William M. Pegram
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Revised: August 21, 2006

Northern Virginia Community College - Annandale Campus

ITE 170 - Multimedia Software, Fall 2006 (3 credits)

Section 002N: M 4:30-7:20, CT230
Instructor: Dr. William M. Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu

Web Site for Class: www.billpegram.com

Course Description:

The course will have several aspects:

  1. An introduction to XHTML and FTP, roughly equivalent to the web content of the new ITE 115 beginning Fall 2006 (There is no XHTML prerequisite for this course, but this course transfers as IT 213 at GMU which has IT 103 as a prerequisite which covers some XHTML and FTP topics).
  2. A hands-on introduction to multimedia software, in particular Dreamweaver 8 (the leading web authoring/HTML editor), Flash 8 (the leading web animation program), and either Fireworks or Photoshop ( computer graphics).
  3. Concepts relating to web design, web images, and sound, video, and animation on the web

Software:

You will need access to this software outside of the classroom. Here are some alternatives:

  1. Some of the computers in the open lab on the first floor of the CT building have the software.
  2. There are 30 day free downloads of Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Fireworks 8, and Photoshop CS2 at www.adobe.com. Although Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, and Firework 8 are part of Studio, I would recommend downloading the parts separately and waiting to install each one till you need it.
  3. Purchase of software - Because you are students, you are eligible to purchase Studio 8 (contains Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Fireworks, Contribute, and FlashPaper2) at greatly reduced prices, e.g. for $289 from www.campustech.com or $294 from www.sprysoft.com. You will need to supply them with an academic ID. Software at academic prices is generally not available from local retail outlets, although Patriot Computers in Johnson Center at GMU may allow non-GMU students to purchase from them. They sell at the academic list price.

Storage Media

Initially, you will want to bring a floppy disk to class so that you can save your work and for exams.  If you forget to bring a disk, you can save your work to the c drive and then send an email to yourself with the file as an attachment. Later in the term, you may find having more capacity useful (e.g. a CD or thumb nail drive). Nothing saved to the c:drive will be there after you logoff. 

Homework

For most assignments, I will want the work submitted on a labelled floppy disk. However, if you are going to miss class, you can email me and include the file(s) as attachments. In some cases, I may ask you to transfer the files to your website.

Attendance:

If you miss class, please check the class website for any changes to the schedule, including new assignments.  When class is cancelled due to inclement weather or instructor absence, assignments will be pushed back to the next class date.

Office Hour Schedule:

Before and after class.

Communication with Instructor:

In addition to office hours, most class periods will have time for one-on-one questions with the instructor.  Asking questions in this way is generally more efficient than email.  

Text: 

Multimedia for the Web Revealed by Calleen Coorough and Jim Shuman, Course Technology, ISBN 1-4188-3951-1, 2006.

Required Email Address

I will email you at the email address on my class list which is your VCCS email address unless you specify a different address in Nova Connect. If you do not check this address frequently, I would recommend you set it up for automatic forwarding to an email address you do check more frequently. During the first class, I will show you how to specify a different address in Nova Connect and to specify a forwarding address. Please remember to include your name in all emails to me since I often can't tell who you are from your email address.

Grading Policy:

Your grade will be a function of 2 quizzes (30%), a final (25%.), homework (25%), and a final project (20%).  Students may choose however to be graded solely on the basis of quizzes (40%), the final (33.33%), and the final project (26.67%).  Homework grades tend to be somewhat higher than exam grades in my courses and doing homework in my courses is a good preparation for exams, so I do not recommend this option to most students.  I will compute your grade with and without homework, and use the better of the two. Although I normally offer students the ability to take makeup tests in the Testing Center, the software used in this class is not available there, and so please try to be present for all tests. If you must miss a quiz, I will try to make some opportunity available at the end of the semester for this purpose.

Assignments

Assignments will receive a 10% grade penalty for each class period they are late.  Assignments that are more than 1 class period late, will either not be accepted (if I have discussed the solution) or will receive an additional 10% off for each additional class period late. 

Academic Integrity

In general, students are expected to follow the Information Technology Student/Policy Ethics Agreement as posted in computer areas and academic integrity standards as set down in the Student Handbook. Let me provide more specific guidance however:

Students are encouraged to help each other out; it is a large class which limits my ability to help each student during the class period. However, on work that is graded, there are restrictions on helping other students: On homework assignments and projects, students may ask for and receive some assistance from others, unless otherwise directed by the instructor.  Yet those helping a student should avoid "doing the work" for the student.  No assistance is permitted on exams and quizzes.

Dropping and Withdrawal from the Class:

Tuesday, September 5 is the last day to drop the class and get a tuition refunds (use NovaConnect).   Friday, October 27 is the last day to withdraw or to change to audit. Practically all of the people who get an F as a final grade from me are those that stopped coming to class and doing the work but didn't withdraw by this second deadline, even sometimes after email and telephone reminders.

Learning Environment

NVCC is a place for learning and growing.  You should feel safe and comfortable anywhere on this campus.  In order to meet this objective, you should: a) let your instructor, his/her supervisor, the Dean of Students or Provost know if any unsafe, unwelcome or uncomfortable situation arises that interferes with the learning process; (b) inform the instructor within the first two weeks of classes if you have special needs or a disability that may affect your performance in this course.

Fire/Emergency Evacuation Procedures

Students should familiarize themselves with both the primary and secondary routes that are to be used, in case you need to evacuate the building, as well as other evacuation procedures to be followed.