that are not coded to the proper path may still show up properly on your local computer if they are cached. However, once you upload your files to the web and have someone view your site on a computer that doesn't have the images cached, you may be in for a surprise, as the images won't display. The user will see broken image icons (and you'll lose points on your assignments).
It is a requirement to select at least one different buddy every couple of weeks and inform me who you selected as your buddy or buddies. The detailed and step by step instructions in the homework submission page will tell you how to inform me of your buddy for each assignment submission.
Please read more about the success of collaborative learning in my teaching philosophy statement. Click on the Classroom Link of ETUDES in the left My Teaching Philosophy from the Classroom Sessions links.
This class is designed for the beginning student with no knowledge of Dreamweaver. We will work through the basic exercises in the online lectures to gather a solid foundation of the DW's technology. If you're interested in discussing intermediate or advanced topics, this will not be the appropriate forum as I don't want to overwhelm the beginners for whom this course is designed. There is no required book for this quarter.
Lesson Distribution
The online lectures and the associated assignments are distributed and due based on the links in the Classroom and Assignments menus of Etudes. I have released all the lessons at once, including links to the course web site at http://fgamedia.org/faculty/rdcormia/COIN74A/. It is your responsibility to monitor the ETUDES Assignments, Tasks, and Surveys Link for the due dates and specified times for submission of homework and to check the Announcements Forums for updates or revisions to the course content and schedule. There will be several days after your final is due when you are required to participate in a review and critique of classmates' work. If a homework link has expired, you may not be able to get full credit for your assignment. Please do not request extensions for submitting
Homework Submission
Each week your assignments will be due on the date and time specified in the ETUDES Tasks, Tests and Surveys LINK for that assignment. Any assignment turned in after the due date may be considered late and marked down one grade. Please read the How to Submit Homework page carefully. You may be dropped from the course if you miss more than two homework submissions.
Please complete and upload your homework leaving plenty of time before the deadline. I can only assign points in Etudes through the appropriate submission fields for each assignment. I understand that the first couple of weeks you will have a lot of information on the ETUDES interface in addition to your Dreamweaver work so I am flexible during this time and am very available to help you to be successful early on in the course, so don't worry, I'm here to help!
Naming Conventions for Homework
To ensure consistent naming for project files, please follow these instructions for naming your projects. Please follow standard Web naming conventions, including index.html or index.htm. In addition, you will have a master file named HW.html or HW.html, which will have a list of homework requirements, with each requirement linked into your website, so that I may quickly navigate to any of your homework submissions. Please be careful if you rename files - you will see how Dreamweaver asks you to update linked files when you rename a file through the site window.
If you use the school's server to store your files for this class, make certain that all your folders and files are inside the public_html folder on the UNIX server. Inside that folder you may organize your content as you wish, as long as it is organized, and allows me to navigate to the precise page and location of artifacts satisfying a homework requirement.
There will be times when you'll be told to open a Dreamweaver file that you've already created and make modifications to the document. Use the File Menu - File>Save As command and re-name the file if you're saving to a different folder.
The following file formats will be used for all this course:
- dreamweaver - .html or .htm
- embedded Flash movie - .swf
- graphics - .jpg .gif and/or .png image files - please do NOT use .bmp images
- text files - .txt
Your UNIX Accounts
We have prepared a set of instructions that you can follow to set up your Unix account. You will upload your homework into the public_html folder. Once you ftp (upload) your files to your UNIX accounts the files can be viewed over the Internet as web pages. The Foothill UNIX server requires a secure FTP (SFTP) connection -- you can use DW CS4 as your FTP client, as this version provides SFTP. You can see all the accounts as they have been set up for the course at http://krypton.fhda.edu. Look for the section that you have registered for and then click on the section in which you are registered. It will look something like coin74a.02w. Each of these accounts will have Unix accounts available. Email Luis if you have any questions (he supports the Unix accounts, not faculty).
Grading Criteria
Please click here to see my grading criteria. You will be dropped or assigned a grade of "W" if you miss 2 homework submissions or fail two homework submissions.
