FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Getting started
Tips to get a good course grade
Technical details
Notebook
Presentation and Project
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How do I upload my files using a FTP client?
In the Lab or our classroom, go to Internet Applications, WS_FTP, click on predefined sites, shared sites, Instruct. Then uncheck the anonymous box, and put your Hawk ID and password in the top two boxes. Double click the 6m1000501 folder, and you'll see the files in your personal subdirectory. Then (from the left-hand side) click on C:, Documents and Settings, Hawk ID, My Documents. Then double click on any new files which will send them over to the right-hand side. Remember that your home page file must be renamed index.htm after you upload it. So, finally, delete the old index.htm and rename your new home page index.htm. Naturally, you do not need to rename any files other than your home page file. You can also use SmartFTP from home by going to the link under Help, Course Supported Software. It is very easy to download and use—and free! You will notice an address bar near the top of the screen. To connect, you should enter the following in the Address bar (from left to right): In the drop-down box immediately to the right of Address, choose FTP over SSL (Explicit) In the next box to the right (which may be blank or say “yourserver.com"), enter instruct.biz.uiowa.edu/courses/6m105001/hawkid In the next box to the right, labeled Login, enter IOWA\hawkid In the next box to the right, labeled, Password, enter your password Connect by clicking the green arrow to the right of the Address. You can add the site as a Favorite simply by selecting "Add to Favorites" from the Favorites menu at the top of the screen. Then you will be able to connect easily by selecting the site from the Favorites menu. One more thing. You may prefer having the local files on the left and the remote files on the right. If so, just drag the folders to opposite sides. Whenever you reopen SmartFTP, the folders will stay in those new positions. What is the nature of Web Business Strategy?This course is designed for students with no or little prior experience in Web site design and e-commerce. While primarily about marketing and e-commerce, the course provides students with an introduction to HTML authoring and graphics design. In addition, it provides experience with CGI forms and cut and paste JavaScript. Advanced topics such as CSS, ASP, XML are discussed but not taught per se. What is important is an understanding of how to create an Internet business through entrepreneurship, marketing and basic Web site design. Is their a textbook for the course? There is no textbook to buy, but there is a virtual text on the course Web site. This material from W3Schools.com is better than most textbooks and doesn't cost $100 for a book that is out-of-date by the time it is published (since the Internet—and even its technologies—change almost daily). What software does the course rely on? The primary HTML authoring software used in the course is HomeSite. This is a professional-grade HTML editor that was #1 among Web site designers and even now is included with Macromedia's expensive Dreamweaver MX. It covers pure HTML code and is not a WYSIWYG program like FrontPage. Numerous graduates of the course have obtained initial positions as Webmasters with only the skills gained in this course. Please see the Instructor for references. You can contact these people on your own if you want to see how you can get a job in Internet commerce based on this course. The course also uses Paint Shop Pro for graphics editing. Although Photoshop is the HomeSite-equivalent for professional graphics work, that program is more expensive and more difficult to learn. Paint Shop Pro is more like Photoshop Elements. Where do I find examples of HTML, graphics and information on course software? All of this—and more—is found in the Help section of this Web site. Click on the green icon at the top right of any page. How often is the course news updated? The course news is updated as necessary and always by mid-morning of the day after class. The HTML Rules! section of the the news page reminds you that we will be using time-tested methods of reducing errors in your work. For example, if you always give your main (home page) file a name like last_name.htm or my_business_name.htm and transfer that by FTP to the Instruct server you will never have to ask yourself which index.htm is there (the old one or the new one). Yes, it adds a step (deleting the old index.htm and renaming your main file), but experience proves that this cuts down errors. That's what HTML Rules! is all about. When should I read the virtual text material? It is expected that you read the virtual text material before the class in which it is discussed. If you really want to be able to tell prospective employers that you know HTML, you need to do two things:
Are the weekly Web site goals cumulative? Yes. This means that each "rule" must be observed after it is covered. It also means that each Web site goal (e.g., links to other pages) must be met in subsequent weeks. How do I know I have met the weekly Web site development goals? Please understand that the weekly Web site development goals are ones that you should meet on your own. They are stated on the Web site and will have been covered—and typically reviewed—during the prior week's class. So the Instructor or Teaching Assistant will not be previewing your Web site in response to an email request to "take a look at my Web site and tell me if I meet all of the goals." Meeting the goals on your own is what the points are awarded for. How do I download and install fonts? There are five steps to take to use fonts of your own choosing in Paint Shop Pro (or any application):
