Tech Skill: JavaScript

This course provides students the opportunity to explore the design and development of media-rich web applications that utilize both static and procedurally manipulated media such as text, images, and audio. This course examines client and server-side web development and features common to such applications. Issues explored include framework characteristics, information management, presentation, interactivity, persistence, and data binding. Programming projects are required. 3 Credits.

I think that our instructor is a very well speaker. I, personally, enjoyed his zoom meetings more as I can see the board more clearly and maybe take screenshots. He is very friendly and seems to care a lot about the students. His knowledge of the subject really helps us and he shares a lot of tips and tricks which i appreciated a lot

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Very friendly and helpful after/outside of class

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He was very understanding and adaptive, which was very noteworthy as this class was his first time teaching. He would often adjust and work with students which was very respectable. Very good and understanding teacher.

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I think this instructor did a good job at looking for answers or solutions whenever there was an issue.

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Well versed in the subject, and the assignments were all good at furthering my knowledge

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This course provides students with an introduction to internet and web technologies, and to development on Macintosh/UNIX computer platforms. Topics include HTML and CSS, CSS3 features, digital images, web page design and website publishing. Emphasis is placed on fundamentals, concepts and standards. Additional topics include the user experience, mobile design issues, and copyright/intellectual property considerations.

I really appreciate how well-kept mycourses is. This is the only class where I actually trusted the "Work to do" tab in mycourses. This prof was also very forgiving with deadlines which I definitely appreciate. Perhaps a little too forgiving.

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Takats is a very calm and understanding professor who you can tell genuinely wants to see his students succeed.

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Personally Professor Takats, helped enhance my understanding of web and mobile completely. The way that he ran his class was perfect for my learning style and helped me with my time management skills this semester as well. Along with being available outside of his normal office hours (due to our conflicting schedules) he was able to make time to help me when I needed it. He's very organized on my courses and used the textbook as a huge asset, I thought it was very useful and I dislike paying for textbooks. He's overall a very chill professor and it was a pleasure to work with him.

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• 2022 – Major revamp and new interactive textbook integration (ZyBook). Began as a pilot over the summer, to be ready to launch in Fall 2022 to over 10 sections with 6 instructors all teaching ISTE-140 on the Rochester campus of RIT simultaneously. Added custom material not found in ZyBook and adapted 10 ZyLabs.
• 2021 Creation of a new sequence of projects. Here is an example of one
  • Intro to project 3 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-enxiapt4A
• 2020 – Conversion of in person class to an online asynchronous course. Recorded dozens of videos (listed in section above) to create an online asynchronous version of web and mobile 1 that has since been offered in subsequent summers.

Course Coordination & More on Zybook Implementation: This class will often have at least 8 sections in a single fall semester, and is offered in multiple countries (RIT Dubai, RIT Croatia) so significant coordination efforts need to be spent here. As described in the section above, another area I helped coordinate this course being offered around the world was when I implemented the virtual textbook (zybook). This video goes over how the zylabs work and I give a few demos (for summer 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VNT5z3p8Yg

This course builds on the basics of web page development that are presented in Web and Mobile I and extends that knowledge to focus on theories, issues, and technologies related to the design and development of web sites. An overview of web design concepts, including usability, accessibility, information architecture, and graphic design in the context of the web will be covered. Introduction to web site technologies, including HTTP, web client and server programming, and dynamic page generation from a database.

Jokes. Transitioned from whiteboard use to vscode. Most majors prefer live code rather than words on the wall. Provided RIT's style guide as an example, and showed us sites for better UI and color palette. Cyberduck demo and integration were a plus as well.

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The assignments and projects are well communicated, with clear objectives and a fair rubric. I really liked his style of teaching as well, and he was always available and ready to help for his office hours. Great teacher.

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Prof. John seemed to have a down-to-earth personality about him that made reaching out to him for support on class materials easy. There was a natural comfort and as a professor, he taught the course content so understandably for me to grasp the concepts and enjoy the class. All teachers aren't perfect and that can be seen through him, he lets us know he is also human to the extent that he is not knowledgeable about everything but with practice one can become good.

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He was clearly very knowledgeable in the course material, and it reflected in his demonstrations. Being able to go over topics with practice helped facilitate my understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other topics. I feel more confident in my programming abilities, which is not something I would've expected to say earlier in the semester.

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• 2024 – trial of interactive textbook (ZyBook) for teaching javascript and PHP. Currently evaluating several chapters and a dozen labs to pilot in Spring.
• 2020 – 2024 – Created new lectures for various topics:
  1. Introduction to Javascript Presentationhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/15UaxCZPrdOQWowSlR27rGXc3TZlNO_h-/view?usp=drive_link
  2. Introduction to PHP and Server Side Web Programming: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12HS9eVRoBK5-0KAcdwm8ZvbQTIzqE6dC/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109898190618390773341&rtpof=true&sd=true

1. Final Exam / Practical Creation – Created new examinations for multiple semesters
   • Take Home Practical Video Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1xX9jaYqjc
   • Instructions for Take home practical (from a different semester than video above): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O1KQXe1tm7rirnOsgWAdKDtcNV472MbQfd7Dy5pBImo/edit?usp=sharing

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Was very knowledgeable on the subjects at hand

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• 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