Academic Dishonesty
Please click on this link to view Foothill College's Academic Dishonesty page with a link to our Academic Honor Code for Internet Based Courses. When you create your online course, you can replace these links with the Academic Dishonesty policy of your school.
What it's like to take an Online Class
The success of an online course depends on your participation in our virtual community. The class will provide the most success when you use our Discussion Forums for sharing ideas, links, questions, successes and challenges relating to the course. You'll be amazed how dynamic this course can become by your participation in these discussions. The most successful online method has emphasized communication between students, their peers and the instructors.
Before you post a question to our discussion forum, please DO A SEARCH on a keyword of your question. Include the archives in your search.
I will respond to your questions within 24 hours, except on weekends and holidays or if I am at a conference. I may respond to your questions during weekends and holidays. Grades and feedback are usually posted 1-2 days after they were submitted. Assignments, essays, and projects take longer to evaluate. Please check the ETUDES information link to learn how to view your grades and read the instructor's comments on your assignments.
Here are a few tips to make your online class experience most successful:
- It's helpful to have your class online lessons displayed with your DW program launched so you can follow along the step by step exercises as if you were sitting in a lecture room.
- Check the forums daily or more frequently if possible and participate in course discussions. Remember to SEARCH first, before asking a question. The question may have already been addressed.
- Do a search in the forums to see if there is a thread on your topic as soon as you realize that you don't understand something and/or feel stuck. Don't be ashamed or embarrassed if you don't understand something.
- Schedule a set amount of time each week to dedicate to this course. Establish a routine and structure your time. The recommendations for online courses are often more than listed here for traditional courses. For every hour in class, students should count 2 hours of study time out of class. So, for a 3 unit class, students should expect to spend nine hours total. The hours will vary with experience, study skills, and motivation.
- Keep up with the class. Don't assume you can do it all the last week of class. You can be dropped if you miss 2 assignment submissions or have not logged into ETUDES for a week.
- You may find that I have repeated certain thing several times in a lesson. Often people absorb more in traditional auditory classes than online so repetition is designed into the lessons for online training.
- Save all submitted projects as you may need to revise them for future projects and submit both for homework.
- Back up all your work at every stage of development and keep copies of all homework assignments and projects that you submit to me. Excuses of lost work, crashed systems, disk errors, etc. are not necessarily acceptable reasons for not turning in assignments on time. Late homework and lack of attendance or participation may result in a grade loss for each late assignment or assignment redo for not following instructions. Save every time you do something! Save often and back up!
- Please refer to the ETUDES tutorial if you are a first time user of this system - it's a good beginning guide.
Netiquette for our Student Lounge
To get the most from the online environment:
- Log on often each week.
- Make significant contributions to the class.
- Respect your peers' input and insight.
- Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say to someone's face.
Clearly, unless one is extremely talented at expressing oneself through writing, communicating effectively online is a major challenge. When communicating online, expect to be misunderstood. This is a college classroom. Inappropriate behavior, spamming or flaming will result in expulsion from the course.
Ground Rules and Expectations
This course is a 12 week course. Log on several times a week to read announcements, the weekly lesson, find a code review buddy, submit the check message, respond to a question in the forums. You are expected to do all assignments and course projects on time. You are expected to drop the course by the required date through the Admissions and Records Office; however, the instructor can drop you if you are not meeting the objectives and requirements of the course. You are expected to complete the final project and demonstrate comprehension of the required competencies in your final project. Your final project should illustrate that you have enough understanding of the program and its applications to continue to the next level of study.
I expect you will check Foothill's Academic Calendar for holidays, last day to submit Pass/No Pass requests, last day to drop, etc. and Foothill's Online Library to assist in research projects.
I expect we will all work hard, learn a lot, and HAVE FUN! And please do NOT compare yourself to others in the class. Remember that we all enter this course with different skills and experiences. Just do your best and keep open lines of communication. I will work with you.
Class Errata
Please notify me by email rdcormia@earthlink.net if you find typos, incorrect information, or broken links! I reserve the right to change, amend, correct, add, or delete material from this website as conditions warrant and for clarity.
