Week 1 Completion Checklist

Each week, I'll post a completion checklist for you, so it's clear what you should be doing and completing each week.

"Start of Class" Tasks to Complete

  • Read the syllabus. Pay attention to "Grading" and "How Class Works."
  • Make sure you can access lynda.com via lynda.harvard.edu -- you should have access through your Harvard Key.
  • Post an introduction in the Introductions discussion forum.
  • Sign up for web hosting at SiteGround.
  • Download and configure SublimeText 3. 

Videos

  • The first video will introduce the class and how it will be structured. It’s worth watching, and it won’t take long! Plus you get to see my talking head!
  • The second video will show you where to go sign up for web hosting, Sublime Text, and lynda.com.
  • The third video will give you more information about the first assignment and what to expect along the way.
  • The fourth video will talk about website strategy and planning, which you’ll need to plan the website(s) you’ll be building this term.

Planning for the Long Term

  • In a few weeks, the first assignment is due. You will be building a 10 page (minimum, more may be better) website about a topic of your choosing. You may wish to start thinking about what that topic is and what kind of information you’d like to include, including writing that information.  
  • You will write the information for your website. You will NOT pull it from Wikipedia. If you are building a site already in existence, you may take copy from that old site.
  • You will include a blog as part of this site – this is required. You can decide to make your blog a series of press releases, a FAQ, or an actual blog, or something else if you wish.
  • You will also patch in your own pieces of functionality, like zip code locators, search, backup utilities, editors, photo gallery, calendar, and so much more. You might consider what pieces of functionality you’ll need in terms of requirements for now. You do NOT need to pick the functionality out yet. (It will, of course, be different for each CMS.)
  • If you want to build a shopping cart, please plan on building a very simple, small cart, with a Paypal-based payment system, NOT with a full-blown custom cart plus merchant account, payment processing, etc – that is well beyond the scope of this class!
  • More about the site we’ll build in the coming weeks, but suffice it to say that less is more, and simple is way better. Also, you can bank on the fact that if we cover it in the syllabus, it will be part of the site you build.