691 – Content Management Systems

DRAFT Based on Summer 2015

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES

691 – Special Topics in Information Science:
Content Management Systems

Syllabus

2015 Summer Online – 12 Weeks

Instructor: Wooseob Jeong Office: NWQ 3410

E-mail: Fax: 414-229-6699

Office Hours: By Appointment Phone: 414-229-6167

DESCRIPTION:

Provides advanced skills to create powerful and highly functional websites with various tools without using web development languages and coding scripts, but with open source web-based content management systems.

3 credits

PREREQUISITES: Junior Standing, Basic HTML knowledge preferred.

OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

·  Understand the role of content management technologies to acquire, organize and present web content.

·  Understand the basic features of the various types of content management systems (CMS).

·  Understand and explore methods, tools and applications for content management.

·  Develop proficiency installing and configuring various CMS.

·  Extend CMS functionality using components, modules and plug-ins.

·  Understand the knowledge cycle: acquisition, storing, application and maintenance

·  Deploy advanced CMS functionality, including community building, image galleries, and forums.

METHOD: Lecture/Discussion/Hands-on Exercises

Students with special needs should contact the instructor as early as possible for accommodations.

ACADEMIC POLICIES:

Academic policies may be found on the UWM Web site at:

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Acad_Aff/policy/uniformsyllabus.html. Additional policies may be found at the end of the syllabus.

TEXTBOOKS:

Beck, J.N. and Beck, M. (2013). WordPress: Visual Quickstart Guide. 3rd ed. Peachpit Press. [ISBN: 032195761X] Required.

Derr, M. and Symes, T. (2011). Joomla!: Visual Quickstart Guide. 2nd ed. Peachpit Press. [ISBN: 0321772989] Required.

Geller, T. (2010). Drupal 7: Visual Quickstart Guide. Peachpit Press. [ISBN: 0321619218] Required.

WEB RESOURCES:

Student Web Spaces: http://www4.uwm.edu/sois/resources/it/webspace/ [how to set up your web space]

Online Tutorials at Lynda.com: http://www4.uwm.edu/sois/resources/it/lynda/ [how to login]

·  http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-tutorials/WordPress-Essential-Training/154417-2.html

·  http://www.lynda.com/Joomla-tutorials/Joomla-3-Essential-Training/110275-2.html

·  http://www.lynda.com/Drupal-7-tutorials/essential-training/73655-2.html

·  There are many other tutorials available at Lynda.com regarding WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and please feel free to explore those tutorials once you finish these core ones.

CHAT SESSIONS:

Every Thursday night, we have a chat session at 9 in Milwaukee time. The chat sessions are optional, which means absence in chat sessions does not affect your final grade, but still they are quite helpful for your understanding of class contents. Chat session participation is strongly encouraged.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Weekly Assignments (60%)

Every week, there is a hands-on assignment. The assignments should be posted by the due time, usually following Sunday night at 11:59 on your SOIS LAMP Server account. The details will be available as the course goes along. Late submissions are accepted with significant penalties.

Final Project (40%: undergraduate students; 20%: graduate students)

At the end of the semester, you are asked to set up a community site with an approved theme on a Drupal platform, where users can register by themselves and share their ideas and contents with other authenticated members. Your final project will be evaluated by the combination of criteria: required functionality 60%, usability aspect 20%, and aesthetic aspect 20%.

Term Paper (20%: Graduate Students Only)

At the end of the semester, graduate students are asked to write a paper on “CMS in libraries” with minimum 2000 words (excluding references, tables, figures, and etc.), 20 references of which at least 10 should be academic journal articles or books (each must have an ISBN or ISSN). Please use a commonly used style manual for your term paper (e.g. Turabian, Chicago, APA, MLA).

GRADING:

95-100 A superior work
91-94 A-
87-90 B+
84-86 B satisfactory, but
undistinguished work
80-83 B-
77-79 C+ / 74-76 C work is below standard
70-73 C-
67-69 D+
64-66 D unsatisfactory work
60-63 D-
below 60 F

COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS:

