CSCI 5117 -- New Course

Mon Apr 18 12:07:39 2011

Approvals Received:
Department
on 04-18-11
by Mary Freppert
(freppert@umn.edu)
Approvals Pending: College/Dean  > Catalog
Effective Status: Active
Effective Term: 1119 - Fall 2011
Course: CSCI 5117
Institution:
Campus:		 UMNTC - Twin Cities
UMNTC - Twin Cities
Career: UGRD
College: TIOT - College of Science and Engineering
Department: 11108 - Computer Science & Eng
General
Course Title Short: Developing the Interactive Web
Course Title Long: Developing the Interactive Web
Max-Min Credits
for Course:		 3.0 to 3.0 credit(s)
Catalog
Description:		 A hands-on design experience using modern web development tools. Students will work in teams to develop software programs using each of four toolkits. Students will analyze developments in forum posts and classroom discussions.
Print in Catalog?: Yes
CCE Catalog
Description:		 <no text provided>
Grading Basis: Stdnt Opt
Topics Course: No
Honors Course: No
Delivery Mode(s): Classroom
Instructor
Contact Hours:		 3.0 hours per week
Years most
frequently offered:		 Odd years only
Term(s) most
frequently offered:		 Spring
Component 1: LEC (no final exam)
Auto-Enroll
Course:		 No
Graded
Component:		 LEC
Academic
Progress Units:		 Not allowed to bypass limits.
3.0 credit(s)
Financial Aid
Progress Units:		 Not allowed to bypass limits.
3.0 credit(s)
Repetition of
Course:		 Repetition not allowed.
Course
Prerequisites
for Catalog:		 CSci 4131 or 5131 or #,
Upper division UG or Grad in CSci recommended.
Course
Equivalency:		 No course equivalencies
Consent
Requirement:		 No required consent
Enforced
Prerequisites:
(course-based or
non-course-based)		 No prerequisites
Editor Comments: Internally we looked at its relationship to CSci 5131 and decided it was not a replacement but CSci 5131 (4131) knowledge is needed. 5131 generally focuses on the server-side of the Internet stack, teaching web server architecture, software tools for serving web pages, etc. 5131 usually only teaches techniques for delivering material to the client The proposed new course is entirely focused on the highly-interactive front-end of the Web stack, studying technologies like the Google Web Toolkit, Flash, Silverlight, and the Yahoo! User Interface Toolkit.  The new course is also much more design oriented, focused not just on the architecture of the technology and its tradeoffs, but also on using each toolkit for designing highly interactive Web applications.
Proposal Changes: <no text provided>
History Information: <no text provided>
Faculty
Sponsor Name:		 John Riedl
Faculty
Sponsor E-mail Address:		 riedl@cs.umn.edu
Student Learning Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: * Student in the course:

- Can identify, define, and solve problems

Please explain briefly how this outcome will be addressed in the course. Give brief examples of class work related to the outcome.

Students will work on four modules. In each module they will design,implement, and demo an interactive web interface.

How will you assess the students' learning related to this outcome? Give brief examples of how class work related to the outcome will be evaluated.

The projects will be evaluated based on their creativity, the quality of the implementation, and the quality of the demo presentation.
Liberal Education
Requirement
this course fulfills:		 None
Other requirement
this course fulfills:		 None
Criteria for
Core Courses:		 Describe how the course meets the specific bullet points for the proposed core requirement. Give concrete and detailed examples for the course syllabus, detailed outline, laboratory material, student projects, or other instructional materials or method.

Core courses must meet the following requirements:

  • They explicitly help students understand what liberal education is, how the content and the substance of this course enhance a liberal education, and what this means for them as students and as citizens.
  • They employ teaching and learning strategies that engage students with doing the work of the field, not just reading about it.
  • They include small group experiences (such as discussion sections or labs) and use writing as appropriate to the discipline to help students learn and reflect on their learning.
  • They do not (except in rare and clearly justified cases) have prerequisites beyond the University's entrance requirements.
  • They are offered on a regular schedule.
  • They are taught by regular faculty or under exceptional circumstances by instructors on continuing appointments. Departments proposing instructors other than regular faculty must provide documentation of how such instructors will be trained and supervised to ensure consistency and continuity in courses.

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Criteria for
Theme Courses:		 Describe how the course meets the specific bullet points for the proposed theme requirement. Give concrete and detailed examples for the course syllabus, detailed outline, laboratory material, student projects, or other instructional materials or methods.

Theme courses have the common goal of cultivating in students a number of habits of mind:
  • thinking ethically about important challenges facing our society and world;
  • reflecting on the shared sense of responsibility required to build and maintain community;
  • connecting knowledge and practice;
  • fostering a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents.


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Writing Intensive
Propose this course
as Writing Intensive
curriculum:		 No
Question 1 (see CWB Requirement 1): How do writing assignments and writing instruction further the learning objectives of this course and how is writing integrated into the course? Note that the syllabus must reflect the critical role that writing plays in the course.

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Question 2 (see CWB Requirement 2): What types of writing (e.g., research papers, problem sets, presentations, technical documents, lab reports, essays, journaling etc.) will be assigned? Explain how these assignments meet the requirement that writing be a significant part of the course work, including details about multi-authored assignments, if any. Include the required length for each writing assignment and demonstrate how the minimum word count (or its equivalent) for finished writing will be met.

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Question 3 (see CWB Requirement 3): How will students' final course grade depend on their writing performance? What percentage of the course grade will depend on the quality and level of the student's writing compared to the percentage of the grade that depends on the course content? Note that this information must also be on the syllabus.

