CS3172 > Course > Assig. #4
J. Blustein
Assignment 4: Student's Choice
A capstone assignment to give you (the student) an opportunity to
show what you have learned about the topics of this course.
- Released
- Sun.
09 Nov.
- Due
- Thurs.
27 Nov. (at 10:05a.m.)
Create your own project and explain what grade you deserve and why.
Your assignment will consist of four parts:
(1) a webpage or website,
(2) a description of the features of your webpage or
website,
(3) the grade you think you deserve for the assignment, and
(4) why that grade is justified.
Unless you provide an excellent justification why it is
inappropriate for your specific assignment then your assignment
must :
(a) degrade gracefully for all Web browsers,
(b) meet level double-A of the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative, and
(c) be coded in only valid XHTML 1.
It would be better to show progressive enhancement than merely
graceful degradation.
As usual, your assignment must run on your server (from assig. #1).
If the grader cannot access or use the files from your server
then your assignment cannot be graded.
Examples
A few examples of possible assignments are:
- redo an earlier assignment
- Bring an earlier assignment to a state of perfection by
using better coding (must be XHTML
strict), AA or AAA accessibility, and new
features.
- an essay with hypertextual features
- Create an essay in style of a Wikipedia topic that
addresses a relevant topic and explain why it is
important.
Use the features of the WWW to demonstrate
some aspects of the topic you are writing about.
- remake another webpage (or website)
- Make a small-scale mock-up of how you think a
popular
website should be redesigned.
- make substantial improvement to the table of contents frame
in the course website
-
- include cookies to make the state persistent (there will
be a small bonus for storing all values in one
cookie)
- note that the
id values will not be
changed
- there will be a bonus for explaining what would be needed
for a general solution in which menus could be added and
removed. Such an explanation must include why as well as
how.
- link checker
- A server-side program with browser interface that will
detect and check every link from a wepage to see if the
link is to a real website or results in a 404 error.
An additional feature would be to check if the webpage at
the end of the link has changed since the last time the
program was run.
- Plan your assignment before you code it. Use the
description of what features you will have as a guide not an
afterthought.
- Identify the intended audience of your website (or webpage)
in the description of your assignment.
Identify the specific characteristics of that audience.
Explain what steps you have taken to make your website (or
webpage) suitable for that audience.
The grade for your assignment will depend on
- what you clearly demonstrate you have learned in this course,
and
- what technical skills you demonstrate.
What you learned
Part of your assignment must be a justification of the grade you
think you deserve for your assignment.
You may use any external resources you want to but you must give
proper and clear credit so the grader can assess
your contribution.
Dalhousie's academic integrity policy (see Dalhousie's academic integrity website and the addendum to the course syllabus for details) applies to this
assignment.
Be certain to describe the features of your assignment
and how they relate to all three of:
(1) the course description,
(2) topics,
and
(3) Grade Scale and Definitions section of
the 2007-2008 Undergraduate Academic Calendar (which are
summarized below):
| Grade |
Criteria |
A-level
Excellent
|
- Considerable evidence of original thinking;
- demonstrated outstanding capacity to analyze and
synthesize;
- outstanding grasp of subject matter;
- evidence of extensive knowledge base.
|
|
B-level
Good |
- Evidence of grasp of subject matter, some evidence of
critical capacity and analytical ability;
- reasonable understanding of relevant issues;
- evidence of familiarity with the literature.
|
|
C-level
Satisfactory |
- Evidence of some understanding of the subject matter;
- ability to develop solutions to simple problems;
- benefiting from his/her university experience.
|
|
D
Marginal Pass |
- Evidence of minimally acceptable familiarity with subject
matter, critical and analytical skills
|
|
F
Inadequate |
- Insufficient evidence of understanding of the subject
matter;
- weakness in critical and analytical skills;
- limited or irrelevant use of the literature.
|
Demonstration of Technical Skills
Below are examples of the types of technical skills that you could
demonstrate. This is in not an exhaustive list, these are only
examples.
- Database interaction
- initial baseline: A-
- See
- Ruby on Rails
- initial baseline: B+
- See Chs. 14 and 15 of
your textbook
- There are specific Ruby on Rails resources at the
following sites:
- Ajax
- initial baseline: B+
- See
- Application of toolkit
- initial baseline: B (flat)
- For example
- Yahoo! Interface Library
- script.aculo.us
- Include a site-specific search engine in your website
- initial baseline: B-
- Note: this initial baseline assumes that you do
not code the search engine, etc. yourself.
As usual, your assignment must run on your server (from assig. #1).
If the grader cannot access or use the files from your server then
your assignment cannot be graded.
-
You will be submitting an entire directory of files electronically.
-
The files you submit must all be in a directory named
assig4
.
-
Your webpage must be named
A4.html
.
-
You may name the other files whatever you like.
-
Be sure that your name and student number are in all program
source code files and XHTML pages.
-
Be sure that your webpage clearly says which browser and
version it is intended for. If the marker doesn't know
which browser to use and your program doesn't work on the
browser he/she chooses then your program does not work and
you will lose many marks.
-
turn in all the files in your assig4
directory using the /opt/bin/submit
program on torch.
- Before you run the program, make sure that your current
directory is the parent of the directory you will be
submitting.
For example, if your assignment is in your
~/cs3172/assig4/ directory then use
cd to make ~/cs3172 your current
directory before you run submit.
- When submit prompts you for a file or directory
name, input
assig4
.
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