Assignments and Evaluation (Winter 2012)
- Class Contribution (10 marks)
- Labs (learning assignments, not graded)
- Usability by example assignments (8 x 6 = 48 marks)
- Website design and construction project (42 marks)
*Marks are raw scores that are totaled at the end of the course and converted to the University of Alberta's letter grading scale.
All assignments must be professional in appearance. Spelling, grammar and overall professionalism will be considered in the grading process in addition to other aspects of the assignments. Extensions will only be granted with appropriate documentation (e.g., a doctor's note) in advance of an assignment's due date. Late assignments will be assessed a penalty of 10% of the assignment value per day (i.e., if the assignment value is 30 marks the late penalty is 3 marks per day). Some late assignments will not be accepted (e.g., usability by example assignments).
Class Contribution
This represents individual contribution for the benefit of the entire class, and is intended to encourage all students to actively participate in the learning process. This includes (but is not limited to): class discussion, small-group interaction, preparatory reading, attendance, attitude, providing additional resources, etc. Comments, criticism, and questions are expected to be relevant to the topic, to reflect preparatory reading on the topic, and are expected to be respectful of other students and the instructor. Anticipated absence from class must be communicated to the instructor prior to the class. At the end of the course, in class time, you will be given the opportunity to submit a brief self-assessment of class contribution which will be considered when assigning your class contribution marks.
Labs
Labs are intended to help you learn XHTML and CSS concepts and skills,
and / or further develop your understanding of the topics covered each
week. These are individual learning assignments and are not graded. It is
your decision how you want to make use of the lab materials, but your
Usability by Example assignments must demonstrate that you have
acquired the techniques and skills covered in the labs. You will also
need to know these techniques and skills well in order to complete the
Website design and construction project successfully.
In-class time will be provided for each of the labs, and the instructor will be available during the lab sessions for questions and feedback. To make full use of the in-class lab time, you are encouraged to go through the lab materials before the class so that in class you can focus on asking questions and applying techniques covered in the lab to your usability by example assignment.
You do not need to
submit lab reports, but you may find it beneficial to your learning if
you keep notes of the problems and solutions during the lab activities
as well as of the thinking that has gone into figuring out the
solutions. Keep the submission items listed in the lab instructions to
yourself. (You may want to create a website to organize and keep track
of your
work for this course including all labs and assignments since they are
all in a Web format anyway.)
Details of the labs are either available on the Tentative Schedule page or will be distributed in class. These lab assignments relate to course objectives #2 and #4.
Usability by example
This assignment is designed to help enhance your understanding of major topics of this course through examples and collaborative learning. Before class, you will first do the preparatory readings, and summarize key points from the readings. You will then apply what you have learned from the readings to the evaluation of two websites, and present your individual work as a web page using the XHTML and CSS techniques you have learned. In class, you will share and enhance your learning through group work and class discussion. Based on enhanced understanding of the topic, each group will synthesize your individual work, and submit a single report for evaluation.
Details of the assignment will be explained in class. This assignment relates to course objectives #1 to #4.
Website design and construction
This assignment provides an opportunity to develop your individual web
design and implementation skills. You will create a small website for a
library or information service of an organization of your choice based
either on a real organization, or on a hypothetical one that could
reasonably exist in the world. You will first identify the purpose of
the website and contextual issues and constraints, analyze its target
audience, and design an information architecture for the website. You
will then put your design skills to work by creating a prototype of the
site's main pages by hand-coding XHTML and CSS (i.e., not using
Dreamweaver or other web design software).
Details of the assignment will be explained in class. This assignment relates to course objectives #1, #2, and #4.
