Policy Statement for COM541: Information Structure and Retrieval

Books and Materials

Required Texts

• Amiano, Mitch, Conrad D'Cruz, Kay Ethier, and Michael D. Thomas. XML: Problem - Design - Solution. Wrox Press, 2007. (access online)
• Gilmore, W. Jason. Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional. Apress, 2007. (access online)
• Hunter, David et al. Beginning XML, 4th Edition. Wrox Press, 2007 (access online)
• Morville, Peter and Lawrence Rosenfeld. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3rd Edition. O'Reilly Meida, 2006. (at bookstore)
• Rittgen, Peter (ed.) Handbook of Ontologies for Business Interaction. IGI Publishing, 2008. (access online)
• Various Articles (see Calendar)

Recommended Texts

• See and contribute to our Course Bibliography

Required Materials and Technology

• 2GB or larger USB drive which you will use only for this class (you'll be turning it in periodically)
• XAMPP "web server on a stick" (to be installed on the USB drive)
• Delicious or other social bookmarking account
• Account on our course wiki, where you will post work, notes, etc. for this class

Recommended Materials and Technology

• Commercially hosted web space that you control, plus your own domain name
• Firefox web browser

Course Description

From the catalog, with edits: "Principles, practices and tools for indexing structuring and single-sourcing either both print or and electronic documents, along with methods and tools for storing, maintaining and accessing information for communication roles in corporate, institutional and government settings. Emphasis on web-based strategies, techniques and tools."

This course introduces technical communicators to leading technologies for creating, manipulating, and sharing the structure of information and documents. The ultimate goal of the class is to approach single-sourcing models of publication, where a single piece of well-structured information can be presented (and updated) simultaneously across an unlimited number of web pages, PDFs, InDesign Documents, Flash movies, and other digital and print-ready formats.

Although this course will deal somewhat with the visual presentation of information, visual presentation is secondary to structuring information in ways that can be used by humans and machines alike to advance human purposes (which would include custom visual presentation).

Course Goals

• Learn to structure information at different levels of granularity (database, table, column; file, compound tags, single tags), using XML and MySQL technologies and consistent URL structures
• Become familiar with international and electronic/Internet standards for information structure (dates, phone numbers, digital and postal addresses, currency, numbers, units of measure, country codes)
• Conceptualize and create schemes for structuring information that are extensible to new types and uses of information and scalable to larger amounts of information
• Learn to conceive of local (organization-specific) schemes for structuring information that can participate in global (standardized/shared) schemes
• Appreciate the important role of end-users/audiences in developing richly-structured information and single-sourcing schemes
• Understand technical communicators not merely as users of systems, but as designers, too, particularly with respect to fostering collaboration and information sharing/gathering within and across organizations
• Apply course concepts and adjust/extend course projects to fit your own academic and professional interests

Technology Policy

Technology is a crucial part of any information structure and retrieval scheme. It is therefore a crucial part of this class. You are as responsible for learning to command various technologies (XML, XHTML, PHP, MySQL) as you are for any other course content. Difficulty with technology is not an acceptable excuse for incomplete projects or being unprepared for class. After all, learning the technology is actually the easy part of the course. The real challenge lies in your ability to apply the technology to technical communication situations. But you cannot competently apply the technology unless you are always working to understand it better (both in this class and throughout your career).

That said, the technologies we are working with in this class are open and exceptionally well documented through countless books and web sources (see our Course Bibliography). If you are having trouble learning the technologies, it is your professional responsibility to go beyond materials and guidance provided in class, and find materials that work for you. As a courtesy to other students, you might consider posting to the course wiki materials that you find helpful (again, see our Course Bibliography).

Finally, coming to class with broken or malfunctioning work is far better than showing up with nothing but an excuse like I just didn't get it. When you're learning, effort is more important than perfection. For additional assistance, I also encourage all students to meet with me during my office hours, or at another arranged time outside of class. But come as soon as you encounter difficulty and not the day before a project is due.

Course Projects

• See list at the Course Projects page, which includes descriptions of ongoing and major projects.

Grading

Project 1: 20pts
Project 2: 20pts
Project 3: 20pts
Participation: 40pts
TOTAL: 100pts

Grading Scale

A - Student has turned in all required components of a project, the work is exceptional in quality, and reflects the student's dedication to adjusting the project to his or her own interests.
B - Student has turned in all required components of a project and submitted work that is acceptable as graduate-level.
C - Student has turned in all required components of a project, but the work is below graduate-level.
F - Student has not turned in all required components of a project.

Attendance and Participation

Your attendance and active participation are required both for your own success in the class, and for the success of the class as a whole. However, if you absolutely must miss, please contact me ahead of time via phone or email.

Academic Honesty

As with any course at IIT, you are expected to uphold the Code of Academic Honesty (pp. 26-27 of the IIT Graduate Student Handbook). In short, all work should be your own, including design and computer code. Summarizations, quotations, the use of open source code libraries, and any images not of your own making should be clearly cited as legally and ethically warranted and rhetorically appropriate.

Special Needs Statement

Students who have any difficulty (either permanent or temporary) that might affect their ability to perform in class should contact me privately, either in person or via email, at the start of the semester. Methods, materials, or deadlines will be adapted as required to ensure equitable participation.



Author:
You aren't allowed to read included page KarlShCard