Syllabus

COMM 540 A&B– Interactive Design

Fall 2018

DESCRIPTION

This course maps the divide between genres of communication traditionally taught in print or traditional forms of electronic communication to those that are now operating in digital environments where various “multimedia” are converging into a single, integrated meta-medium of practices, known as interactive writing and design.

The aim of the course is to provide the student the fundamentals of Web programming by establishing a strong foundation in the syntax and structure of coding languages. The course will enable students to identify appropriate technologies and employ applicable problem-solving techniques to solve errors. Projects cover layout, navigation, mobile design strategy, and compatibility with legacy browsers.

GOAL

Understand compositional techniques associated with producing textual information in an interactive, computer mediated environment for news and strategic communications, how to conduct factual research, compose nonfiction articles, and create textual interactive content such as timelines, polls, and quizzes, and to assemble the elements into a single narrative.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Remediate printed discourse creatively and appropriately into interactive media environments and evaluate work in critically informed ways
Write clear and accurate code, employing best practices and avoiding redundancies or logical fallacies
Conceive and carry out interactive writing/design projects that engage diverse audiences on a variety of levels, both domestically and globally
Participate in and contributing to an interactive community of writer/designers; which are especially necessary in the creation of texts for institutions, businesses, and civic organizations
Use a variety of tools of technology (software and hardware) to create interactive media content for digital delivery
Understand the fundamentals of computer architecture and how it defines programming concepts
Grasp the essential concepts and basic syntax of a number of Web coding languages, with a focus on the ability to debug errors
Expand on static Web design by incorporating interactive, animated, and dynamic content
Create Websites using form and design elements that reinforce the intended perception of the content
Create content that adjusts fluidly to varying platforms and screen sizes

CLASS REQUIREMENTS

Unique URL and hosting package of your own (Reclaim Hosting)
Hard drive for classwork, hard drive for backup
Textbook (optional): CSS: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarlane
Textbook (optional): CSS Secrets by Lea Verou
Textbook (optional): Javascript & jQuery by Jon Duckett
The class blog can be found at: https://blogs.elon.edu/com540/

GRADED WORK

CSS formatting project: Resume (positioning, favicons, smooth scroll, named anchors, flexbox, pseudo-elements)	20%
Responsive Design Frameworks: Skeleton, Ratchet, Bootstrap	20%
CSS Animation, audio/video, parallax, & JS DOM Control	20%
Google Maps	20%
Modernizr group project	20%

Any changes to this syllabus, including the assessment of graded work, may change throughout the Semester. Changes that arise will be discussed in class.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

HTML5 /CSS3: Advanced Topics
CSS Positioning techniques
CSS backgrounds, gradients, BG elements beyond the wrapper
Basic JavaScript for Web design
Favicons, named anchors
Using Smooth Scroll, Font Awesome, lettering.js, other basic JS plugins
Pseudo-classes, pseudo-selectors
‘Holy Grail,’ Flexbox

Assignment: CSS Resume (Flex)

Responsive Design and Frameworks
Media queries / responsive concepts (Ethan Marcotte readings)
Intro to JQM, Skeleton and Bootstrap
C. Designing for grid systems

Assignment: Responsive site

III. Mobile site design

Best practices for mobile
Viewports, apple touch icons, other <head> considerations
Width, button sizes, ‘max-width: 100%;’ display:none;
Touch screens, mobile optimization
CSS3 Animation
@keyframes and browser prefixes
Playing with transparency
The Z-axis and CSS transforms
Parallax design and animating on scroll
Skrollr
Stellar.js
Wow.js
GreenSock
Writing your own JS scroll detector
SASS: An Introduction

Assignment: CSS Animations and Parallax Project

Updating existing sites
Testing in multiple browsers, ‘Inspect Element’
B. Intro to IE Issues, IE conditional statements
Testing with IE
The <table> tag and old design strategies
Modernizr and HTML5Shiv

Assignment: Update a site to work in all popular browsers.

ELON HONOR CODE

Elon’s honor pledge calls for a commitment to Elon’s shared values of Honesty, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility. To be clear about what constitutes violations of these values, students should be familiar with the Judicial Affairs policies in the student handbook, including violations outlined at:

http://www.elon.edu/eweb/students/handbook/honor.xhtml.

Students with questions about the specific interpretation of these values and violations as they relate to this course should contact this instructor immediately. Violations in academic-related areas will be documented in an incident report to be maintained in the Office of Student Conduct, and may result in a lowering of the course grade and/or failure of the course with an Honor Code F.

Violations specifically covered by academic honor code policies include: plagiarism, cheating, lying, stealing and the facilitation of another’s dishonesty. Multiple violations will normally result in a student’s temporary suspension from the University.
ATTENDANCE POLICY

Students in the Department of Communications are expected to attend all classes. Just as professionals go to work each day, we expect students in a professional school to come to class on time and be prepared to work.

A student who misses more than 20 percent of scheduled classes in a term (more than eight absences for classes meeting three times a week, more than five absences for classes meeting twice a week, more than three absences for classes meeting once a week) automatically receives an F because the student has missed too much content and participation to pass a course in a professional school.

Teachers will lower the final grade in a class for each absence beyond the equivalent of one week of class (three absences for classes meeting three times a week, two absences for classes meeting twice a week, and one absence during winter term, a summer session or a once-a-week class during a regular semester) as indicated in the course syllabus.

Exceptions exist for individual class absences for observance of a recognized religious holiday and for absences for participating in sanctioned university activities. Students participating in such events must follow policy as stated in the student handbook.

ELON DISABILITIES SERVICES

If you are a student with a documented disability who will require accommodations in this course, please register with Disabilities Services in the Duke Building, Room 108 (278-6500), for assistance in developing a plan to address your academic needs. For more information about Disabilities Services, please visit the website
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/support/disabilities_services.xhtml.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS POLICIES

In supporting religious diversity, Elon has a policy and procedures for students who wish to observe religious holidays that are in conflict with the academic calendar, allowing students an excused absence. Students who wish to observe a holiday during the semester must complete the online Religious Observance Notification Form (RONF), available at the following website within the first two weeks of the semester. http://www.elon.edu/e-web/students/religious_life/ReligiousHolidays.xhtml

This policy does not apply during the final examination period. Students are required to make prior arrangements with the instructor for completion of any work missed during the absence. Once the completed RONF is received, the Truitt Center will confirm the excused absence with notification to the instructor and the appropriate academic dean, along with a copy to the student. Students may contact the Truitt Center staff with any questions (336-278-7729).

Pages

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