Transcript T175 - 08J Presentation

TT284 Tutorial 4: Starts at 19:00
“Server Attention Span" from xkcd at http://xkcd.com//
Accessed 11/09/2012.
TT284-13B Tutorial 4
Karl R. Wilcox
Start the recording!
Proposed Agenda
• EMA Review
• Report Writing
• Where To Next?
• Any questions?
– (Do ask as we go along via chat box or
draw my attention via the hand’s up icon.)
• (There is also material on referencing
for information only)
Where we are:
Practicals
Important Dates in 2014
• EMA pt 2 (project) Fri 30th May
• NO EXTENSIONS ON EMAs
• Deadline is midday
– Grace period to midnight BUT NO IT SUPPORT
What Have We Learnt?
• Wireframing
• XHMTL – Content description language for web pages
• CSS – Styling information for web pages (and other
things)
• Page Design – Guidelines for layout (user expectations)
• Site Navigation – Consistency, ease of use
• Accessibility – Guidelines, testability
• PHP – Server side language for content management
• Javascript – client side language for interaction
• Mobile device rendering
• Software versioning
The EMA brings it altogether
EMA – Breakdown of marks
Work Plan
7 + 3 marks
Interactive
Wireframe
Mobile
Development
11 + 9
marks
7 + 8 marks
Grammar,
Spelling,
References
10 Marks
Solution
Design
Development
Management
8 + 8 marks
8 + 7 marks
Case Study
7 + 7 Marks
Must Pass at 40% or more
The Application Requirements
Based on the outcome of their discussions the
adminteam has identified the following features for
the application.
•Race results
•Race events
•Other events
•Membership
•News items
•Mailings
•Authorisation
•Browsers
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1a. Wireframe
•
•
•
•
Help to clarify the overall structure
Requirements can be rationalised into coherent pages
Administration Application
See
http://norton.open.ac.uk/tt284/ourc/wireframes/v1.0/home
• 1b. Wireframe Explanation (included in report)
What to submit
• All the files that make up your wirefame solution should
be collected together into a single Zip archive, so as to
retain any folder structure that you may have created.
Name the archive TT284_Wireframes.zip.
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2a. HTML Form Design
• Needn’t comply with OU ICE guidelines – must be
standard compliant.
• Form to capture OURC News Item
– XHTML (strict) & CSS 2.1
• Action :
‘http://students.open.ac.uk/mct/tt284/reflect/reflect.php
• Method : post
• sessionID : As shown in EMA Booklet
What to submit
• The HTML and CSS files and the two validation reports
should be collected together into a single Zip archive so
as to retain any folder structure you may have created.
Name the archive TT284_Template.zip.
10
2b. Security and Validation
• Briefly describe the issues
• Give specific examples of client and server-side validation
What to submit
• (included in the Report document)
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3a. Mobile Design Solution
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single CSS stylesheet to control the mobile display
HTML Form to be displayed on a mobile device
JavaScript : external file to control style sheets selection
Directory of images
DOM tree shown in EMA documentation
Width <= 480 pixels
What to submit
• Combine the CSS stylesheet file ‘mobilestyles.css’ and
any image files you may have used in your design into a
Zip archive named TT284_Mobile.zip.
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3b. Development Tools
• Comparative assessment of:
– App Inventor (as used in block 3)
– Some other mobile application development environment
• PhoneGap is suggested
– But not compulsory
• Table covering topics shown on Page 9 of EMA Booklet 3
What to submit
• (included in the Report document)
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4a. Acceptance Test Plan
•
•
•
•
See block 4, part 5
For “add new member” and “edit existing race event”
Describe initial setup conditions
Detail instructions to the user
– “Scripted actions”
• Describe expected outcomes
What to submit
• (included in the Report document)
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4b. Version Control
•
•
•
•
Careful management of the application development
SVN Repository
Asset management
Evidence screenshots with captions
– Clearly identify what your evidence shows
What to submit
• (included in the Report document)
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5. Developing at Scale
•
•
•
•
Read the case study carefully
Review block 4
Two examples of methods, techniques or technologies
For each of
– Maximising availability
– System testing
• Four examples in total!
