CS295 Web Project Management
Online Course at the University of Montana
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Course designed by Nora McDougall
for University of Montana Continuing Education and Computer Science Departments

Course Objectives

The purpose of this course is to give the student an understanding and introduction to the skill sets and disciplines required to develop web sites from the requirements and planning stages through development, testing, rollout and maintenance. Through hands-on projects, the student will acquire usage of industry terminology, basic understanding and ability to use web development tools, and an understanding of the steps needed for successful development of a web site project.

For the student who will may be responsible for total development of a web site, this class is designed to be the basis for other classes in a web development program. For the student who will be managing the staff for web projects, this class is designed to develop an understanding for communication and decision making.

Course Outline and Schedule

Section 1: Planning Web Projects - content

1. Understanding where the web project fits into an organizations purpose and goals
2. Defining target markets
3. Defining the needs of the markets
4. Mapping organizational and market needs into the content of a web site
5. Project: Documentation of web site planning – Assignments 1A – 1D

Section 2: Planning Web Projects – design

1. Critiquing existing web sites as a basis for understanding design
2. Analyzing the parts and features of a web page
3. Introduction to ADA compliance
4. Understanding the use of graphics in web page design
5. Project: Draw your web page layout – Assignments 2A – 2B

Week 3: Planning Web Projects - marketing

1. Domain names as part of a marketing strategy
2. Using existing marketing to market the web site
3. Optimizing your site for search engines
4. Creating a pay-per-click strategy
5. Other marketing strategies for your web site

Week 4: Technical Management of a Web Site

1. How web sites are delivered
2. File structure of a web site
3. Mapping links to file structure
4. Web page structures and structure decisions
5. Web development tools

Week 5: Beginning Coding

1. Understanding page objects and properties with HTML
2. Project: Create pages with HTML

Week 6: Web Development with Dreamweaver

1. The Dreamweaver interface
2. Text formatting with Dreamweaver
3. Project: Document the text formatting for your web site
4. Tables and table properties with Dreamweaver
5. Using tables to develop a basic web page structure

Week 7: Introduction to Graphics

1. The PhotoShop interface
2. Introduction to background graphics
3. Introduction to photo manipulation and optimizing photos for the web

Week 8: Interactions between Graphics and Tables

1. Use your initial planning to develop your front and content pages
2. Understanding when to use nested tables
3. Making decisions when to use graphics and when to use HTML
4. Troubleshooting your tables

Week 9: Creating Navigation

1. Types of links
2. Project: design the structure and formatting for your links
3. Dreamweaver Library Items
4. Project: Put your links into Library Items

Week 10: Using Templates and CSS

1. The use of templates in Dreamweaver
2. Project: Turn your content page into a template
3. The use of CSS in Dreamweaver
4. Project: Turn your formatting into CSS
5. Basic web site security

Week 11: Introduction to Web Programming with JavaScript

1. Introduction to forms
2. Introduction to JavaScript
3. Project: modify an existing program to create client-side form validation
4. Introduction to Timelines

Week 12: Database for the Web

1. Introduction to database design and database use on the web
2. Introduction to MySQL
3. Project: create a one table database

Week 13: PHP for the Web

1. Introduction to PHP
2. PHP and MySQL
3. Project: Add PHP to your web form

Week 14: Install Downloaded Software and Reconcile your Web Site and Documentation

1. Project: Review all your documentation and either update the document or change your pages to reflect your work
2. Project: Install a forum on your web site.

Week 15: Test and fix your Web site

1. Introduction to testing
2. Project: fix your bugs
3. Introduction to user testing
4. Project: have one user test your web pages

Grading

Students will be graded as follows:
- Project documentation 40%
      Documentation format 10%
      Documentation content 30%
- Discussion Participation 10%
- Web site 50%

Prerequisites

• Basic Windows skills, such as saving and organizing files and copy and paste
• Skills with Microsoft Word or Publisher or other common desktop publishing program needed to create professionally formatted documentation.
• Basic web browsing skills.
• Basic correct writing skills, including grammar and spelling.

Textbooks/Software Required

1. Thompson Course Technology Adobe Photoshop CS2 Revealed – ISBN 1-4188-3961-2
2. Thompson Course Technology Dreamweaver Revealed – ISBN 1-4188-4307-5
3. HTML book: HTML and XHTML by Patrick Carey – ISBN 0-619-26746-1
4. Software: Macromedia Dreamweaver and Photoshop (Elements is fine)

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