Week / Dates / Topic / Reading / Weekly Assignment
1 / 5/26-5/30 / WordPress
Installation, Managing accounts / Beck and Beck
Chapter 1-4 / Setup WordPress Site
2 / 5/31-6/6 / WordPress
Theme, Widgets and plug-ins
Adding content, Menus,
Managing comments / Beck and Beck
Chapter 5-10 / User control
3 / 6/7-6/13 / WordPress
Advanced theme development, Best practices / Beck and Beck
Chapter 11-16 / Theme enhancement
4 / 6/14-6/20 / Joomla!
Installation, Adding contents / Derr and Symes
Chapter 1-4 / Setup Joomla! Site
5 / 6/21-6/27 / Joomla!
Menus, Modules / Derr and Symes
Chapter 5-8 / Menu, Template, Module
6 / 6/28-7/4 / Joomla!
Extension, Global settings / Derr and Symes
Chapter 9-11 / Components, User management,
7 / 7/5-7/11 / Joomla!
Community building, Templates / Derr and Symes
Chapter 12-14 / Social media, Creating template
8 / 7/12-7/18 / Drupal
Installation, Drupal site setup
Creating and managing content / Geller
Chapter 1-3 / Setup Drupal Site, Images
9 / 7/19-7/25 / Drupal
Customizing content
Interactive content
Improving content access / Geller
Chapter 4-6 / Rich-text editor, Menu, Search, Block
10 / 7/26-8/1 / Drupal
Managing user accounts, Building user community
Theme customization / Geller
Chapter 7-8 / User profile, Theme enhancement
11 / 8/2-8/8 / Drupal
Extending with Modules / Geller
Chapter 9 / Webform, CAPCHA, Advanced search, RSS, Forum, Poll
12 / 8/9-8/15 / FINAL Project – Building Community Site with Drupal
Term Paper (Graduate Student Only)
Due on August 15, Saturday, 11:59 PM


UWM ACADEMIC POLICIES

The following links contain university policies affecting all SOIS students. Many of the links below may be accessed through a PDF-document maintained by the Secretary of the University: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf. For graduate students, there are additional guidelines from the Graduate School (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Grad_Sch/StudentInfo/), including those found in the Graduate Student and Faculty Handbook: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Grad_Sch/Publications/Handbook/.

Students with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in order to meet any of the requirements of a course, please contact the instructor as soon as possible. Students with disabilities are responsible to communicate directly with the instructor to ensure special accommodation in a timely manner. There is comprehensive coverage of issues related to disabilities at the Student Accessibility Center (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/DSAD/SAC/MainOffice.html ), important components of which are expressed here: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/DSAD/SAC/SACltr.pdf.

Religious observances. Students’ sincerely held religious beliefs must be reasonably accommodated with respect to all examinations and other academic requirements, according to the following policy: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S1.5.htm. Please notify your instructor within the first three weeks of the Fall or Spring Term (first week of shorter-term or Summer courses) of any specific days or dates on which you request relief from an examination or academic requirement for religious observances.

Students called to active military duty. UWM has several policies that accommodate students who must temporarily lay aside their educational pursuits when called to active duty in the military (see http://www3.uwm.edu/des/web/registration/militarycallup.cfm), including provisions for refunds, readmission, grading, and other situations.

Incompletes. A notation of “incomplete” may be given in lieu of a final grade to a student who has carried a subject successfully until the end of a semester but who, because of illness or other unusual and substantial cause beyond the student’s control, has been unable to take or complete the final examination or some limited amount of other term work. An incomplete is not given unless the student proves to the instructor that s/he was prevented from completing course requirements for just cause as indicated above (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S31.pdf).

Discriminatory conduct (such as sexual harassment). UWM and SOIS are committed to building and maintaining a campus environment that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity of every person, fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect, and encourages the members of its community to strive to reach their full potential. The UWM policy statement (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S47.pdf) summarizes and defines situations that constitute discriminatory conduct. If you have questions, please contact an appropriate SOIS administrator.

Academic misconduct. Cheating on exams and plagiarism are violations of the academic honor code and carry severe sanctions, ranging from a failing grade for a course or assignment to expulsion from the University. See the following document (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html) or contact the SOIS Investigating Officer (currently the Associate Dean) for more information.

Complaints. Students may direct complaints to the SOIS Dean or Associate Dean. If the complaint allegedly violates a specific university policy, it may be directed to the appropriate university office responsible for enforcing the policy.

Grade appeal procedures. A student may appeal a grade on the grounds that it is based on a capricious or arbitrary decision of the course instructor. Such an appeal shall follow SOIS appeals procedures (http://www4.uwm.edu/sois/academics/MLIS/mlisappeals.htm). Step 3 appeals for graduate students are handled through the Graduate School. These procedures are available in writing from the respective department chairperson or the Academic Dean of the College/School (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S28.htm).

Examinations, Finals. The Secretary of the University is authorized to prepare the final examination schedule. The time of the final examination for an individual or a class may be changed only with the prior approval of the dean or director of the respective college/school. The change will involve a postponement to a later date. For individuals with exam conflicts, a separate week at the very end of the exam week will be reserved to take one of the conflicting exams (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad+admin_policies/S22.htm).

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