The goal of your term project is to design, implement, and post a web site. It is a team assignment. Working with a project partner, you will find someone who needs a web site built (your client) and create a web site for them. We hope that both the process and the finished product will be a lot of fun.
It's never too early to start thinking about where your page will reside after the end of the semester. (It will not be able to stay on the CS110 web server). Here are some suggestions for web site hosting.
The project, similar to the life cycle of a software product, comes in several phases: requirements, design, coding, testing and presentation. (A real life cycle includes a specification phase and a planning phase but we have combined those with the design phase.) Each of the five segments comes with its own due date. Please see the course schedule for due dates for each phase. Finally, check out our project hall of fame for examples of the best of previous semesters.
There is a total of 100 project points available. The amount that
the project counts out of your total course grade is listed on the
requirements page.
IMPORTANT: All project deadlines (see the
course schedule) are firm. Teams will
lose points for missed deadlines.
Most phases require an accompanying document in which you describe what you will do or have done. Being able to talk about web design (in addition to coding) is an important aspect of the course. Technical communication skills are important in life as well as in this class, so it's good to practice using vocabulary precisely and clearly.
These documents will always be written as web pages (plain HTML) and not as Microsoft WORD documents or anything like that. You may use web authoring tools like Dreamweaver if you wish. We care about the content of the document, not the coding. All such documents will be uploaded to your team's account and placed in the public_html folder. Once you've uploaded it, check to make sure that it is readable and looks the way you intend. The description of the particular assignment will tell you what the file is to be named.
An acceptable site should end up being between 8 and 10 web pages (graphics and other media files don't count). A few additional web pages are all right, though you'll want to make sure you don't overextend yourselves. The reason for this requirement is because you'll have to put some thought into how to organize and navigate a site that large, as well as coordinating the work of two people in building it.
The web site must include four distinct JavaScript applications (for example calculations, rollovers, date manipulations, user-defined functions, form validation, etc. ) Each student must do two of the four. The four applications must all be different from each other (for example, two rollovers are not considered distinct or different). You will be rewarded for the complexity of these applications.
Each of these items must be constructed entirely by you. No animations downloaded from web sites, no JavaScript coded by Dreamweaver or other web software or copied from JavaScript sites. (You may use such things in addition to the stuff you do yourself, but be clear in your documents about which things are yours so that we can grade them appropriately.)
If it looks like your site will be significantly different from the minimum requirements, please consult with your advisor as soon as possible. You should make sure you divide the work evenly between team members and all team members should have contributed in each of the above areas.
Students form project teams of two students each. Each team finds a client for whom they will create a web site. Project teams and client should agree on the web site's purpose, goals, audience, and final location of web site.
Each project team will be assigned a project advisor. This will usually be one or the other of the team member's CS110 lecture instructor or discussion leader. You will receive notification of which of the instructors is your advisor. Set up an appointment for a project conference with your advisor and fill out the following form before the deadline:
When you're finding a client, it's important for them to understand the kind of website you'll be creating, so that their expectations are not unreasonable. Please refer them to this page on information for CS110 Clients
Each team will meet with its CS110 advisor before the end of the time period specified on the syllabus. Both project partners must be present for the conference. You must already have had substantive discussions with your client, either face to face or by phone or email, so that you are both clear on the requirements for the site.
Prior to the meeting, you must write a draft of a web page called P1_requirements.html and have it uploaded into your team directory on the CS110 server. We'll read it online, or print it out, so make sure it is readable.
During the meeting, you and your advisor will discuss the web site and the requirements document and your advisor will try to, er, advise you.
The grade for the conference will be incorporated into the grade for the requirements document.
After your conference, you will finish your web page called P1_requirements.html and upload it to your team directory. We'll read it online, or print it out, so make sure it is readable and looks the way you want it to. Important: Take extra care with this document. Your final grade will depend, in part, on how well you meet these requirements. Precision and clarity are the watch words.
If you are doing a website for a Wellesley Student Organization (or, really, any other site that will be hosted on the CWIS), be sure to be aware of the College Web Site Guidelines.
