Assignments
Students will have opportunities to demonstrate their practical skills and application and understanding of theory in order to meet the criteria of this unit through completion of a range of assignments. The sections below indicate the nature of the 8 assignments, which criteria they can be used to meet and the weighting allocated to them.
1 Prepare and publish a website P1 P5
Either for a new site or one that you have created previously, summarise the site structure you have adopted and techniques you have used (or would use in future revision of a site), such as the use of templates, style sheets, image compression and folder/file name conventions in order to make administrative, updating and maintenance tasks simpler. Screen prints of site pages that you’ve created with notes explaining why a colour scheme was chosen, indicating good elements, areas that you’d like to change, software used and any original design features and the url of the site published on the web. Where you have reviewed and updated pages, provide screen prints of a few of your own sites’ pages displaying recent update dates P1 P5
2 'Before and after broadband' report P2 D2
Provide a short description of a range of methods to connect to the internet. Include advantages and disadvantages for each – e.g. speed, availability, maintenance, ease-of-use, cost etc – with illustrations of the comparative time it could take to download a large file (such as a music track). Include examples of providers of a range of types
3 The advantages of websites for users P3
List three (or more) sites’ urls for evaluation as agreed with your tutor. Describe briefly their main purpose (e.g. selling something, promoting a particular cause, providing independent information, etc. Indicate the type of people you believe each site has been designed to appeal to and to what extent you feel this has been successful. What alternatives are available to people looking for the information, services or whatever that these sites provide? Why are the sites better than the alternatives (or are any actually worse?!)
Generally, summarise what you believe to be the main advantages of web sites to people at this time.
4 Promoting your website P4
The scenario is that a site has been created either to make money for its creator(s) or to promote something or some view. It is important that the number of people getting the message provided by the site, or buying stuff from it, is maximised. How do you go about it? These are some of the questions to consider:
Who is the site intended to appeal to? Does the design match this appeal? If not, suggest how it should be changed.
How do you reach these people? Suggest as many methods as you can, within reason
What constitutes a good site address? Is something suitable available?
Links on other relevant sites - which would you suggest?
How might the site appear higher in leading search engine results?
Sponsorship?
Advertising?
For the methods in your list indicate pros and cons for each and indicate why some would be best for the site concerned.
5 Hardware and software report P6
Scenario: you’ve been employed by a small company as their web site developer. They know nothing about anything to do with computers or web sites. You have an empty desk, a chair and not much else. List what hardware and software you reckon you need to do your job. How much will it cost (with real quotes for it all)? Justify your choice where there is a wide range of choice and suggest a cheaper alternative for some items too.
Provide full specification for equipment (i.e. monitor is not enough)
Required versions of software packages (i.e. Dreamweaver isn’t enough)
6a Review and test your site M1 M3 D1 D3
List the most frequently encountered browsers and monitor resolutions likely to be in current use. View site pages in at least two broswers and at different resolutions. Summarise the differences in the way the pages are displayed. Consider and report on solutions that could be adopted to minimise problems arising.
Either for a new site or one that you have created previously, summarise the site structure you have adopted and techniques you have used (or would use in future revision of a site), such as the use of templates, style sheets, image compression and folder/file name conventions in order to make administrative, updating and maintenance tasks simpler.
6b Managing your web site D3
Prepare an outline strategy for maintaining your site so that it is more likely to remain error-free and fit for purpose. Indicate any web tools or features of applications that could be utilised in this respect.
7 Web technologies M2
Describe a range of additional web technologies, how they might be utilised for particular purposes (such as ASP, Javascript or PHP for interactive features) or in general (such as CSS, Javascript, or AJAX) as appropriate. Provide examples of sites with these features or types of coding in use.
