[ Updated January 2, 2019 ]
This is a new elective course for students in the professional master’s program in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida.
This course has two broad goals:
- Enable journalism and communications pro master’s students to find out whether they like and/or have an aptitude for creating web apps and coding/programming.
- Provide students with sufficient understanding of how web apps are created and how coding problems are solved so that they can work effectively on teams that include coders/programmers in media organizations (even if they decide that coding is not their cup of tea).
In addition to HTML, CSS and JavaScript, we will learn the basics of Python 3.x and self-hosted WordPress.
This is not a course where you “learn to make websites.” (Making websites is so 2005.) It is a course in which you will learn to code, and by “code” I mean write functional programs that run in a web browser — not just make web pages.
It is an introductory course. It has no prerequisites. However, students are required to be enrolled in the professional MAMC program at UF.
This course is an elective, but please note that it is not easy. Challenging, time-consuming homework assignments are due every week.
Instructor Information
Instructor: Mindy McAdams, Professor, Department of Journalism
E-mail: See this page for my UF e-mail address
Office: 3049 Weimer Hall
Office hours: Wednesday 1–3 p.m. in 3049 Weimer | And by appointment | Spring 2019
“By appointment” just means let me know when you want to come and see me, and I’ll let you know if I can’t be there. I’m often not in my office, so you’ll save a trip if you email me ahead of time.
Office phone: (352) 392-8456 (NOTE: Email is better. Much better.)
About me | My GitHub
Course Information
MMC 6936 | Spring 2019 | Class Number: 22366 | Section: 4D63
Class meets twice a week: Tuesday, 3rd period (9:35–10:25 a.m.) and Thursday, 4th & 5th periods (10:40 a.m.–12:35 p.m.). Location: Weimer 2050.
Required Books
Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (5th edition), by Jennifer Niederst Robbins. O’Reilly, 2018 (at Amazon). Note that the 4th edition is NOT ACCEPTABLE. It was published in 2012 and much has changed since then!
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, by Al Sweigart, 2015 (available online here).
Recommended Book
Optional: Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd edition, by Marijn Haverbeke, 2018 (available online here).
Images used throughout the site are from Pixabay unless otherwise noted. License: CC0 Creative Commons — free for commercial use — no attribution required.
Web Apps and Coding 