Put a web page called P2_design.html in your team directory on the CS110 server. Your design document should address the following issues: Discussion of site navigation and user interface; layout of each page; precise context of each page; list of graphics and links; file/directory organization; task distribution between team members; and a plan for accomplishing all the tasks. You will also submit prototypes of your web pages. Someone else should be able to implement your web site using this document without asking any additional questions. The work you do now will pay you back ten-fold in the next phase.
Here is where the page gets built. Be sure to set time aside
in your schedule. Start early and work often. Sometimes the
simplest task takes the most time to complete. Results of this
phase is a complete working web site, known as a "prelease" or
"beta" version. Post your beta site to the World Web Web before
the deadline, by uploading it to a folder called beta in
your team account (under public_html). Changes from your
design are documented in a file call
Midway through your project coding, we'd like a brief status report. If you think we're trying to check up on you, you're right; we are, but in a good way. If everything is going fine and you're on schedule, you need only say so. If problems have arisen and you've fallen behind schedule, let us know, and tell us how you're planning to remedy the problem.
Often, students make simple mistakes in the coding phase of the project that could be easily remedied if they only noticed them. Here's how to avoid some common ones that we've seen in the past:
You can, of course, check these on your own and help one another,
but sometimes a more-experienced pair of eyes can help. We are
offering the opportunity for a checkup
: a quick look-over of your
site with your project advisor. In the week before the coding phase
is due, your advisor will meet with you and spend up to 15 minutes
checking your code and pointing out problems.
A face-to-face checkup may be scheduled the week before the coding phase is due, at times your advisor has specified as available. At least one of the project partners must be present at the meeting.
If you are unable to schedule a face-to-face meeting with your advisor, you may alternately request an online checkup (your advisor will view your beta site online, and give you feedback via email). However, you must request the offline checkup by the deadline shown on the syllabus, so that your advisor has time to look at your code and give you feedback in a timely fashion).
WARNING: This checkup is not intended to be a guarantee of a perfect grade! It is simply a way to help you identify some common defects. Of course, there is more to a great site than just avoiding defects, just as a paper without typos and spelling errors isn't necessarily a great paper. Still, we hope you'll find it valuable to have this checklist and the opportunity for a checkup.
The purpose of a beta version is to get feedback from testers, so that the bugs can be fixed before releasing to the general public. Develop a testing plan for the completed project. Try to choose testers that represent the intended audience. Don't tell the testers (friends, fellow class members, or even end users) what you are testing for. Let them try the site themselves. Remember, you are not only testing for implementation errors, but errors in design and specification. Based on the feedback from your client, your CS110 advisor, your site's intended audience, your grandmother, and anyone else you can corral, someone can modify your design and implement the modifications to produce the final web site. (This is not required for CS110, although many teams choose to do so anyhow.) Summarize the results of your testing and your responses in a testing document. Put this document, called P4_testing.html, into your team folder on the web server before the due date.
During the final week you and your partner will present your finished web site to the class. You will be graded on the quality of presentation .
If you've summed the points for phases 1-5, you've noticed that they account for 90% of the project grade. If you satisfy all those phases, you'll have earned nearly 90/100 points, which amounts to a strong B+ on the project as a whole. This is a good grade. Looking at the Wellesley Grading System, you see that an A is evidence of "conspicuous excellence." The CS110 faculty are reserving these last ten percent for teams who do demonstrate conspicuous excellence in their project.
It is our expectation that we will award relatively few of these extra 10 percentage points. If you get 2-3 of them, you should be very proud of yourself.
How can you get those extra points? You must, somehow, go above and beyond ordinary achievement. There are many ways, but there is no checklist, any more than there is a checklist for great writing, great science or great design. An excellent website may have extra features, extraordinary beauty and harmony, clever coding, unusual scale or something else or some combination.
© Computer Science 110 Staff
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
Date Modified:
Friday, 05-Jun-2009 15:35:45 EDT
