INFO 246-14
Information Technology Tools & Applications - Advanced
Topic: XML
Fall 2020 Syllabus

Lori A Lindberg
E-mail
Office location: virtual
Office Hours: by appointment. Please e-mail me.

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning August 19th, 6 am PT unless you are taking an intensive or a one-unit or two-unit class that starts on a different day. In that case, the class will open on the first day that the class meets.

You will be enrolled in the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

This course will introduce the markup language XML and related technologies. Students will learn how to read and write XML, validate XML, and manipulate data for reuse, disseminated via XML. By the end of the course, students should feel comfortable with XML and related technologies. This course teaches the fundamental components of XML and lays the groundwork for further self-study or in-depth application.

A basic familiarity with the concept of text markup and the use of HTML is strongly recommended for success in this course.

Course Requirements

Software
Students can use any XML editor, or no editor at all. You can create XML by hand using a TEXT EDITOR (NOT a word-processor like MSWord).

An example of a good editor: XML authoring software Oxygen XML Editor (currently version 22.1). You may purchase this software for $99, directly from the company, here: Oxygen XML Editor - https://www.oxygenxml.com. A good article to compare prices, features, and platforms is located on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_XML_editors

Assignments
This course is a hands-on, applied course. You will code a lot.

Assignments are:

•  Exercises and quizlets learning about and creating XML - requirements available on Canvas, submitted via Canvas, due many weeks.

•  Final exam - administered via Canvas

Course Calendar 

This course is structured overall as a series of Monday - Sunday weeks. Week 1 begins on August 19, Wednesday, so it is a little short. There will be no class activity during Thanksgiving week, Nov 23 - 27.

A text reading schedule will be distributed via Canvas.

This schedule is subject to change with fair notice. The date in parentheses is the FIRST day of the week.

• Week 1 (8/19): Setting it up: XML syntax, vocabulary, rules, validation
• Week 2 (8/24): Rules: DTDs, namespaces
• Week 3 (8/31): Rules: XMLSchema Part 1
• Week 4 (9/7):  XMLSchema Part 2
• Week 5 (9/14): XPATH
• Week 6 (9/21): Transforming for publishing - XSLT Part 1
• Week 7 (9/28): XSLT Part 2
• Week 8 (10/5): XML in action: TEI, The Text Encoding Initiative/EAD - Encoded Archival Description
• Week 9 (10/12): XQuery
• Week 10 (10/19): XML in databases
• Week 11 (10/26): XML you've used without knowing: RSS
• Week 12 (11/2): Displaying XML - XHTML / HTML 5
• Week 13 (11/9): XML in publishing
• Week 14 (11/16): Even more XML in action - MARC-XML
• (11/23 - 27): Thanksgiving Week - Enjoy your break!
• Week 15 (11/30): More XML you've used without knowing: SOAP, Ajax

Grading

Your course grade will be an accumulation of 100 points distributed as follows:

Deadlines and Due Dates

All Course lecture is delivered via recorded lectures. All other course content is delivered/accessed via Canvas and through your course text.

The course week will run from Monday - Sunday, with the exception of Week 1, which begins on a Wednesday.

Discussion is NOT required in this course. Discussion boards are provided for you to converse with classmates, share code, post questions. I do not actively monitor these boards, though I do look at them.

All Coding Exercises/Quizlets are due on Sunday of their Week by 11:59 p.m. PST. Student questions about specific exercises must be submitted by the Friday prior to their due dates, at 5:00 pm PST, in order to receive instructor guidance. There will be ungraded discussion boards for this.

All assignments are to be submitted complete on the due dates as specified in Canvas. Students submitting assignments late will be penalized by no credit for exercises in the assessment of the final grade. If a student cannot submit an assignment by the due date, it is his/her responsibility to discuss the situation with the instructor prior to the due date. I will work with you. You just have to talk to me.

All dates will be posted on the course site calendar tool on Canvas. However, if there is a discrepancy between Canvas and this Syllabus, the Syllabus prevails.

Quality of Work
This is a Graduate course. Therefore, students are expected to produce mature written work of a scholarly level, free of spelling and major grammatical errors. For programming, attention to detail is essential.

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

INFO 246 has no prequisite requirements.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify the components of an XML document and be able to determine if such a document is well formed and/or valid.
2. Describe the architecture of an XML document using Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and W3C XML schemas.
3. Isolate and extract information from an XML document using tools such as XPath and XSLT.
4. Use XSLT to transform XML into other formats.
5. Describe how XML is used in libraries and other information environments.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 246 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Fawcett, J., Quin, L. R. E., & Ayres, D. (2012). Beginning XML (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. Available through Amazon: 1118162137

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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