Interactive Web Design Module Four

Intro to Web Programming using JavaScript (24 hrs)

Course Goals
This course will teach you how to write JavaScript code and use it in your web pages to perform input validation, site navigation, pop-up windows, and dynamic HTML. At the conclusion of this course you will be able to add practical scripts to your own web pages. You will also be introduced to the script archives on the Internet and shown where you can get other people scripts and how they can be incorporated into your own work. Course concepts and skills are learned through hands-on exercises/projects.

Course Learning Objectives
1. Students will understand the capabilities of JavaScript to make a web page "smarter" and the limitations of JavaScript that it is an evolving technology which behaves differently in each browser and platform.

2. Students will learn fundamental programming concepts such as variable types, web page events, if-and-else statements and how to write a function. 

3. Students will be able to write a script to perform input validation, and for a drop down navigation menu.

4. Students will be introduced to the concept of Dynamic HTML which is important for carrying the programming concepts learned in JavaScript to more advanced server-side programming.

5. Students will learn how to write scripts that set cookies, loop through an array and also how to troubleshoot (i.e., detect and fix) problems with a script. 

6. Students will be introduced to on-line script archives which contain a wealth of scripts. Students will learn how to download a script to accomplish a task and add that script to their own web page.

Course Description
Once the basics have been mastered, students are ready for interactive web design. The first class in this series is intro to programming with JavaScript. This course teaches the fundamentals of designing Interactive Web pages using client-side JavaScript. Students who are comfortable designing a Web page but may have never written a program learn programming fundamentals to add practical scripts to their Web pages. 

Students will learn the fundamentals of JavaScript through lectures on dynamic HTML, JavaScript Events, functions, and an introduction to if-and-else logic. The in-class labs will reinforce the lecture material, and students will code scripts that perform input validation and pop-up windows in JavaScript. Advanced JavaScript concepts covered include private functions, loops, debugging scripts and cookies. Emphasis is also placed on learning the language syntax and the programming reference guide.