What is my advertising page supposed to cover? The advertising page is a page to display animated ads that you created to promote your own site. It is not a page to sell advertising on your site. If you are using an advertising business model for your content site, you would develop that as part of your Business Plan. The advertising page should have text explaining the purpose of the ads. Can I keep my Business Plan "private?" Yes. If you would like to keep your Business Plan private until the day projects are due, just follow the same procedure that you used for Notebooks: name your file something and send the name to the instructor. If you do this, put a placeholder page for the Business Plan link on your home page. Don't forget to update that link before your project is done! Can my project be reviewed at the end of the course to see if I have met the project goals? No. Since your Web Site and Business Plan count for 50% of your grade and represent the sum of what you have learned about e-commerce and about Web site design, they cannot be reviewed before they are graded. They are—in essence—your "final exam." If you are unsure of whether you have met the requirements, just review the Project Guidelines. Why is self-initiative stressed in Web Business Strategy? To a very large extent, your learning in the class—and consequently your grade—depends on self-initiative. You are the one who takes concepts that we cover in the lectures and finds connections with current articles or other news about e-commerce through the vehicle of your Notebook. You are the one who brings your Web site up-to-date each week by meeting the technical goals. And you are the one who begins on your project, makes progress on it, and brings it to a successful conclusion. Why is the course organized this way? The answer is simply because this self-initiative is what employers look for in a job candidate and what you would be expected to show in a job. This applies broadly to jobs as far ranging as Webmaster, management trainee, salesperson or even—maybe especially—entrepreneur. By far the most common traits that interviewers look for in job candidates are attitude and initiative, and, in my mind, they are intimately related. This is the reason Web Business Strategy is organized the way that it is. What sort of improvements do the first Notebook entries usually need?
When is it "safe" to upload a new version of my site and electronic Notebook? It is very important that you (a) meet the technical goals deadline by noon on the day of class and (b) do no updating of your index.htm page for 24 hours (i.e., until noon of the following day). If you update your page and it had not been graded by then, the time stamp will show that it is late. This applies to your electronic Notebook as well. What should be included in my Web site presentation?Each student should prepare a brief (~ 5 minute) presentation on their course project that covers the following:
Please do not use PowerPoint. If you want to include an outline, create it as temporary Web page on your site. What is the most common feedback on the Web site presentations?Please take time to review the Problem Solving Format: Internet Edition since the concept of evaluative dimensions and its link to a brand (or site's) Core Benefit Proposition must be clearly thought out and then articulated in your Business Plan. In addition, it doesn't seem helpful to use "navigation" or "ease of use" as evaluative dimensions. Since all Web sites should have good navigation and be easy to use, these would not be a way for consumers to choose among sites. And even if they were, the poor site could easily match good navigation and ease of use, so good navigation and ease of use would not be effective MAGIC strategies. How can I continue to work on my Web pages without "screwing up" the code? Never name your current home page index.htm until after you have used FTP to upload it. Otherwise you (and we) will not be able to keep straight which is your old home page and which is your new home page. Indeed, just name your current home page, say, home1.htm, FTP it to the Instruct server, and then rename it index.htm. That way you will always have files named home1.htm, a newer version named home2.htm, etc. Edit home1.htm until you are done and then rename it home2.htm. Now you have your "old" page (home1.htm) and your new version (home2.htm). Keep them both until you feel that home1.htm is totally obsolete. If you follow this plan, someday you'll have, say home.htm, which may turn out to be your final project home page. Or maybe it will be home.42 htm! :>) When you are done with home2.htm, FTP it to your subdirectory. Rename it index.htm. With some FTP clients this will write over your old index.htm. With others you will have to delete the old index.htm first. Either way this is safe since you have copies on your local computer or on removable media named home1.htm and home2.htm. This method is better than "saving" a Web page especially if you forget to "Save as HTML only" (one of our rules). If you "Save a Web Page, complete" (the default in Internet Explorer) you will have crazy code added to your page that no one will understand. If you always keep copies of your home page (and other files) on removable media you can work on your files without any downloading since you always have the current and prior versions of the files there. What you keep in your subdirectory, then, is the most current versions of everything. This way all you do is open HomeSite, edit your pages (from removable media) and then FTP the latest versions. Finally, many times the best thing to do if your code is messy or something is just not working is to "start over." This is really simple to do since you have saved the last "working" copy of your page. All you do is copy and paste! How do I know how I am doing in the course? Students often wonder how they can tell how they are doing in a course that may have no course exam or quizzes. Actually, it's quite easy. Attendance and tardiness can affect your grade and surely you know if you have attended class and arrive on time. The Instructor keeps track of attendance and tardiness on