Note: The deadline for registering for this course is 16. August 2019 at 1 pm. You can register on http://studentweb.uib.nohttp://studentweb.uib.no

If you haven't registered within the deadline, 16. August, you can register for the course by sending an e-mail to Studierettleiar@lle.uib.no

This course is an introduction to the coding aspect in Digital Culture. It builds partly on DIKULT101 and DIKULT104, students are therefore advised to take the courses in this order.

The course is about making the right decisions for laying out information and content for different user groups on the web. We emphasize best practice in all aspects of this course: academic analysis, practical aesthetics, and practical coding. The teaching, the activities and the parts of the portfolio combine these, and reflect the main goal to understand how information can and should be represented on the web in different ways.

The analytical part entails training in sharp observation in information architecture, design and code in one's own and peers' work and public web sites. Students will also be trained in verbalizing these observations within the frame of the academic genre (written analysis with formal requirements to argumentation, citing, illustrating etc.).

The aesthetic aspect entails training in understanding and using conventions, both in traditional and web-specific design, to create efficient and pleasant web sites and evoke moods.

The coding aspect entails training in preparing texts for viewing on the web in ways that they are correctly interpreted by machines and browsers (semantic coding), and in separating content and presentation (CSS).

All these aspects are used in the topics: writing for the web (how to use hypertext and other conventions), information architecture (how to categorize contents and differentiates between mental models and different forms of navigation), usability and user testing (how to make the use efficient and effective), accessibility (how to cater to, e.g., blind users), responsivity (how to design a web site so that it can flexibly viewed on different devices).

The students have ample space to contribute with self-found web sites and resources to exemplify good and bad practice within each of these aspects.

The web sites produced in this course are static. There is no support for server side scripting nor use of database.

This course leads to DIKULT205, where the knowledge and the skills acquired are broadened by using server side scripting and databases, and by seeing web design in a frame of rhetoric and multi-modality.

Knowledge

The candidate has knowledge...

• about background coding in modern web sites with HTML and CSS
• about best practice in tagging text and other content
• about theories and conventions in web design, e.g. balance, colour, lines
• about famous web designers
• about different ways to convey a given content to specific user groups

Skills

The candidate can...

• write both HTML and CSS to present both existing and self-written content (texts, images, other media)
• use theories and conventions to create design
• code web sites for different and specific user groups
• analyse design measures and genres in modern web sites
• write a critical report around the practical work with a web site, including justification of choices made

General competence

The candidate can...

• organize group work and negotiate tasks and strategies to achieve the best possible result
• critically assess their own and their peers' work
• present and justify choices of their own work in front of a larger group and under time pressure.

There are fourteen weeks of teaching and lab sessions, and one lecture-free reading week. There are two activities per week: one lecture (two hours) and a lab session with a student assistant (three hours). Some lectures may be prolonged. The syllabus is downloadable at Mitt UiB at semester start.

It is important that the students are present at the orientation meeting in week 33, before the teaching starts.

The course has a steep learning curve. It is of utmost importance that the students are present and prepared from the first lecture and the first lab session. This includes following the instructions given at Mitt UiB even before the teaching starts. The students must be prepared for each lecture and lab session, since these always actively include the students in discussions about the topics. Sometimes homework is given (solve a minor coding task, find examples for principles set forth in the literature and at the lectures, etc.)

The total amount of work expected from students in this course is 20 hours per week, starting at semester start before the teaching and ending with the last submission, and including reading week. These hours should be used to prepare and attend lectures and lab sessions, to read course liteature, to do homework, to write assignments and the portfolio, and to gather relevant material at the library and on the web (books, articles, videos).

The students are expected to use the reading week reading, coding and writing.

We may invite the students to relevant guest lectures and events conducted by Digital Culture.

If less than five students are registered to a course, the department might reduce the teaching, please see the department's guidelines regarding this on Mitt UiB. Regarding a course where this is a possibility the students get information about this at the beginning of the semester, and before the deadline regarding semesterregistration 1.February/1.September.

Attendance is mandatory, effective for all teaching activities. The attendance is logged and approved by the teacher. If the absence exceeds 25 per cent of lectures and/or lab sessions, the student must provide a doctor's note for the absence. There will be no credits for the course if this requirement is not met.

There is mandatory tutoring for the first two parts of the portfolio. It is given as feedback at plenary presentations at the lectures and/or the groups

The student must hand in an analysis of about 2000 words. The topic and the submission date are announced early in the semester. The student must diligently comment some other students' work in writing (peer review). The teacher approves this activity.

The student must participate in a collaborative coding activity (group work). The topic and the composition of the group will be determined in the course of the semester. The teacher approves this activity. The insight won in this activity is part of the final semester report (see: Forms of Assessment).

There is mandatory tutoring for the first two parts. It is given as feedback at plenary presentations at the lectures and/or the groups.

The requirements have to be approved by the teacher before the portfolio is handed in. They must follow academic standard for argumentation, citing and illustrating. The students get the results and a short comment on their work shortly after submission. If the work is not approved, the student has one more try.

A portfolio consisting of three parts:

1. a self-coded web site with emphasis on design and form, showing mastering of HTML and CSS
2. a self-coded web site with emphasis on information architecture and navigation, showing mastering of conveying information to different user groups and devices
3. a semester report showing the student's insight in own progression and choices made in own coding, and the group process (see Compulsory Assignments)

There is only one general grade for the whole portfolio. The two coding assignments have equal weight, the report has adjusting character.

The assignments can be in English and/or Norwegian.

All of the parts of the examination must be completed in the semester of teaching.

We use a course book in HTML5 and CSS3, and a few specialized books about design, technology and information architecture. These readings are completed with books excerpts, articles etc. which are downloadable from Mitt UiB. We expect students to actively complete the readings with self-found material, and to keep themselves updated by following design blogs and collections, and generally use web resources in their own work. Suggestions of such sources are given in reading lists and at the lectures.

All material is in principle in English. The students may refer to sources in other languages.

The reading list (as far as ready beforehand) is downloadable at Mitt UiB before the semester start. It will be completed subsequently. The material is available at Akademika or as e-books before semester start.