Writing for the Web: Getting Started

Welcome to Writing and Designing for the World Wide Web (English 4814, CRN 61691) for summer I 2009. Thank you for participating in this experiment in on-line teaching and learning. I appreciate you being here.

My name is Jim Collier. I've taught this course, in a more traditional form, off and on over the last ten years. To begin unfurling my nerd flag, I find web design cool. In a digital world where you can instantly produce and distribute content I know it's passé to take time to craft a web site, or consider carefully how we communicate on-line. However, given the ever rising tide of on-line dreck, crafting a good web site with meaningful content is not only fun, and cool, but also will get you noticed. In the digital haze, good web design and content stands out.

In ten years of teaching and learning web design, I've made every mistake (twice) you are likely to make in building a web site, so never be too embarrassed to ask a question. More than likely I've asked the same question to friends and students. And teaching and learning web design on-line, absent meeting physically, adds a rather interesting and exciting twist — we will test our abilities to teach and to learn in a digital environment. But before going on, let's introduce ourselves.

First, while we will have numerous ways of communicating with one another, I would like you to join our class wiki and enter a brief profile. Here's our wiki. Once you arrive at the wiki, please join it by going to top right-hand corner, clicking the Sign Up! button and filling out the form. In the future, when you want to add or edit content to the wiki, please sign in.

Once you've joined the wiki, you will have the ability to add and to edit pages. Please go to the Profiles page — you will see my profile posted — click the EasyEdit button and add your profile. As most, if not all, of you are on Facebook (my apologies for deferring entrance into the Facebook realm) you may want to provide a link to your page and consider friending [sic] one another. In an on-line class, a class about web design particularly, there's strength in numbers.

One thing you'll learn as you develop a web site — your site's structure and navigation makes plenty of sense to you but (absent usability testing) might make little sense to others. This site's keystone is the calendar. Take a look at the calendar and you should get a sense our daily activities and a feel for the general rhythm of the course. To get a more detailed sense of the course, please go to the syllabus and through the rest of the site's pages some time during the first week.

In previous incarnations, this course had a supplemental web site. A web site used within the framework of a traditional class is one thing, a web site for an on-line class is quite another thing. Consequently, you will see that the course will not be fully in the can on the first day of classes. While none of the course requirements, goals or assignments will change, you will see me working to develop new resources as the summer session unfolds. If my site construction impedes your work in any way, please let me know immediately. Thank you for your patience.

In an on-line course, communication is a bit tricky. How and when we communicate depends on how you best learn and what communication methods work best for you. My approach is to be as flexible as possible to accommodate your learning goals, desires and capabilities.

I designed the course to be largely asynchronous — as such, you don't need to be in a specific place at a specific time to communicate with me or other members of the class. E-mail will carry much of the burden. My address (you will see it all over the web site ... the footer below each page for example): jim.collier@vt.edu During virtual office hours, I am available on AOL I.M. My screen name is CollierVT. If you want my phone number, just ask. Or we can try Skype. I have set up group pages functions on Blackboard. You can use the wiki for communication not related to assignments.

I am working with the kind folks at IDDL to develop a synchronous means of communication. Centra is a wonderful program but the current iteration does not play well with the Macintosh, rather my Macintosh. Once we resolve the technical issues, I can see if you want a synchronous on-line experience.

Please surf the site and become familiar with its structure. If you have ANY questions, do not hesitate to contact me through whatever mean work best for you. Here's to a interesting and productive summer session.