Welcome to ETWR 2478

Welcome to ETWR 2478: XML and DITA for Information Specialists, a workshop-style course in which students study about the origins, applications, and cultural context of XML-based publishing; create simple well-formed XML documents, learn the functions and use of XML-base publishing systems; create XML documents and transform them to HTML, PDF, RTF, and text formats; and produce semantically marked-up XML and professional-quality output in multiple formats from a single source using industry-standard DTDs and stylesheets such as DITA.

You will be using this website in conjunction with the Blackboard site for the class. Please look at the Blackboard site for weekly announcements, discussion groups, and submitting assignments and projects for grading. The complete syllabus for the class is located on the Blackboard site.

Text Book

There is one required text book for the course. See the Schedule for week-by-week readings.

DITA Best Practices: A Roadmap for Writing, Editing, and Architecting in DITA by Laura Bellamy, Michele, Carey, and Jennifer Schlotfeldt. ( 978-0-13-248052-9)

Beyond the text book, you can find the following resources useful when completing the assignments:

XML Essentials, Worldwide Web Consortium, http://www.w3.org/standards/xml/core
Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 standard, Worldwide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#sec-origin-goals
CSS reference information: http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/default.asp
Others TBA.

Software

This class requires the use of <oXygen/> XML Editor v17 (look for academic pricing).

Weekly activities

I suggest that each week you perform the following activities:

Check the Blackboard site for announcements
Refer to the schedule on Blackboard or the website for readings, exercises, and projects due that week
Post or reply on the Discussion Board
Attend the Webconnect office hours if you have questions
Check your progress on the current project
Upload any completed assignments and exercises