Tuesday, January 8

Goals for Today

• Introduction to the course and each other.
• Review carefully the Course Description, paying particular attention to all requirements. It is important that you become very familiar with the course projects and policies so you can understand what is expected of you in this class.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, January 13

Before Tuesday, January 13, please complete all of these steps:

• Acquire all the texts listed on the course description.
• Create an Adobe ID and download the Creative Cloud software if you haven't already done so. See http://clemson.onthehub.com/ to get started.
• Complete Getting Started 1: Registering on the Site, Getting Started 2: Logging in for the First Time, and Getting Started 3: Editing Your Account for the First Time
• Read Learning to Navigate the Site. Then explore the class website. Make sure that you login; some class website features are not available to guests. It'll be easier as we move forward if you take the time now to explore. Get familiar with where things are located, which links take you further into the class website and which take you outside to other resources.

Tuesday, January 13

Due Today

• Acquire all the texts listed on the course description.
• Create an Adobe ID and download the Creative Cloud software if you haven't already done so. See http://clemson.onthehub.com/ to get started.
• Complete Getting Started 1: Registering on the Site, Getting Started 2: Logging in for the First Time, and Getting Started 3: Editing Your Account for the First Time
• Read Learning to Navigate the Site. Then explore the class website. Make sure that you login; some class website features are not available to guests. It'll be easier as we move forward if you take the time now to explore. Get familiar with where things are located, which links take you further into the class website and which take you outside to other resources.

In-Class Activities

• Overview of the Course Drupal Site
• Inventory of Classroom Technologies (software, display/presentation, peripherals). In groups of three or four, take inventory of software, hardware, and peripherals that we have available to us in the MATRF.

Activities to Complete by Thursday, January 15

• I've created a post on the course home page (Introductions) inviting you to introduce yourself. Post a comment to that post in which you
  • describe where you are from
  • give your course of study and year in your graduate program
  • talk about your areas of scholarly/creative interest and career goals
  • tell what you would like to get out of this course
  • describe one or more of your favorite books and what you like about it; include an image of the book's cover, which you can get with a Google image search.
• Send an email to me (dblakes@clemson.edu) to let me know that you've begun the course successfully. Your email should be sent before Thursday's class meeting. I will reply (almost always within 24 hours, often much faster). Your email should follow the principles and conventions of writing effective email (PDF at Dropbox).

Thursday, January 15

Due Today

• I've created a post on the course home page (Introductions) inviting you to introduce yourself. Post a comment to that post in which you
  • describe where you are from
  • give your course of study and year in your graduate program
  • talk about your areas of scholarly/creative interest and career goals
  • tell what you would like to get out of this course
  • describe one or more of your favorite books and what you like about it; include an image of the book's cover, which you can get with a Google image search.
• Send an email to me (dblakes@clemson.edu) to let me know that you've begun the course successfully. Your email should be sent before Thursday's class meeting. I will reply (almost always within 24 hours, often much faster). Your email should follow the principles and conventions of writing effective email (PDF at Dropbox).

In-Class Activities

• Inventory of Classroom Technologies (software, display/presentation, peripherals). In groups of three or four, take inventory of software, hardware, and peripherals that we have available to us in the MATRF.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, January 20

• Create your first blog post. We will go over best practices for posting (the best way to "show your work") during class. Topic: Please read and ponder parts 1 and 2 of Show Your Work by Austin Kleon ("You Don't Have to Be a Genius" and "Think Process, Not Product"). Read "Principles of Reading Responses and then follow the general principles of posting to your blog here: Principles for Posting to Your Weblog. You could take the "advice" Kleon offers and run with it (so, "Be an Amateur" might prompt a response about something that deeply interests you, that you know a lot about, but that you also have never really been formally trained to study as a student or scholar). There are a bunch of other possibilities, jumping off from lots of tidbits in these two sections. Remember also that the point of this is to "Show Your Work" (e.g., share your creativity and get discovered), so you're writing to a broad audience of smart people (not just the ones in our class!). Remember: 150-200 words, at least two images, and at least two links. You can get stock images from Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons, or Unsplash. (These and other links to asset archives are collected on our course site here. Please record any citation information so that you can add it to your captions. TAGS: blog1, show your work, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, January 20