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Question 4 (see CWB Requirement 4): Indicate which assignment(s) students will be required to revise and resubmit after feedback from the instructor. Indicate who will be providing the feedback. Include an example of the assignment instructions you are likely to use for this assignment or assignments.

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Question 5 (see CWB Requirement 5): What types of writing instruction will be experienced by students? How much class time will be devoted to explicit writing instruction and at what points in the semester? What types of writing support and resources will be provided to students?

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Question 6 (see CWB Requirement 6): If teaching assistants will participate in writing assessment and writing instruction, explain how will they be trained (e.g. in how to review, grade and respond to student writing) and how will they be supervised. If the course is taught in multiple sections with multiple faculty (e.g. a capstone directed studies course), explain how every faculty mentor will ensure that their students will receive a writing intensive experience.

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Course Syllabus
Course Syllabus: For new courses and courses in which changes in content and/or description and/or credits are proposed, please provide a syllabus that includes the following information: course goals and description; format;structure of the course (proposed number of instructor contact hours per week, student workload effort per week, etc.); topics to be covered; scope and nature of assigned readings (text, authors, frequency, amount per week); required course assignments; nature of any student projects; and how students will be evaluated. The University "Syllabi Policy" can be found here

The University policy on credits is found under Section 4A of "Standards for Semester Conversion" found here. Course syllabus information will be retained in this system until new syllabus information is entered with the next major course modification. This course syllabus information may not correspond to the course as offered in a particular semester.

(Please limit text to about 12 pages. Text copied and pasted from other sources will not retain formatting and special characters might not copy properly.)


 Developing The Interactive Web - 3 credit class. Taught in three 50minute periods or two 75minute periods.

Version 2.0 of the Web is radically changing the balance of power between desktop applications and thin client applications. The Web browser is becoming the de facto thin client, enhanced by client side programming environments that enable highly interactive applications. In this class we will study a collection of interactive Web toolkits, with the goal of examining many of the most important parts of the design space for these toolkits. We will gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives, so we are prepared to choose among them for applications we develop,to understand the evolutionary trends in the Interactive Web, and, for some students, to participate in developing the next generation of toolkits.

We will include systems like GoogleWeb Toolkit, Adobe Flex, Django/Dojo, and Facebook Apps. For each system we will study its architecture, develop a simple application and a more advanced application, study writings by critics and supporters, debate its advantages and disadvantages, and create a shared class resource that describes the system in-depth. Every student will know how to develop programs in all four frameworks, and will understand its strengths and weaknesses.

The primary way of learning in the class will be presentations, discussions, implementation, and design reviews. All students will present several times in front of the class.

Structure: The class will be structured in four segments of three weeks each. During each segment we will study one toolkit. We will have additional presentations on privacy, intellectual property, and other relevant issues.
The structure of each segment is:

Mini Launch
*high-level presentation on the technology and its place in the worldpresentation by student "expert group"
*who uses it, online resources, examples
*walk-through of the mini-task
*student groups plan their implementation

Maxi Launch
*high-level presentation by the expert group on the task
*work group brainstorming on ideas and questions for the project expert group members available for questions
*full-class questions for the expert group
*small group design meetings

Design Day
*each group presents their working design discuss design issues in this task public questions about the task they're working on problems they see coming, and help from everyone
*Extra Credit presentation on relevant class topic

Design Critique Day
*presentation by demo group on their (very cool!) project, with special design critique by expert group
*discussion by class
*project work time

Industry Day
*industry presentation
*questions and discussion
*project work time

Demo or Die!
maxi project presentations, by every group, 7 minutes each, including demo! 1 driver and 1 presenter, driver working from the table each group member must present at least one of the four projects

Analysis
[Instructor led]
*Strengths
*Weaknesses
*Opportunities
*Best Applications
*General Discussion
*Demo group updates technology guide based on all the discussion

Nature of the Workload:

There will be five types of graded activites:

1. The mini-project for each toolkit will be a brief introduction to the technology. Every group in the class will implement the same simple project. Groups will receive a "check" for successfully completing the project.

2. The maxi-project for each toolkit. Each group will develop a more sophisticated example application using the toolkit, and will demonstrate its application to the class. These projects will be graded based on the code developed and the presentation.

3. The expert or demo presentation. Each group will be responsible for one toolkit as "expert" or \demo" group. The expert group will prepare the tutorial, the mini-project, the discussion materials, and lead the critique of the demo group. The demo group will present a detailed presentation on the implementation of a demo project with the toolkit, and will prepare the final Web page comprising the class's analysis of the toolkit, based on the readings, forum posts and class discussion.

4. Each student will be responsible for required weekly forum postings discussing the toolkit. These postings will be structured, with a different goal for each of the three weeks of each toolkit.

5. Class participation. Students will be expected to actively attend and participate during all class periods.

This course will be taught entirely from resources available freely on the Web.

Grading: The weighting scheme used for grading is approximately: Toolkit Projects: 40%, Expert or Demo Tasks: 25%, Class Participation: 20%., Writing and Group work 15%.
Strategic Objectives & Consultation
Name of Department Chair
Approver:		 <no text provided>
Strategic Objectives -
Curricular Objectives:		 How does adding this course improve the overall curricular objectives ofthe unit?

 <no text provided>
Strategic Objectives - Core
Curriculum:		 Does the unit consider this course to be part of its core curriculum?

 <no text provided>
Strategic Objectives -
Consultation with Other
Units:		 In order to prevent course overlap and to inform other departments of new curriculum, circulate proposal to chairs in relevant units and follow-up with direct consultation. Please summarize response from units consulted and include correspondence. By consultation with other units, the information about a new course is more widely disseminated and can have a positive impact on enrollments. The consultation can be as simple as an email to the department chair informing them of the course and asking for any feedback from the faculty.

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