a seating chart. If you are late it is your responsibility to tell the Instructor that you attended that class. In addition, your grade can be influenced by persistent personal Web surfing during class. Weekly Web Site Goals are 15% of your grade and they are not graded on quality, just whether or not you have met the goals on time. Since most people do meet the goals on time, if you miss two or three deadlines you could be facing a C level grade since this—and all other components of your grade—are based on a curve. Your E-Commerce Notebook counts for 35% of your grade (unless you elect to take the Course Exam) and that is computed in two parts. Twenty five percent of the grade is based on progress, namely meeting the weekly deadlines. That too is graded on a curve, so if you have missed several deadlines you could be at the bottom of the class. The quality of your Notebook counts for 75% of the grade and that is determined near the end of the course. But even here you can estimate how you are doing by simply thinking about how much reading you are doing, whether you are integrating course concepts into your Notebook, and, importantly, how your writing compares to the "A" Notebooks used as examples on the course Web site. Ask yourself: Does my work look like that? (Reread the guidelines on writing quality too.) Finally, your Entrepreneurship Project counts for 50% of your grade and your project will not be evaluated until the end of the course. This is a good thing in the sense that you have ample opportunity to do your best. But it also means that you must look very carefully at the grading guidelines for projects. Each semester some students lose credit simply because they don't have required pages or more than a couple of pages of content. Others don't pay attention to technical aspects. Still others fail to notice the writing quality requirement, which always lowers the grade. Perhaps the most difficult things to judge are the three "Additional Grading Criteria." Suitability to purpose means that your site does what it says it is supposed to do. Completeness means that it is complete on all aspects of the product design and does not have missing pages or content areas where they are indicated or would be expected. Creativity is not a requirement per se but is taken into consideration. So for your project you can ask yourself how many of these things are you doing or covering. While you may not have a quiz grade or an exam grade, you do have awareness of what is expected and what others have done before you. That is how you can tell how you are doing in the course. My teaching assistant and I have arranged help in the class in the following way: If you have a question about passwords, FTP, technical goals, getting your work posted on time (including electronic Notebooks), or other matters relating to due dates or class assignments, you should contact the TA. The TA's email address is on the eSyllabus. For other matters, including choosing a business idea, going over lecture topics or creating your business plan, feel free to ask me or, better, stop by during my office hours. Remember that I usually arrive at 6:00pm on Thursdays and that's a great time to ask questions or get help. And don't forget the WebLab. See the hours at the bottom of the course News page. It's designed just for you! How can I create an operational form on my site?Here are four alternative ways of doing that: 1. Use the CGI Formmail.pl script by following the directions on the sample form. 2. Use a Cold Fusion form. Cold Fusion is a proprietary scripting language that was developed by the same company that developed HomeSite. Both are now owned by Macromedia. See the Cold Fusion sample form under Course Help, HTML Practice. However, this is more complicated because the "script" is one that you have to modify in the Cold Fusion language, whereas a CGI script is written so as to "parse" any form. If you choose to do this, though, you could have a fully-functioning form on your site. To implement a Cold Fusion form, look at the source code for the sample form and then download this Cold Fusion file: sendmail.txt. Note that the form has a .cfm extension and that you have to modify the sendmail.txt to match your custom form and then change the extension to .cfm. Put both your form and the sendmail files in your subdirectory. Right now Cold Fusion is "unsupported" in this course. That means if you want to try to do this, you'll pretty much be on your own. The WebLab people, on the other hand, can help with Cold Fusion. 3. Another alternative for a form is to create a very nice one for your site and then just put <FORM ACTION="thankyou.htm" method="get"> and <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="redirect" VALUE="/courses/6m105001/yourhawkid/thankyou.htm"> at the top of the form. This will provide you with the opportunity to learn how to create a form and at least have the "thank you" page returned (but no email will be sent). Don't forget that the form has a bottom section too with the "submit button" code. 4. A fourth alternative would be to register at CGISpy.com, a so-called hosted CGI site, and use their free Email Form script. I tested this without registering (don't ask) and it works fine. What are Endnotes?
Endnotes that show what I have in mind are from Seahorsin' Around and Juggle All the Time on AdSpace. Other students failed to grasp the idea (which is nothing more than the usual use of Footnotes—the only difference between Footnotes and Endnotes being their placement in the document). I believe that the statement on the project grading page speaks for itself: "[Endnotes] show connections to course lectures and readings and thus substantiate the Business Plan." The quality of Endnotes varies with the quality of the "connections." (This is perfectly analogous to the notion that the quality of Notebooks varies with the quality of the "integration" of write ups with course lectures.) 
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