Due Today

• Create your first blog post. We will go over best practices for posting (the best way to "show your work") during class. Topic: Please read and ponder parts 1 and 2 of Show Your Work by Austin Kleon ("You Don't Have to Be a Genius" and "Think Process, Not Product"). Read "Principles of Reading Responses and then follow the general principles of posting to your blog here: Principles for Posting to Your Weblog. You could take the "advice" Kleon offers and run with it (so, "Be an Amateur" might prompt a response about something that deeply interests you, that you know a lot about, but that you also have never really been formally trained to study as a student or scholar). There are a bunch of other possibilities, jumping off from lots of tidbits in these two sections. Remember also that the point of this is to "Show Your Work" (e.g., share your creativity and get discovered), so you're writing to a broad audience of smart people (not just the ones in our class!). Remember: 150-200 words, at least two images, and at least two links. You can get stock images from Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons, or Unsplash. (These and other links to asset archives are collected on our course site here. Please record any citation information so that you can add it to your captions. TAGS: blog1, show your work, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Discussion of Show Your Work
• Introduction to O'Reilly Atlas. Watch this video:

Activities to Complete by Thursday, January 22

• Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.

Thursday, January 22

Due Today

Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.

In-Class Activities

• Introduction to DPS. Check out this poster, "Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) at Universities"and then watch the introduction video and download the "Getting Started Guide," both of which are linked in the PDF. You can view this poster on Behance here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/22845365/Digital-Publishing-Suite-at-Universities
• Introduction to Behance and ProSite. Watch "Behance and Adobe Creative Cloud" on Adobe TV

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, January 27

• Reading. Read the first two chapters ("The Rise of the Centaurs" and "We, the Memorius") in Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think (pp. 1-44).
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on one or more key points in these two chapters, points such as "Every new tool shapes the way we think, as well as what we think about" (7) or William Gibson's idea that "The future is already here—it's not very evenly distributed" (9). (These are just examples, so you can venture to your own favorites. Write a blog post in which you elaborate on Thompson's idea, connect it to your own experience, and then connect it with the experience of others. As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog2, smarter, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, January 27

Due Today

• Reading. Read the first two chapters ("The Rise of the Centaurs" and "We, the Memorius") in Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think (pp. 1-44).
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on one or more key points in these two chapters, points such as "Every new tool shapes the way we think, as well as what we think about" (7) or William Gibson's idea that "The future is already here—it's not very evenly distributed" (9). (These are just examples, so you can venture to your own favorites. Write a blog post in which you elaborate on Thompson's idea, connect it to your own experience, and then connect it with the experience of others. As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog2, smarter, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Formation of Project Teams
• Discussion of Smarter Than You Think
• Major Collaborative Book Project Assigned

Activities to Complete by Thursday, January 29

• Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.

Watching

Craig Mod - Edges and Boundaries and the Future Book from Build on Vimeo.

Reading

• Craig Mod, "Platforming Books: Making Art Space Tokyo Digital" (http://craigmod.com/journal/platforming_books/).

Thursday, January 29

Due Today

Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.

In-Class Activities

• Introduction to DPS. Check out this poster, "Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) at Universities"and then watch the introduction video and download the "Getting Started Guide," both of which are linked in the PDF. You can view this poster on Behance here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/22845365/Digital-Publishing-Suite-at-Universities
• Project Team Meetings

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, January 27

• Reading. Read Chapters 2, 3, and 4 in APE.
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by describing the most important thing you learned about the future of the book from these three chapters ("Traditional Publishing," "The Self-Publishing Revolution," or "The Ascent of eBooks.") As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog3, publishing, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, February 3

Due Today

• Reading. Read Chapters 2, 3, and 4 in APE.
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by describing the most important thing you learned about the future of the book from these three chapters ("Traditional Publishing," "The Self-Publishing Revolution," or "The Ascent of eBooks.") As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog3, publishing, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Major Collaborative Book Project Assigned
• Individual Book Project Assigned
• Formation of Project Teams

