Open Source Content Management Systems

1. Title

Open Source Content Management Systems
MSIT606.Sp08 (graduate) – 3 credits

2. Description

Open source content management systems (OS-CMS) offer a flexible and powerful way to get websites online. They allow easy addition of Web 2.0 functionalities, easy editing of web pages by non-technical users, and centralized control of templates and extensions. Online communities are evolving and growing all over the internet, and many are under control of some type of open source content management system. This course examines the mechanics of getting an OS-CMS on the web and how to build a community within it.

3. Intended Audience and Rationale

Students who may not have the technical level of an engineer or a programmer, but have solid HTML and CSS skills and understand how a web application functions at a high level. These students will be able to post fairly sophisticated websites without the assistance of an engineer, and configure them for a client. This is also for students who want to learn the fundamentals of online communities from a technical as well as a sociological viewpoint. Knowledge of PHP and MySQL are not required.

4. Goals

This course aims to provide students with insight to the workings of Joomla!, an open-source content management system, and content management systems in general. Students will also learn about building online communities, including how to recruit and reward active members, moderate comments and spam, and keep a website going.

5. Learning Objectives

The student will be able to:

• Establish their own domain name and web hosting
• Install Joomla!
• Configure Joomla! templates and populate the site with content and extensions
• Establish an online community and identify the principles that make a successful community
• Assess a range of CMS tools and extensions for those tools

6. *Topical Outline

* Topic order is subject to change!

7. Format

This course is offered in two formats. One has a face-to-face component and an online component. The other is 100% online. You are expected to participate in the learning community regardless of your specific format. Podcasts will be available at http://gradcenter.marlboro.edu/academics/MSITaudio.html. Online video, tutorials, instructions, etc. will be available in Moodle and at the course website, www.thejoomlateacher.com.

8. Instructional Procedures

Class time will be split between teaching Joomla and teaching about social networking tools – how they’re used, why they’re used, and how to exploit them on the site you’re building.

We will use the Marlboro College Graduate Center online environment to facilitate discussions during the 2-weeks between face-to-face class sessions. Plan to log in at least once every 48 hours. Each conference will be open for approximately two weeks, until the next class meeting. You are expected to write at least two substantive posts and two substantive replies each week for a minimum of eight posts per 2-week session. You should feel free to initiate discussions as well.

There will be a minimum of one movie per 2 week session dealing with the mechanics of Joomla and setting up a Joomla powered website.

Course website is at www.thejoomlateacher.com, which will model how a Joomla website functions. Students will receive super-administrator accounts for www.thejoomlateacher.org, so that students may log in and see how Joomla is configured on an instructor site.

9. Evaluation Procedures

Online and In-Class Participation 30%
Best Practices report 20%
Joomla site 40%
Joomla site plan and progress report 10%

Auditing Students

Auditing students are welcome to participate in in-class and online discussions. They are not provided with direct feedback from the faculty member, nor are allowed to receive any grading or ongoing support as is provided to matriculated students.

Online and In-Class Participation

For each class session, we will have a discussion in Moodle about online communities and about Joomla. It is expected you will participate actively in these discussions. You are expected to write at least two substantive posts and two substantive replies each week for a minimum of eight posts per 2-week session. You should feel free to initiate discussions as well. Part of the posting will include your reactions to joining an online community and observing procedures, practices, and customs in that environment.

If you are hybrid student, it is expected you will participate in class in activities and discussions, as well as online. If you are an online-only student, you will be evaluated via online participation only plus any assigned deliverables in lieu of attendance in class.

Best Practices Report

For the last class, it is expected you will produce a report describing your summary of best practices for building an online community. It’s expected that the research for this report will be completed as you participate in an online community through the term. There are two required books for the course that will also help you with forming ideas for best practices. Details about the report will be presented in Class 4.

Joomla Site

You will be building a Joomla site through the term, adding to the site after each class. In Class 7, it is expected that you will do an informal presentation to the class about your site. Hybrid students will give a 5 minute presentation in class, while online students will write a Moodle post describing the highlights of their site. A full rubric for what is expected to be included with your Joomla site will be presented in Class 4.

Joomla! Site Plan and Progress Report

Just before class 3, you will write up a site plan and progress report for your Joomla! site, in time for midterm grades. The site plan report includes:

• Strategy overview: why are you building the site, who the site is for, what problem it solves, how you expect to measure success
• Scope statement, including what kinds of technologies you expect to implement in your site in a generic sense (i.e. discussion board vs. FireBoard)
• Site map
• The start of a Joomla! wireframe, including a Joomla! install, connected to domain name, wireframe template installation, and some content plugged into the site

WARNING: Note that 60% of your grade will be assigned after the last class.

10. Prerequisites

Significant background in (X)HTML and CSS, perhaps via Designing With Web Standards. High-level understanding of how a web application works, what MySQL and PHP are. Understanding the code-level of PHP/MySQL are not required.

11. Instructional Resources

Required Texts

"Design for Community" by Derek Powazek. (Available as PDF or through the Safari bookshelf.)
http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0735710759

"Designing for the Social Web" by Joshua Porter. To be published April 30:
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Social-Voices-That-Matter/dp/0321534921/

“Joomla! A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website” by Barrie North.
http://www.amazon.com/Joomla-Users-Guide-Building-Successful/dp/0136135609

12. Competence Statements

Jen Kramer McKibben
For nearly nine years, Jen Kramer McKibben has been educating clients, colleagues, friends and graduate students about the meaning of a "quality website." Jen develops sites that are functional, usable, accessible, and supportive of business and marketing goals. Jen is a co-owner of 4Web, Inc., a Joomla website development company.
She is also a senior faculty member at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, teaching courses and workshops in web site design and management. She is the Program Director for the Master's of Science in Internet Technologies program (MSIT), advising students and overseeing courses and faculty pertaining to the degree. She previously taught at Champlain College and the Community College of Vermont. Jen earned a BS in biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MS in Internet Strategy Management at Marlboro College Graduate Center. She is most recently an Adobe Dreamweaver 8 Certified Developer.

Jen Kramer McKibben
(802) 257-2657 cell
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

13. Resources

Marlboro College Graduate Center is a sponsor of the New England Adobe User Group and the Joomla! User Group New England.

The New England Adobe User Group (NEAUG) meets the first Tuesday of each month, usually in 2 East, from 1-4 PM. Lunch is provided courtesy of our sponsors. Each meeting includes two talks relevant to professional web developers and designers, as well as valuable networking with other professionals. We never charge admission, and there are plenty of free giveaways courtesy of Adobe, O’Reilly, WebAssist, PeachPit, and other corporate sponsors. See our website at www.neaug.org for more information.

The Joomla! User Group New England (NEJUG) meets the third Wednesday of each month from 5:30-7 PM. The group discusses Joomla! problems and issues, shares successes from the past month and site launches, and listens to presenters on various Joomla! topics. Snacks are generally available, and some of the group goes to dinner afterwards. See our website (currently under construction as a user group project) at www.joomlausergroup.net