ITIS 1210-002
Introduction to Web-Based Information Systems

Projects

Genius begins great works,
labor alone finishes them.
                    Joseph Joubert

 

You must complete a number of projects in this course.  A general idea of each topic is shown below.  Additional details, if any, will be disseminated in class.

 

Web Page & Research Project

 

Create a series of Web pages and post them to your personal Web space on the UNCC servers.  The following are the details of this assignment:

  1. The theme for this assignment is the research topic discussed below.  Your job is to document your research.  That is, tell me a story by describing the process by which you learned about this topic and how you arrived at whatever conclusion you settle on.  You may include any content you encounter as long as it is legal and appropriate for an academic setting.  Remember that fair use of copyrighted materials protects you to a certain extent but you should not copy large quantities of material to your site verbatim.
  2. There must be at least three separate pages in your Web site (a "page" is an HTML file).  The main page should identify you and the theme of your site.  The other two pages may contain any content you like as long as you obey rule #1 above.
  3. If you choose to use frames there must be at least three frames on the main page.  One frame (of your choice) will be considered the content frame.  You must include at least three different HTML pages that appear in the content frame.
  4. Your Web site must contain:
    • More than one image by which I mean a picture of something.  A GIF or graphic used as navigation or to add a little animation to the site will not be considered an image.  Use these images to enhance the story and to provide visual interest.
    • More than one hyperlink to a location outside your site.  By "outside" I mean to a URL that is not part of the UNCC servers.  You may want to include links to Web pages you visited during your research so the grader can easily re-trace your steps.  Even Web pages you chose not to use can be included because they are part of your story.
    • An amount of text that is roughly equivalent to one single-spaced printed page.  You can use tables, bullets, headers, white space, or color to divide this text into meaningful subsets.   You can use internal links to navigate to different areas of this text.  Be sure to provide the user with a way to get to different parts of the text regardless of where he/she is in the text.
  5. You must email me the URL of your Web site on or before 09/21/09.  Be SURE you can use this URL from a browser to access your site.  Be careful when trying the URL while you are logged in as yourself!  If your URL does not work when this assignment is being graded I will give you a chance to correct it but you will lose points.  In your email be sure to indicate whether or not you used frames.
  6. This is an individual assignment.  You are not to use outside resources such as other students nor are you permitted to work in groups.
  7. You may create this site using whatever software you have available. 
  8. Please read and adhere to the restriction below: the use of Google is not permitted in any way for this assignment.
  9. Grading may include re-creating the process you describe.  If the grader cannot follow the path you document and arrive at the same conclusion there will be a significant reduction in points.

 

 

 

Research Topic

 

 You will be assigned a question in class. Research the answer to this question and document your results on a Web site you create.  At least 80% of this site must be on how you researched this topic using only Web-based sources. In other words, the majority of the result must describe the process you went through in searching for information including what made you choose to keep or discard information from specific sites. No more than 20% of the result may be on what you discovered about this question and this must include a section that summarizes what you now know about the topic or the conclusion to which you came as a result of your research.

Properly cite each source using the method described in class. You may choose to include a separate page with all your citations or include a section on each page with the citations found on that page only.

Sentence construction, spelling, and grammar will be considered in your final grade.  Missing or broken links under your control will result in point deductions.

Note that you may be given a question for which there is no answer or for which there are multiple correct answers. Do not worry if you cannot find an answer, or you find an answer that is not what we are expecting.  Your grade is not for the answer. You are being given a grade based primarily on the level of effort, skill and intelligence you put into your search and the manner in which you document that search.  However, should your description not lead the grader to the same conclusion there will be a significant deduction in points.

Important Restriction: You are NOT permitted to use Google (or any of its constituent parts such as Google Earth, Google Groups, etc.) for ANY part of this assignment.

 

 

 

Ethics Paper

 

Write at least a three page (double-spaced) paper on an ethical issue of your choice that is related to the Internet, the World-Wide Web, or a topic dealing directly with information technology.  You may take either a for or against position.  For example, perhaps you feel strongly that file sharing is ethical or perhaps you feel that copyright laws should be strictly enforced.  You MUST support your position using ethical arguments that we will go over in class.  Sentence construction, spelling, and grammar will be considered in your final grade.

 

 

 

Wiki entry

 

Edit or add to the content of a specific wiki entry.  You may use a wiki that I will provide at a later time. You can add a comment or create a new entry.  Please use your Novell userid so I will know who you are.  If you are going to update a serious wiki please do so responsibly and email me the information necessary to view your entry.

 

 

 

Blog entry

 

Choose a blog and post a comment.  To prove the comment is from you, you must use your UNCC username as your identity or include in your comment the phrase "itis" with no space between the T and the I, e.g. "itis too bad how poor the spelling is in blogs these days."  Email me a link to the blog entry - not the blog itself but the entry that you are commenting on.  If you can't figure out the proper link, email a link to the blog and let me know which post you are commenting on.  If you have your own blog send me a link to it or you can create a blog of your own and send me the link.  In either case there must be several posts and multiple different visitors for me to accept it.  A brand new blog with no posts and no visitors doesn't count.  If you cannot find a blog on your own I will provide one for you to use at a later time.

 

 

 

RSS

 

Subscribe to one or more RSS feeds of your choice.  Using a reader of your choice, capture a screen image showing the RSS updates, paste this image into a Word document and email me the document.

 

Last updated Wednesday, August 19, 2009