Instructor Classroom Web Sites: Policy & Instructions

Instructor Classroom Web Sites
Policy and Instructions

Any instructor desiring to post information about their classes on the college's web site may do so. The intent is to provide information to your students about what is going on in your classes. This may include course syllabi, test schedules, special announcements, student samples of work, etc. — essentially anything that relates to your class that you desire to post.

Policy
All faculty members desiring to post a "web site" must coordinate such with Rick Jenkins and Jeff Adam. Passwords will be assigned by Jeff. Rick will provide technical assistance and a link from the instructor classroom page to your home page.	All pages posted must be educational/academic in nature. Non-collegiate pages are prohibited. Commercialism in any form is prohibited. Faculty members should not repeat what is already on the SEARK web site -- check it to make sure you are not duplicating information about your program or area of instruction.
View our Technology Policy.	View our Copyright Policy.
Anyone found to be in violation of either the Technology Policy or the Copyright Policy will be denied the privilege of using the college web server for Instructor Classroom web pages. As a general rule, if you are using the equipment and network for valid college purposes, you should be okay. For copyright issues, if you have the owner's permission to use it, you should be okay. Many people may want to copy stuff (such as pictures) off the web and use in their web page -- this is very shaky ground. You can be sued. When in doubt, don't do it. The SEARK logo is placed on the home page for your use — you do have the college's permission to use it.

At the present time there is no limit to the number of pages and sizes of files that can be included. However, this is subject to change. If our web server begins to fill up, we will place a limit on your web space. Therefore, you may desire to somewhat limit your graphic files.

The web server is running Apache on Linux. Your pages must be compatible. All normal HTML pages are compatible. However, many features of Microsoft FrontPage will not work. However, you may use it to create basic (non-interactive) pages. You may also use CoolPage, Site Aid, or CoffeeCup -- these are free HTML editors that have been placed in the public folder of the Snap Server. You may use any HTML editor that you desire, such as Netscape Composer, Microsoft FrontPage Express (both are free).

The SEARK Library has a copy of the FrontPage 2000 CD and it is available to you through the Microsoft Campus Agreement. You may install it on your home computer, but the Microsoft Campus Agreement limits its use to valid SEARK College activities, i.e., you may design your faculty web site at home, but you are not allowed to design personal, commercial, or non-college web sites using it.

Uploading -- you cannot use the FrontPage Web Publishing Wizard to upload your files (File menu, Publish command). You must use a separate FTP program. WS_FTP has been placed in the public folder of the Snap Server for your use. Also, you must be on-campus to upload the files to the web server. You may design the pages at home, but you cannot upload them from there. Our firewall prohibits you from uploading from off-campus.

Anyone not complying with the desires of the Director of Information Systems regarding the web server will not be allowed to participate.

Web Page Editing/Design — The instructor must design all of their own pages. You may contact Rick Jenkins or Jeff Adam for technical assistance and advice. If you know HTML, you can design your own pages from scratch. Or you can use the following software:

Microsoft FrontPage 2000 -- this program is very popular and relatively easy to learn. If you can work with Microsoft Word, you can use FrontPage. The only drawback to FrontPage is that many of its features are designed to use a Microsoft server, which we do not use (we use Linux instead). Therefore, some of the special features of FrontPage will not function on the web site. All basic functions work fine.
Microsoft FrontPage Express -- if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE)you may already have this program. It is a "freebie" that comes with MSIE. If you do not have it, you can go to www.microsoft.com and download the entire MSIE package.
Netscape Composer -- this is a "freebie" from Netscape that comes as part of Netscape Communicator. You can download it from www.netscape.com. You can choose from versions 4 (4.78) or 6. Netscape 4.78 is on the Snap Server in the public folder.
CoffeeCup -- public folder on Snap Server (look in Internet Programs Free)
CoolPage -- public folder on Snap Server (look in Internet Programs Free)
SiteAid -- public folder on Snap Server (look in Internet Programs Free)

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) -- Regardless of the HTML editor program you use, you will need to complete the following before uploading any pages.

Register yourself with either Rick Jenkins or Jeff Adam. You will be assigned a user name (your first initial and last name) and a password. You must use these to upload your files. The password will be assigned -- do not forget it or give it to anyone. Anyone that knows it can change your pages, so guard it carefully.
You must use WS_FTP to upload your pages to the web site. This program has been placed on the SNAP Server in the public folder. Go there and copy it to your computer. Once copied, double-click to begin the installation.
When you are ready to upload, you must open then WS_FTP program and locate your web files in one side of the screen. Make the connection with the other screen (we will give you those instructions when we issue you the password), and then do the FTP. In addition, you must be on-campus. The server has been set to not accept any upload from off-campus.
Be sure to UNCHECK passive transfers in WS_FTP (look under the Advanced Tab).

Web Page Design -- your main page must titled "index.html." There will be an introductory page listing all instructors that have posted their own web pages. I will link from the listing to your main page specifying the index.html file. If you call it anything else, the link will not work. You may add any other pages as desired.

All web pages must have either the ".html" or ".htm" extension. This tells the browser that it is a hypertext markup language page. The ".html" is preferred for all of your pages.
In naming your pages, use all lower case letters (including the extension) and no spaces.

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