What to submit
• (included in the Report document)
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Report
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Wireframe explanation (300-400 words)
Security and data validation (300-400 words)
Development Tools (300-400 words)
Acceptance test plan (no limit)
Version control evidence & captions (150 words)
Developing at Scale (500-600 words)
What to submit
• The Report TT284_Report.doc / .docx
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EMA Clarifications
• Word counts are guides – 10% leeway
– But longer is not necessarily better!
• Use of Pencil for wireframes
– Submit the whole exported structure
• What is expected from a wireframe
– Navigation and layout only, not functionality
Keep checking the forums and News
But don’t forget…
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EMA Clarifications - 2
Extract from EMA document “Aims”
“The aim of the EMA is for you to demonstrate what you
have learned about recent developments in the use of web
technologies and the creation of web applications, and
describe how they might be applied to a specific business
scenario. It is an academic exercise in that you are
expected to justify your choices and, where appropriate to
contrast them with alternatives.”
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EMA Clarifications - 3
Extract from EMA document “Scope”
“The project is wide ranging, but has been designed so that
all students should be able to make some progress towards
the overall goals. However, the project is open-ended in the
sense that there are alternative approaches and many
possible modifications or improvements. It is up to you to
decide how far you want to go, or feel able to go.
Don’t expect to be told every step!
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Report Writing
We don’t have time to cover every slide in detail…
But this is a useful resource, please download and read at
your own pace!
Planning Report effectively
• What is a report?
• Stages of Report planning
– Analysing a question
– Gathering ideas
– Devising a plan to suit you
• How to get started
What is a Report?
• A continuous piece of writing, arranged in clearly
demarcated paragraphs, in which an argument is developed
• The argument is supplemented by evidence, which you
are required to analyse and evaluate, before reaching a
conclusion
What a Report is not?
• A report is not an essay.
• Essays do not reproduce information available elsewhere,
but are something new and expressive of your individual
abilities to analyse and synthesise
• Essays allow the artistic talent of the individual to come to
the fore.
Writing a Report
•
•
•
•
•
•
Checking the EMA:
What are the main points you can see are required?
What is it asking you to do to find out your information?
Is this a technical report or a review?
How are the points allocated?
What is the word count?
Analysing a question
•
•
•
•
Make sure you have a question!
Be clear about the topic
Be clear about the focus of the topic
Be clear about your instructions: what does the EMA want
you to do?
• Write down the title and underline key terms: what
would constitute a logical answer?
Relevance and logic: a reminder
• Your written answer must be wholly relevant to the report
title (don’t include other material just because you can!)
• Your answer must develop logically and have clear
‘signposts’ from one paragraph to the next indicating the
direction of your argument
Report Planning
• A report plan is a flexible guide for your own use, to help
you stay focused on the question. Think about:
• What are the main ideas to cover?
• How will you cover these ideas? What will your evidence
be?
• What are the key points you want to make?
Report Planning
• When we produce any academic work we spend 20% of
the time thinking about what we will say or do. So here
the thinking time is when we gather in 80% of the marks
• ... The other 80% of the time is spent in ‘polishing’ the
essay.
• So when thinking what do we need to focus on:
– Our conclusion
– What do we think the evidence available ‘means’
• The main body
– What ‘bits’ of evidence support the conclusion we are asserting.
• That only leaves the Introduction.
Report Planning
• As an initial plan
• Work backwards from the conclusion to the introduction.
– Decide what your conclusion is
– Marshall the evidence to support it
– Then write the introduction to say ‘what you are going to do’.
• Remember the ‘rude’ joke about Australian wine ‘you
make it then you decide what it is!’
• The following slides should help.
Make your plan suit you
• Remember that different learners have different learning
styles:
• Visual learners can use pictures/diagrams to plan
• Verbal learners can use bullet pointed phrases or headings,
put into sequence
• Auditory learners can benefit from talking through the
argument onto tape and listening to it back
Report planning (2)
• What examples, references, quotations will be useful?
