Tech Skill: CMS

This course builds on the basic aspects of web page development that are presented in the first course and extends that knowledge to focus on issues and technologies related to the design and development of web sites. Topics include advanced internet technologies (including, but not limited to: AJAX, server-side programming, database use and access, client libraries, server frameworks, and creating and consuming information services).

Professor Takats is kind, patient, and understanding when it comes to teaching the course material. He's very experienced as a web developer and he does his best to translate that into his teaching. He always tries to be available outside of class and will respond to questions at all hours of the day. He also put in a lot of time and effort to ensure we had real clients to work with for our group projects, and that alone has given me an invaluable experience in web work and project management. He really tries to go above and beyond, and secured a bunch of extra software to try preparing us for developing in real-world settings. I took a previous class with him, and went out of my way to take another because I appreciated his attitude and effort.

This was by far the best class I've taken at RIT. Although the material being taught, and my desire to learn web development may have played a part in how much I enjoyed taking this course, I believe that the biggest reason however was Prof. Takats. The manner in which he taught, explained with patience, promoted discussions and a positive learning environment, and how he was always available to meet with were things I genuinely appreciated. Also, the individual project and the group project setups were great.

I think Professor Takats did a good job organizing the massive amount of material in this course into manageable lessons. He provided helpful feedback on assignments and was always available for questions and assistance, especially after the switch to online learning. It is clear from taking this course that Professor Takats cares about his students and strives to help them learn material that is interesting and beneficial to them. He took a difficult course and helped us understand the material in a meaningful way.

Group Project for Local Non-Profit Organization Initiative

• Overview: Traditionally, students in the course (ISTE-646 Foundations of Web Technologies II) are tasked with developing a design document and a small website, complete with dynamic features such as web forms and database-driven content. However, recognizing the potential for real-world impact, I initiated an initiative to engage genuine clients, primarily from the Rochester non-profit sector. This strategic shift not only offered students a tangible connection to industry practices but also aimed to enhance the web presence of small organizations with very limited resources. Borat

News article w/ video on RIT website: https://www.rit.edu/spotlights/code-community-weaving-real-world-non-profit-projects-web-technologies-course

• Presentation to computing college on findings:
  • YouTube Video of presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbc3pi-8MnM
    • Slide Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1raZNfZQC5be35rxtHDm9M3nryl6T-7iA/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116505914402717236361&rtpof=true&sd=true

• Organizations we have helped:
  • Marketview heights (a community service organization committed to improving the quality of life in Rochester through underscoring the need for decent housing that is affordable to low and moderate income people):
    • Working Website:
      https://646marketview.cad.rit.edu/marketviewheights/
  • South Lyon Cardio Drumming
    • Working Website:
      https://646cardio.cad.rit.edu/getsimple-main/
  • Additional Organizations we have helped but not a finished website to show are: Britton Rd. Cemetery, UPSTAT Statistics Conference Mastermind (an academic quiz bowl for middle school and high school students).

Additional Initiatives and Development:

• Content Management Systems Added to curriculum. Since the class is composed of graduate students, many of whom are not actually going into Full Stack Development it wasn’t a requirement to learn as many of the basics. This allowed me to implement several content management systems the students could use in their group project including: WordPress, Joomla, Get Simple CMS.

Although large-scale web sites still require considerable development effort, there are today several options for establishing a web presence using tools designed for non-programmers. This course gives students understanding of and experience with installing and customizing websites using tools such as Blogs, Wikis,and content management systems.

He provides flexibility with deadlines.

Was very knowledgeable on the subjects at hand

• 2016 Recorded a video lecture series for installing the Joomla Content Management system and put it on YouTube. This was optional content for the Rapid Online Presence Course.
  • Part 1: Joomla CMS installation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s47yzAbyuWE
  • Part 2: Setting up Joomla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWmul5hGZ70
• 2016 – 2017. The class used an open source wikipedia-like tool called wikepage. I created several videos to go over installing it:
  • Understanding Unix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWcHMKzWgh0
  • Video Tutorial on using WikePage (a wiki CMS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJB9ZAAXY4E

Javascript Validation Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjV13Z-hYZM

The final course in the minor in Web Design and Development (for non-GCCIS majors). Students will develop a deeper understanding of technologies underlying the web and how to combine them. This course builds upon the work from the preceding four courses in the minor and emphasizes integrating multiple technologies and content sources to create sophisticated web sites and web applications for desktop and mobile devices. This course is not available to GCCIS majors.

Project 1 Assignment: https://people.rit.edu/~jxtadm/wia/projects/stage1.html

• Tutorials developed for the class:
  • PHPMyAdmin and Simple Tables: https://people.rit.edu/~jxtadm/wia/ice4b.html
  • Using mysqli from PHP:https://people.rit.edu/~jxtadm/wia/ice5a.html