About This Class

Welcome to MMP 350! This class builds on the skills and knowledge from your beginning web design class (MMP 240). My goal is to help you learn what you need to know and do to create a well-designed, dynamic, professional web site.

Projects

I believe that the best way to learn, and show others what you’ve learned, is to apply your learning to a hands-on project. We will create two projects in this class:

  1. Portfolio Project: this is an individual project where you make your portfolio site. There will be three deliverables for this project:
    1. Project Brief
    2. Basic Responsive Site (version 1)
    3. Eleventy Site (version 2)
  2. Final Project: this is a group project (2-3 people) where you will create a responsive, dynamic site, using the Eleventy static site generator.

Foundational Knowledge

This is the core knowledge (terms, definitions, facts, syntax etc.). This is information that you need to know to make everything else make sense. This is part of your grade and you will show your knowledge mostly through Kahoots.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Data
  • Design Principles
  • Git

Spacing and Repetition

Learning research has shown that the best way to learn information like this is to repeatedly go over it and to space out the studying/learning. So, we will use Kahoot! and other tools to learn and test your knowledge throughout the semester.

Mental Models

Having a mental model in your head of how things work helps you to remember and apply the foundational knowledge. Working models give your brain a way to connect the things we will be learning together. They also help you to troubleshoot when things go wrong. Here are some of models we will work on:

  • How the Web Works
  • How a Web Page Works
  • Web Page Layout
  • Version Control
  • Static Site Generator (in general and Eleventy specifically)
  • Compiling, Building and Rendering
  • Templates

I do not assign scores to mental models. We will work on these as a way to help you learn the foundational knowledge and apply that to complete the competencies.

Competencies

Competencies are showing that you have the ability to do something successfully. There are five graded competencies you will show in class:

  1. Create a Plan for a Web Site
  2. Create a Responsive Site
  3. Design a Site that is usable, understandable and engaging.
  4. Implement a web site using a static site generator ( Eleventy)
  5. Add Dynamic Elements to a site

You will show the competencies in your work on your Portfolio site and the Final Project.

The Final Project will also required all five competencies but this time you will be working in a group and dividing duties.

There is a sixth competency

  1. Setup and Use Web Development Tools

There is no separate score or grade for this competency. I don’t see a need to grade this because being able to setup your development environment and use the tools is necessary to do all of the other competencies.

Syllabus

The syllabus covers the formal description of the class, meeting times and days, details of the grading policy, what technology you need for the class, contact information and more.

View the syllabus here.