• How will you organise these?
• What conclusions will you reach?
• What are the theoretical/practical implications of your
conclusions?
Gathering together your ideas
• Brainstorm possible responses to the question and relevant
ideas
• Write a mind map, linking ideas together
• Talk to others to clarify ideas
• Organise your thoughts into a beginning, middle and end
Getting started: “Blank page syndrome”
• Promise yourself that if you prepare (get paper/pens/books
together…) you can have a break before starting
• Promise yourself that if you write the first twelve words you
can have a break
• Many people find it best to write the introduction last, not
first
Getting started (2)
• Have quotations/references/evidence to hand: record them
carefully
• Think about your working environment
• Make sure that others respect your working time
• If you get really stuck before you start, speak to your tutor
Plain English
• Writing Clearly
• Focusing on the Question
• Highlighting main points
• Selecting best evidence
• Short Sentences – 15-20 words
• Signposting next paragraph in same section
Writing for an Audience
• Who is your reader?
• How can you modify what you write accordingly?
Main Points
• How do you work out what are the main points?
• Read the EMA question. Close your books and think what you
know about the topic
– Try a spray diagram using the question as your focus in the middle
• These are probably most of your main points
– They are more general usually than you think they might be
– A topic for the paragraph or section.
– Don’t get bogged down in detail, main points are general
• Normally one per paragraph.
• See if what you think fits in with what the EMA question
recommends as your content, if not adjust accordingly
TT284 Glossary
• The ideas in the course – concepts - brief explanations
• Use as a starting point for written work
• To help you understand technical terms
• Use it whilst you read the text
Plagiarism!
• Developing Good Academic Practices website:
http://learn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4687&m=3
– Work must be written in your own words
– Not assembled using extracts lifted from a longer article on the
internet
– Avoid this by making your own notes and not copying
If you want to
quote, include a
reference!
Academic Writing
• If your academic writing is rusty, follow the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
• Or, particularly for help with English
http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/english-forlearning.php
Drafting your writing structure
Structuring a short Report
• Follow the layout given in the EMA question
• Introduction – introduce key idea in question, main
points of your main body
• Main Body – one main point per paragraph
• Conclusions- review main points, no new material, give
your own conclusion
• Reports have headings for each section
How Many Paragraphs?
• One paragraph should be around 100 words
• 400 words will need 4 paragraphs
• 1000 words will need 10 paragraphs
• This means that you will have
»An introductory paragraph
»XX main body paragraphs
»A concluding paragraph
How many Main Points?
• If you have four main body paragraphs you should have
four main points.
• How do you decide what they are?
• Check out the EMA question– are they essential points
mentioned that you need to cover
– If there are two or three areas in the question eg. two or three
websites to review, use equal word count for each
Introduction
•
•
•
•
•
Single paragraph of around 100 words
What is/are the key technical term(s) in the question?
What do they mean to you?
Define them in your own words.
Introduce your main points in turn, one after the other.
Main Body
• Look at the Question on the EMA
• Structure your answer as suggested there
• If you are summarising an article –
– group related points together under one title or in one bullet point
– no need to keep in the same order as the original article
• Remember to reference
Conclusion
• Usually a single paragraph (100 words)
• Review main points
• Own Opinion – “I think…”
– Only if the question asks for it
• Include your final word count
• Reference your sources
• No new material!
Where Next?
• What do I know now?
• What skills do I have?
• What (realistically) can I do with these
skills?
• How can I improve these skills?
• What else should I look at?
• Future OU courses?
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What Do I Know Now?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
By %-age of “expert” status skills (1)
HTML – 50% (the most common parts)
CSS – 20%
Javascript – 5%
PHP – 5%
Accessibility – 60%
Mobile Device Development – 5%
Software Development Process – 1%
Version Control – 30%
(1) For fun only. This is a personal opinion based on you undertaking and
understanding the published course material and does not constitute a
reference or guarantee!
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What Skills Do I Have?
