Due
2300 on Lessons 26 and 27
Duration
30–60 minutes
Points
10 points

Help Policy

Authorized Resources
Any, excluding classmates
Notes
Never copy another person’s work and submit it as your own

You must document all resources, including the instructor and instructor-provided course materials (such as the textbook)

Instructions

Respond to one of the following prompts, and reply to one of your classmates’ original posts. Unless otherwise indicated by the prompt, it is expected that responses should be no more than a paragraph (one paragraph ≈ 200 words).

  1. Select a website or web application that you’ve used previously. Identify at least three design decisions that provide a positive (or negative) user experience. What makes these decisions particularly good (or bad)? How might you incorporate a similar design into the web application for your project or, in the case of a poor user experience, improve it?
  2. Many technologies exist for web development, including open source libraries that can be freely used. A handful of well-known examples include the following:

    Briefly describe one such technology (you need not select from the prior list). When would someone consider using it? How might you use it in your project website?

  3. Single sign-on (SSO) is increasingly important due to the number of disparate services used by individuals online and to mitigate the risk of security breaches due to those services not managing user authentication and authorization. Describe a SSO protocol (e.g., Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) or OpenID Connect) and give at least one example of a web service that uses it.
  4. Choose a popular web application and list its technology stack. That is, what technologies does that application use to deliver content to its users? What alternatives (if any) exist for these technologies? If building the site from scratch, would these same technologies be used? Why or why not?

  5. Create a mock-up of a website or web application that you’d like to create (2–3 screens minimum, and you may not use your class project). Briefly describe the site and how the screens fit into the larger whole.

    Note: Responses to the original post should offer concrete suggestions for improvements. What seems confusing about the screens that were shown, and what would you recommend to mitigate that confusion? How might the site as a whole be improved? What alternatives currently exist?

  6. If you have prior web development experience, briefly describe it. What did you enjoy? What aspects of the work were challenging? What would you do differently?

Your posts should not repeat others’ content. For example, if someone has already described the Django web framework, then you should not also describe it unless your post comprises new information that was not present in the original post. One example would be describing JSP if someone else previously described Java servlets – while related, the two technologies are distinct and could be addressed by separate posts.

Submission

Submit your posts using the Blackboard discussion board for your section.

Due to the way that Blackboard is configured (i.e., one site per course instead of one site per section), the main “Discussion Board” is visible to all students. Thus, it might be difficult for those posting later to avoid rehashing the same content.

Consequently, each section has its own discussion forum, which is accessible only to students in that section. You can access the discussion forum for your section in the following ways:

  • Groups > Section ? > Group Tools > Group Discussion Board
  • My Groups > Section ? > Group Discussion Board

where ? is a placeholder for the section number (e.g., M3A).

Be sure to document any sources that you used when writing your posts.

Grading

Grading is largely based on completion, but posts should demonstrate effort commensurate with the expected duration for this activity. Citing multiple references, drawing connections among others’ posts, additional responses, etc. all demonstrate effort that is appropriate or even exceeds the expectation. Conversely, summarizing the first paragraph of a Wikipedia article, poor spelling and grammar, off-topic posts, etc. demonstrate lack of effort.

Posts that express simple (dis)agreement will be ignored for the purpose of grading. For example,

I agree.

may be appropriate in the context of a conversation but does not satisfy the requirements when responding to someone else’s post. (A good rule of thumb might be that fewer than 20 words does not qualify as a “post.”) Nevertheless, several short posts (e.g., 100 words) may collectively sum to the level of effort expected.

Rubric

The specific grading rubric is as follows:

Initial post
Exceeds standard (100%)
Fully addresses prompt and expands upon it
Meets standard (90%)
Fully addresses prompt
Nearly meets standard (75%)
Addresses most, but not all, of the prompt
Below standard (50%)
Post is obviously incomplete or off-topic
Missing (0%)
Post does not address the prompt or is missing entirely
Response
Exceeds standard (100%)
Contributes to the discussion in a meaningful way (e.g., adds new information to that previously presented)
Meets standard (90%)
Contributes to the discussion
Nearly meets standard (75%)
Response is on-topic but does not further the discussion
Below standard (50%)
Response is off-topic or inappropriate or may not be relevant to the larger discussion
Missing (0%)
Response is limited to simple (dis)agreement or missing entirely

As indicated by the rubric, earning all the points requires exceeding the standard. Simply addressing the prompt and contributing to the discussion will only earn 90% of the available points.