Domain (or alternative) due by May 11, 5:15 pm, including a completed rubric. Note: you are encouraged to domain earlier.
- Create a post on this website including a short paragraph describing your project along with a link to your domain (if you are doing an alternative project, also include a link to it) and a pledge. Categories: [your name], domains, student post.
- Please email me when your website is finished and ready for evaluation, attaching a copy of your rubric.
Your final project is to design and build your own Domain, building a WordPress website that you may use for the rest of your time at Davidson as a way of communicating your interests and accomplishments to audiences within and beyond Davidson. Remember that you are showcasing your work to the public, so reflect carefully on what you post “on the internet for all the nice people to see.”
The goal of this assignment is for you to build the framework for a personal and professional website that you can add to, change, develop, or fully renovate as you go through life. You are always learning and changing, so your website should grown and change with you. Design a skeletal structure that you can add/alter content and functions as needed.
Begin by downloading and reading the articles on Information Architecture and website design available on the Readings page. Make your own wire frame, with attention to the “Principles of Information Architecture.” You don’t want to make your reader/user think about how to navigate your site. Instead, you want clear menus and pathways that provide incentives for further reading and interaction. Please also read Dr. Kabala’s instructions on domain design, which offer a variety of approaches depending on your technological interests and skills.
To design your domain, you may want to start with one of these Organic Themes :
- magazine style: http://organicthemes.com/demo/seed/
- blog style: http://organicthemes.com/demo/magazine/
Check out the Organic Themes showcase to see how others have adapted these themes (the green button on the right under each site indicates the theme used): http://www.organicthemes.com/showcase/ You may choose any of these themes, but I recommend that you avoid Portfolio Pro, which looks great, but has very few “widget” options to play with. Davidson also owns StudioPress themes, which you can browse here: http://my.studiopress.com/themes/ Look for “mobile responsive” themes.
Note: Organic themes look attractive, but some are glitchy. StudioPress themes are based on a Genesis framework, which means a little more work installing, but good, consistent functionality.
To request a theme, email Katie Wilkes: kawilkes@davidson.edu.
Review these Templates:
The goal here is not just to showcase your course work for ENG220, but to create a website you can use when applying for jobs, fellowships, graduate schools, or any other post graduate pursuits. To facilitate this process, we have designed templates as basic guidelines:
- Blog Style: http://sites.davidson.edu/wri101_templateA/
- Magazine Style: http://sites.davidson.edu/wri101_templateb/
- Portfolio Style: http://sites.davidson.edu/wri101_templatec/
Refer to this Rubric:
Your website should include the following elements:
- An “about me” page indicating who you are and what purpose your website serves. You may want to include your major(s), minor(s), and concentrations(s) in your narrative bio.
- A resume page. Here, you should list your major(s), minor(s), and concentrations(s).
- A portfolio of the work you’ve done in this course. Optional: you may also include any “tips” or “continuing the conversation” posts you published. This work should be framed within in a narrative that explains the nature of the assignments to an audience unfamiliar with this course. You may feature this work using the portfolio setting, or embed links to individual posts within a page that provides an overarching narrative about them. Click here for instructions about how to export your posts from a course website to your personal domains. Ask kawilkes@davidson.edu for information about syndicators.
- A list of courses you have taken at Davidson with short descriptions of each (catalog copy is acceptable). You may arrange the list of courses by thematically, chronologically, in reverse chronology, or in whatever organizational form allows you to foreground your most significant work. Your goal should be to arrange this data to establish the beginnings of a concise, compelling “map” or “timeline” of your academic development.
The following elements are optional:
- A narrative that embeds all your courses within the progress of your academic development, with samples of your work from the other courses.
- A personal blog
- A section dedicated to extracurricular activities
- A portfolio of your art, music, theater, or other activities/work
Your writing portfolio should be the most developed part of your website. If you need to, you may set up the framework for an all-encompassing or selective course narrative, and continue to develop and refine it after this semester. At that point, you may want to delete some of your ENG 393 work, featuring only your best work. For this assignment, you must have a clear framework in place for describing your coursework as you continue your career at Davidson.
Warning: Do Not Steal Images!
You should have permission for all images you use. Search CreativeCommons.org for images in the public domain and make sure you abide by any copyright restrictions or citation guidelines provided with the image. Use the caption area to cite the source for any image you didn’t create yourself, regardless of whether the original source requests a citation. You can also link the image to its original source. But a link alone is not a sufficient citation, as links tend to fracture over time.
Goals:
Your goal should be to produce a simple, well-designed website that is:
- easy to navigate,
- explains who you are,
- allows readers to review all your ENG 393 coursework in one convenient location,
- shows what other courses you’ve taken so far.
Alternative Assignment
Davidson College policies prohibit any student receiving credit for the same work in more than one course. If you have already designed your domain, you should do an alternative project: create something using a new tool or application in your domain. Discuss your ideas with me and get approval before proceeding.
While each alternate project will be different, each should contain the following elements:
- Your project should exist on a subdomain you design with care.
- Your subdomain should have a clear menu.
- Somewhere on your subdomain you should include a critical reflection (minimum 500 words) on the work you have done. This may be on an ‘About’ page, or it may be a series of pages accessible through your menu; I leave the details up to you. However you do it, your reflection should address address:
- the question you are interested in;
- the sources you studied to answer it;
- the digital tool or method you adopted to answer the question;
- an evaluation of the blind spots/pitfalls of the tool and/or your method;
- the ‘So What?’ question: What is the broader intellectual or cultural
significance of your final project? In other words, why should we care
about it? - Note: this reflection should be concise, pithy, and well-crafted—not dashed off as an afterthought.
- To submit your alternative project, create a blog post on this website containing a brief description of the project, along with a link to the alternative project and a link to your existing personal website/domain. Categories: [your name], domains, student post. Email me when your project is complete.
I welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions for this assignment. Please do not hesitate to ask for clarification. Please also use the “Tips” category to post links to fellow students’ websites that offer good models for us.
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