• Website development and maintenance / modification
• Understanding and modification of existing, simple
Javascript and PHP programs
• Partaking of simple roles in the software development
process (e.g. testing)
• Mobile application user interface design (for simple apps)
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What Can I Do With These Skills?
• Achievable deliverables with your skills / knowledge (1)
• Create a static website from scratch
• Make simple modifications to an existing, moderately
complex website (tweaking layouts etc.)
• Create and modify a simple website using a “framework”,
e.g. Wordpress or mediawiki
• Test any website for accessibility compliance
• User test any website or mobile application
(1) As before, there are no guarantees here, just my personal opinion on
what you should be able to achieve if you have completed and understood
the bulk of the course material!
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How Can I Improve My Skills?
• Build a website! (Based on something you know about)
– Do a web search for “free web hosting uk”
– Or see if you ISP offers free space
• Offer to create / update an existing charity web site
– There are lots of these, often quite out of date, especially with
regard to accessibility
– Looks good on your CV!
• See if you can get involved with any “beta” testing of web
or mobile applications
– Chose an area or application that you are interested in or
knowledgeable about
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What Else Could I Look At?
• Books
– Can be expensive & poor value
– Check Amazon recommendations (read reviews, not just ratings!)
– Second or third editions a reasonable sign of popularity
• Websites
– W3C schools, lots of material (already used in this course)
– Stack Overflow for specific questions (search existing first!)
• Magazines
– .NET quite good for all round web development (nothing to do with
Microsoft .net technologies, the magazine predates these)
– Web Designer more for the arty types (visual aspects)
– Smashing Magazine – online, very good, but US focus
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Future OU Courses?
• Talk to Student Services: Possibilities include:
– T325 Technologies for Digital Media
– T320 E-Business Technologies
– M364 Fundamentals of Interaction Design
• Any others?
Stop Press!
New level 3
courses under
development
– What are you thinking of doing next? Type below:
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That’s All Folks
A Reminder
Any Questions?
Deadline for
EMA
Midday
30th May
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Referencing
I don’t intend to cover this during the tutorial..
But this is a useful resource, please download and read at
your own pace!
All the world’s a ... Football pitch err
Tennis court ... what was that quote?
Where did I hear it from?
What is a reference for?
• Firstly to allow the reader to check the original source and
ascertain if the information is correct.
• Secondly so that the writer does not seem to claim
another’s idea as their own - so committing Plagiarism.
Harvard referencing OU style
• The standard form of reference used by OU modules is the
Harvard referencing system.
• Each university has its own slight variation, or style, on the
original system which of course originated at Harvard
university in the USA.
• The Open University library maintains our university’s
referencing standard and TU100 conforms to this.
A reference is in two parts
• The “citation” or “in-text reference” – this appears in the
text of the work
• The “Full Reference” this is the thing that has the details of
the source of the information - this appears in the
Reference List at the end of the work.
Format of the citation
 The citation used in TT2840 and most Open University
modules is simply
(Author, Date of publication) or Author (Date)
 An example:
...in 20,000 leagues under the sea (Verne, 1870)
author ...
the
To make citations and references ‘stand out’ in this
presentation, they will be shown in BLUE. In your writings
they would appear as normal text
The citation of quoted text
... the ‘computers’, were ex-servants, wig makers, footmen and the
like who had lost their jobs when the French Revolution made their roles
obsolete. Computers were not trained in mathematics, but they could carry
out simple addition and subtraction and follow instructions. Each computer
would receive a number of worksheets which they would work through,
being paid a small amount for each worksheet completed. In his book
When Computers Were Human, Grier (2005, p. 36) refers to these
computers as follows. …
‘They were little different from manual workers and could not
discern whether they were computing trigonometric functions,
logarithms, or the orbit of Halley’s comet. One labor (sic) historian has
described them as intellectual machines, “grasping and releasing a
single piece of ‘data’ over and over again.”’
The author of the block is using a particular quote from Grier’s book. The citation shows this
by the inclusion of the page number where the quotation is located. The word (sic) means
that this is exactly as it appears in the original text.
Acknowledging use of module material
“The internet and the World Wide Web have grown
rapidly to become powerful tools supporting the
development of information delivery systems.
