The initial considerations for any web project are purpose and audience. Your viewers' needs and preferences should determine what information your site would contain and what it would look like.

1. Requirements for a course: Is this site merely to satisfy a course requirement where your audience is your instructor? Are there specific points you need to address to fulfill that requirement? How much latitude do you have to express your creativity?
2. Other purposes: Since web sites are accessible to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, can you use this site for other audiences as well? Potential/future employers, family and friends, professional organizations are but a few examples of who may be interested in seeing your site.

Once you determine your audience and their requirements and/or preferences, then it is time to start planning to put your best foot forward on the World Wide Web.

Explore ideas for building a portfolio at the Career Center.

Planning:

Design considerations:

Planning is essential to building a great website. One method is to make a map or storyboard of your proposed website. First, know the requirements and state the purpose of the Website. Then, identify and name the pages that you will construct. Now, determine a consistent layout, a high-contrast color scheme and navigation plan. At this point, collect the essential elements: images, hyperlinks, video, digital artifacts and other related items to include on the Website. Look for media at the Digital Commons.

Finally, know which software that you will use and start your work.

Copyright issues:

When creating any type of original work or using someone else's work, it is very important to be aware of intellectual property laws and rights. For information regarding your rights and responsibilities when it comes to copyright and intellectual property, visit:    http://www.bsu.edu/library/collections/copyright/students/

Materials:

Documents:

Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations can easily be saved and published as Web pages then hyperlinked to your default (home) page.  These programs build the HTML behind the scenes so that you don't have to know the coding.  In addition, Microsoft PowerPoint automatically builds a hyperlinked navigation scheme for all titled slides in a presentation.

Images & Media: 

Digital media can be defined as images, animations, video, and audio.  Media can be an integral part of a web page, but there is a fine line between under utilizing and over utilizing media.  Keep your intended audience in mind when selecting media.  Ask the question;    "Will users have to download files, install plug-ins, or wait for files to load before they can view or have access to the media on your web site?"     Think of media as a means to support your content and provide the user a rich experience.

Photo Editing:

We are in the era of point and click photography.  Capturing the best photo for your website takes planning, patience and practice.  Plan what photos will support the content.  Patience learning the functionality that is already built into your digital camera.  Practice getting the best shots and editing your digital photo for your web page.

Video Editing:

Planning, storyboarding, and editing digital video can be a lot of work.  There are techniques for getting the best video footage, downloading the raw video to your computer, and taking out what you don't want.  During the editing process, you can add still images, narration and other types of audio files to enhance your finished video.

Podcasting:

Once you have an idea how to use audio to enhance your website, it will be easier to develop audio files to support your ideas.  Recording, editing and enhancing audio episodes in to "show type" format gives users information they want to listen to on a specific topic that they can subscribe to.  Create a show template in your audio editing application to make maintaining your podcast show easier to maintain.

Publishing Tools - Essentials for publishing your portfolio

iWeb:

Why do I need an iWeb account?

Ball State University provides each student with his/her own virtual web server and 2GB of space to store web pages and other documents.  This virtual server is called iWeb. You will need to create an account in order to have access to this space and publish your web pages.

What are your iWeb responsibilities?

It is your responsibility to use iWeb according to the Ball State University Information Technology Users Priviledges and Responsibility Policy and to monitor the amount of iWeb space that you use by visiting the iWeb support page.

How to create an iWeb account?

• Go online
• Point your browser to http://iweb.bsu.edu
• Click on the Support link
• Log in with your BSU username and password
• Click "Yes, I want to create an iWeb account"
• Check the box to enable FrontPage Server Extensions
• Check the box to the User Agreement
• Click button to create your account

Once you have an iWeb account, you may use a variety of methods to publish your web pages.

VPN:  

Wireless at Ball State University is secure with the addition of a Virtual Private Network tool that you can download and install from the University Computing Services website.    To enable FTP (File Transfer Protocol) connectivity to a web hosting service such as iWeb, both PC and Mac users will use this tool.  Find out more about VPN from the frequently asked questions website.

Fetch for Macintosh Users:  

Mac Users who want to upload and download files over the internet using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) can use the Fetch application.  This free application is available for all faculty, staff and students and can be downloaded from www.bsu.edu/betaplace.  You will be prompted to log in using your Ball State username and password.  Learn how to use Fetch on your Macintosh to publish web pages to your iweb account.

Software Tools - Essentials for creating your portfolio

View all options and then select one application to create and manage all of your websites on Campus.  Check with your instructor for recommended applications before you select.  Your college may have required applications for your digital portfolio.

Rapidweaver:

Rapidweaver is the application of choice for creating a portfolio for teacher education students. Tutorials to assist you in downloading and construction your teacher education portfolio are available at the Teacher Education Digital Portfolios website.

Nvu:

Nvu is an easy to use WYSIWYG Web authoring system which is cross-platform and works with Microsoft Windows, MAC OS X and Linus Systems.  This application is free and can be downloaded from University Computing Services Beta Place.  

SharePoint Designer:

A new Microsoft web development tool is not available in computer labs at Ball State.  This tools has replaced the out-of-date Microsoft Front Page application for creating web pages and portfolios.  SharePoint designer can be used to create simple to complex web sites.  You can choose how to use this web development application.