Continuous Assessment

Read all these instructions first. Yes, I know they're longer than anything you've ever read before in your whole life. But try to read them anyway. Say the words out loud if it helps.

This final lab sheet, lab 6, is a 'project' that will last until the end of term. It is the continous assessment for CS1115/CS5002. It is worth 25% of the overall grade for the module.

Everyone will come up with their own project.

The project will be to build a web site. My recommendation is that you simply do a personal web site, i.e. a web site all about you. But, if you prefer, you could choose something about which you are passionate (e.g. one of your hobbies or an historical figure or your favourite city or your American road-trip).

If the topic of your web site is something real (e.g. an actual person, an actual UCC society), make sure that no issues arise from the fact that your web site will be available on the cs1 server for all-and-sundry to view.

If your web site needs resources such as images, video or audio, then it is your responsibility to ensure that all resources that you use are either owned by you or are licensed for your use. Where required, it is your responsibility too to ensure that proper attribution is included.

In a similar vein, I do not want to receive great swathes of text that have been copied-and-pasted from Wikipedia or other public resources. You are choosing a subject about which you are passionate: write your own text! If there are cases where you must copy-and-paste small amounts of text, use quotation marks and include proper attribution.

You should avoid things that need databases. For example, you should not choose a shop because a shop will store all its product information in a database; you should not choose a social network; you should not choose a dating agency. All of these require programming and databases, rather than just HTML and CSS. Web programming and databases are the subject of CS1116/CS5018 Web Development 2.

By 5th November 2019, you should have checked your chosen topic with me: check it with me now, if you haven't already done so. I will want to be convinced that your topic is ambitious enough to warrant a 'project' that will last until the end of term. (E.g. a single page is unlikely to be ambitious enough unless it is divided into interesting subpages. It might be better to build a multi-page web site.) Remember, this is 25% of the marks for this module.

If you do not agree your topic with me by 5th November 2019, your topic will be the default topic which, this year, is the Enlightenment.

If you submit a web site whose topic is neither the default nor agreed with me, it will be given a mark of zero.

Once I have agreed it, you can start designing your content, its structure (HTML), and its appearance (CSS).

Don't be tempted to depart from labs before the full two hours are up (if you do, I will mark you absent). Don't be tempted to stop attending labs because the deadline seems so remote. Start designing and writing HTML and CSS NOW.

Grading criteria

• When grading your work, I will take into account ambition, achievement and quality.
• Don't waste hour upon hour on repetitive content. For example, if your site is about Pokemon (which I hope it is not), you don't have to create a web page for every character in every league. Two or three representative pages/characters will suffice. Do not confuse quantity with quality. Put your effort into the things that matter: great HTML and great CSS.
• Bear in mind that there will be more lectures on accessibility, responsive web design, and performance. You can increase your mark by taking on board the material from these lectures along with what we have covered so far.
• You may be tempted to use things you've learned beyond this module. Here's how they will be graded:
  • You can write or copy-and-paste in bits of JavaScript if you know how, but you won't get credit for them. I'm examining your HTML and CSS in this module.
  • It is inadvisable to use CSS frameworks/templates (whatever you want to call them), such as Bootstrap. I'm examining your ability to write CSS: using prewritten CSS will not get you much credit.
  • In a similar vein, using content management systems such as Wordpress to author your web pages will not get credit.
  If there are any other technologies that you want to use but are unsure how I will grade your work, then I suggest you ask me before proceeding.
• Your web site should be in English, otherwise it will receive a score of zero. Of course, occasional common foreign language place names and phrases are acceptable, where necessary.
• I will grade your work in Chrome. I will validate your main page using the HTML5 validator. (I will not have time to validate your other pages. But you should validate them yourself since broken HTML often results in problems when doing the CSS.)
• You can expect me to check what your web site looks like in different-size windows, including something the size of a smartphone.
• The work should, of course, be your own. Do not submit the work of others (e.g. from the Web or from another person) as if it were your own. If you do use small amounts of content from the Web, give proper credit to the original source. If you're in doubt, ask me. Where there are violations of these rules, they will meet with severe penalties, which may include exclusion from the University. You may be called to discuss your submission with me and this will inform the grading, any penalties and any disciplinary actions.

Submission

• Deadline: 3pm, Friday 22nd November.
• In your public_html directory, we have created a new directory called wd1 (no spaces, all in lowercase!!!!!!). It has the right permissions. Place all your work for this lab sheet into this new directory or its subdirectories.
• Your 'start' page should be called index.html. When grading the work, this is the page I will visit first. If there is no such page, you will score zero.
• To 'submit', you don't have to do anything. We have a program that will copy your work from your public_html/wd1 directory at 3pm on 22nd November. (Of course, if the work isn't in the directory or the directory isn't there when the program tries to copy it, you will score zero.)