(TT284, Part 1)”
In-text citation: (TT284,Block 1, Part 1) note that the Module
identifier is used as the author
Should I put a page number in a
citation?
• We only need put a page number if we are quoting
something directly from the source. The quote then has to
be exactly as it appears in the original document.
• So if we were going to use the text on System testing from
Block 4 Part 5 as a quote we would say:
“System tests, or end-to-end tests, are intended to verify
the interoperability and performance of the application in its
final configuration and to verify integration with other
hardware and software systems that support the wider
business functions.“ (TT284, Block 4, Part 5, p8)
So we have got the citation now what?
• We have now to give a ‘full reference’ this allows the reader
to find the original source document.
• References are given at the end of the document they are
arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surname.
A short reference list
References:
Grier, D.A. (2005) When Computers Were Human,
Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
The Open University (2011) TT284 Web Technologies,
Block 1, Part 5, ’System testing ', Milton Keynes, The
Open University.
 Note the use of commas, brackets, italics and single quotes
to identify and separate the facets of the reference.
So that’s it then?
• I am afraid not there are a number of rules which govern
the type of ‘Full Reference’ these depend upon the original
that we wish to refer to.
• So far we have looked at referring to books
• What other things in TT284 would we want to reference?
Someone who is quoted in a Unit
• Suppose we want to refer to Marshall’s work about Aceptance
Testing which is printed in Block 4 Part 5 – this is called a
secondary reference as we have not read the original document.
In-text citation
... Marshall (cited in TT284, Block 4, Part 5, p. 10) states…
“The idea behind the System Acceptance process is to first make a list of
every screen contained in the system, then you arrange a time to go sit
with the client and systematically go through all the screens with them.”
Full reference
The Open University (2011) TT284 Web Technologies, Block 4, Part 5, ‘System Testing ’,
Milton Keynes, The Open University.
• (In the references list you provide details only for the source you
have actually read)
Referencing online module material
In-text citation
(Module code, year of publication)
.... JavaScript can be used to choose between two CSS files called bodysmall and
bodynormal (TT284, 2011) ...
Full reference
The Open University as author (year) module code and Module title,
'Item title' [online], complete URL (date accessed).
The Open University (2011) TT284 Web Technologies, 'Block 3 Part 1:
Introduction to mobile devices' [online],
http://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=111911&sectio
n=5 (Accessed 4th September 2012)
Note the [online] facet
What about other websites and web
resources?
In-text citation
(Author, year of publication/last updated) or Author (year of
publication/last updated) states ...
“Popular Science gave an invention award to the ring mouse. It uses
ultrasonic pulses to detect the position of the ring and moves the cursor
accordingly.” (Parekh, 2007)
Full reference
Author, (year of publication/last updated) Title of Website [online],
URL (date accessed)
Parekh,A (2007) Hacked Gadgets Forum [online],
http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/06/08/new-computer-interface-devices/
(18/4/2012).
Referencing similar sources
• The citations for several things all seem the same, how do we know
which reference goes with which citation?
• We use lower case letters to link the citation to the appropriate
reference.
(TT284, 2011 a)
The Open University (2011 a) TT284 Web
Technologies, Block 4, Part 5, ‘System Testing ’,
Milton Keynes, The Open University.
(TT284, 2011 b)
The Open University (2011 b) TT284 Web
Technologies, 'Block 3 Part 1: Introduction to
mobile devices' [online],
http://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.
php?id=111911&section=5 (Accessed 4th
September 2012)
Does it matter if I get a comma or [] in the
wrong place?
• Strictly speaking YES
– A reference is a place where you either get it right or not
– A classic error is to miss out the date accessed in a reference to a
URL (web address).
• So referencing is somewhere the marker can easily
award a mark or not.
• For most markers so long as you have got most of
your Citation/Reference correct and they could find the
original source of information - you will gain the
marks!
Final thoughts ...
Where can I find out more
about this referencing?
The OU library produces a
guide to the recommended
style at the following URL.
http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=651851