Web Design II
Undergraduate course
- ECTS credits
- 15
- Teaching semesters
- Spring
- Course code
- DIKULT205
- Number of semesters
- 1
- Teaching language
- English
- Resources
- Schedule
- Reading list
Course description
Objectives and Content
The course builds directly on Dikult105. The students are expected to have and use all knowledge and skills acquired in Dikult 105 (for example: semantic coding, CSS, writing for web, information architecture, navigation, usability, accessibility, responsivity, insight in design principles). These will not not be taught or repeated. If a student does not take Dikult205 immediately after Dikult 105, they are required to acquire the content of the preceding semester by themselves.
Building on this background, this course provides an in-depth training both in dynamic generating web sites, and web site analysis with an emphasis on rhetorical and ethical questions. The course has interrelated technical and theoretical components.
In the technical, programming component, the students learn to create, publish and maintain dynamic web sites with server-generated content from a database, and client-generated appearance with script. The students learn about database optimization and efficient use of scripting in self-made web sites, for example login for administrators and members, to show blog entries, to create search functions, to prevent security hole exploit, and to show amounts of data and information (tables, infographics).
These technical, programming components are a concrete aspect of the theoretical frame. The students learn about classic rhetorics and to which extent this is a useful tool to understand power structures and persuasion strategies on the web. They learn about multimodality, about design and societal discourse into which they place their own work.
The course topicalizes ethical problems, for example copyright problems, or moderator responsibility when a web site is open for public contributions, and when the designer or editor does not have control over the data which are produced.
The course offers training in combining programming skills and design and rhetorical knowledge to create appealing and engaging web sites with present given information in different ways with different goals.
Learning Outcomes
After successfully completing this course, students will have:
Knowledge
The candidate has knowledge...
- about classical and modern rhetoric in connection to the web
- about modern network technology beyond HTML and CSS for generating web sites
- about how to read and understand scripts and code, and best practices in programming
- about safety hazards within database use.
- about theories of aesthetics, text, images and media modes
- about ethical guidelines for the use of personal data, sensitive information and Copyright protected material
Skills
The candidate can...
- write, code, publish and maintain a dynamic web site with database driven content using current web technology
- prevent security holes
- analyze rhetorical processes with different media modes on the web
- use these actively in their own work
General competence
The candidate can...
- defend and re-assess strategies for best coding and best conveyance of content
- understand other people's strategies for coding and conveyance to provide constructive criticism
- explain and critically assess own work
- explain and defend own and others' choices and actions in a larger group
ECTS Credits
Level of Study
Semester of Instruction
Place of Instruction
Required Previous Knowledge
Recommended Previous Knowledge
Credit Reduction due to Course Overlap
Access to the Course
The course is open to all students with the right to study at UiB who have passed DIKULT105. Admission to this course is limited and the registration deadline is usually before the regular deadline (1. September).
If there are more applicants than places, Bachelor students in Digital Culture will have priority. Some places are reserved for exchange students.
Teaching and learning methods
There are twenty weeks in a semester, where ten weeks usually have classes. A week with classes will usually contain one class and one supervised lab session lasting two hours each. The class schedule will be available by the beginning of the semester.
The students develop individual coding projects and dynamically generated web sites.
It is important that the students attend the orientation meeting at semester start before the teaching begins.
The students must be prepared for both the lectures and the lab sessions, because lectures always involve students and there always is discussion around the topics. There are minor tasks to solve between lectures and labs.
The workload is 20 hours per week from the beginning of the semester until portfolio submission. These hours should be used to attend lectures and labs, to code, read the course literature, solve tasks, prepare presentations, gather relevant material at the library and on the web (books, articles, videos, technical blogs, tutorials, other programming resources).
We expect that the teaching-free reading weeks are used to read, code and prepare the portfolio.
The students may be invited to guest lecctures and other events at Digital Culture.
If fewer than five students are registered to a course, the department might reduce the teaching according to the department's guidelines (see MittUiB). In this case, students will be informed about this at the beginning of the semester, and before the enrollment deadline February 1st.
Compulsory Assignments and Attendance
Attendance is mandatory for lectures, labs and all course components. Participation is approved by the course coordinator. If the absence is exceeding 25%, the student cannot take the exam.
Each student must present readings in plenary in at least one session. The students' presentations are approved by the course coordinator.
The students must familiarize themselves with a peer's project to assess the strategies used there for coding and conveying content (peer review).
Tutoring and feedback for the portfolio parts are mandatory, and may be conducted as commented presentations in plenary at the lecture or in the lab.
These obligatory activities are approved/not approved, and only valid for the current semester.
Forms of Assessment
One portfolio consisting of two parts:
- A comprehensive practical project showing the ability to use modern coding strategies to create persuasive, multi-modal web design.
- An academic analysis of this project (around 2000 words)
There is one single grade given for the portfolio. The parts have roughly equal weight.
The portfolio and its parts can be in Norwegian and/or English.
All parts of the portfolio must be taken during the current semester. There is no possibility to submit in semesters without teaching.
Grading Scale
Assessment Semester
Reading List
We are using a text book on PHP and mysql, and a few more specialised books about design, rhetorics and information architecture. Additionally, there are book excerpts and articles available at MittUiB, and topical web resources. We expect the students to actively add to these readings with self-retrieved sources, and to keep updated by following design blogs, collections and generally use web resources in their own work. Some such sources will be pointed at in the syllabus and during the lectures.
This course is a direct continuation of Dikult105, and it is expected that the students master all literature from Dikult105. Since web design is a field in constant development, mandatory and recommended readings may change between installments of the course. If a student does not take Dikult205 immediately after Dikult105, they have to acquire the readings and content from the immediately preceding course.
All material is basically in English. Some book chapters or articles may be in Norwegian. Students may use and refer to works and sources in other languages.
The list over mandatory and recommended reading (as far as known beforehand) is available from Mitt UiB at semester start. This list is updated according to arising needs. The books are available at the University's book store Akademia before semester start, or downloadable as e-books.