The discussion on "CSS Driven?" prompted me to query the group on
something that has been bothering me for some time; namely, of all
the templates available on the web, there are very few that address
the academic syllabus--despite the fact that there are thousands
(millions?) of syllabi on the web. At first glance, putting a
syllabus on the web looks to be a no-brainer, but it strikes me that
a syllabus is a special beast and poses some structural and
presentational problems.
For example, I have been including a table on the schedule page of
the course sites to delineate what's to be done when because it
seems to be tabular data--"week" in one column and "work" (of various
kinds) in another. (Yes, I have lived in fear of the Table Police.) I
have tried to do the schedule using divs, but it seems hopelessly
complicated and not worth the effort. Recently, I've begun to think
that the readings are, in fact, a list and should be written
accordingly. Using <caption> seems to pose difficulties. Is it
necessary? Should "Readings" and "Internet Visits?" be tagged as <h3>
and styled accordingly? Why not just leave them with their <p> tags?
How to connect the main site with things that apply to all classes to
each course?
Here are some examples from the past term:
http://archiva.net/hist120ay05/hist120ay05_schedule.htm
http://www.archiva.net/hist389ay05/hist389ay05_schedule.htm
http://www.archiva.net/hist616ay05/hist616ay05_schedule.htm
Please note that there are important elements missing, among them
"skip nav." I have had to do these very quickly but am doing an
entire redesign to address these lacunae; these examples will shortly
go into the archives along with the really tacky ones. Any advice
will be gratefully received.
Paula
----------------
Paula Petrik
Professor
Department of History & Art History
Associate Director
Center for History & New Media
George Mason University
http://www.archiva.net
******************************************************
The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/
See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
for some hints on posting to the list & getting help
******************************************************