Activities to Complete by Thursday, February 5

• Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.
• Check out the Parlor Press website to see its catalog, series, and general focus. You'll be given a list of titles to choose from for completing your individual book project soon.
• Creating. First, read the two-page decription in Go by Chip Kidd on starting a scrapbook of designs you like (Design Project 1, p. 122). Then, if you don't have a Pinterest account, create one that will serve as your own scrapbook for collecting design ideas, particularly ones related to books, book design, and publishing. Collect at least five pins to get started. If you haven't used Pinterest before, watch this overview and then read about Pins, Boards, Following, Home Feed and more. Once you have your Pinterest account created, add it to your profile on Behance so that others can follow your pins if they choose. (See the "On the Web" block on the left side of your profile page.)

Please Note!

Dr. Blakesley has to attend Board of Trustees meetings at the Madren Center, so there will be no in-person class meeting. However, be sure to complete the work assigned and note the reading for next week (Feb. 12).

Thursday, February 5

Dr. Blakesley has to attend Board of Trustees meetings at the Madren Center, so there will be no in-person class meeting.

Due Today

• Everyone should plan on responding and commenting to at least three blog posts by your peers. Responses should engage the subject/topic, suggest alternative resources or ideas, and help the writer make connections to broader networks of inquiry.
• Creating. If you don't have a Pinterest account, create one that will serve as your own scrapbook for collecting design ideas, particularly ones related to books, book design, and publishing. Collect at least five pins to get started. If you haven't used Pinterest before, watch this overview and then read about Pins, Boards, Following, Home Feed and more. Once you have your Pinterest account created, add it to your profile on Behance so that others can follow your pins if they choose. (See the "On the Web" block on the left side of your profile page.)

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, February 10

• Reading. Go by Chip Kidd. Introduction ("Okay, So Just What Is Graphic Design") and Chapter 1 ("Form").
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by taking three photographs of something you see on campus representing good or interesting design and that have someting, even remotely, to do with books or the ideas or activities that swirl around books as material things and concepts. Include the three images in your blog, and then describe why you chose them, what you like about their design, and anything else that comes to mind. It's okay to think abstractly and metaphorically, so, for example, the object you photograph might convey the "idea" of a book, even if it's not material book. This week, you'll need three images in your blog post, but you only need to link elsewhere if doing so enhances your post. TAGS: blog4, design, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, February 10

Due Today

• Reading. Go by Chip Kidd. Introduction ("Okay, So Just What Is Graphic Design") and Chapter 1 ("Form").
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by taking three photographs of something you see on campus representing good or interesting design and that have someting, even remotely, to do with books or the ideas or activities that swirl around books as material things and concepts. Include the three images in your blog, and then describe why you chose them, what you like about their design, and anything else that comes to mind. It's okay to think abstractly and metaphorically, so, for example, the object you photograph might convey the "idea" of a book, even if it's not material book. This week, you'll need three images in your blog post, but you only need to link elsewhere if doing so enhances your post. TAGS: blog4, design, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• View"Good Is Dead" (Chipp Kidd's online journal with samples, videos, and more.)
• Watch "Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter" (Ted Talk 17:16)
• Meet in Project Teams.

Activities to Complete by Thursday, February 12

• Be sure that you're able to run InDesign CC 2014 on a computer that you have easy access to. We'll be working on books in InDesign often from this point forward.

Thursday, February 12

In-Class Activities

• Assign books to project teams; share content with Atlas teams; begin individual book projects.
• Here are two links to a majority of the books for the Adobe DPS Project:
  • Perspectives on Writing Series: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives.cfm
  • Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/reference_guides.cfm
  • Additional titles at the Parlor Press website: Invasion of the MOOCs, Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion, Reading Maps, Graphs, and Trees, Looking for a Fight, Framing Theory's Empire, Writing Spaces (Vols. 1 and 2)
• Meet in Project Teams. There are 35 titles to include in the Adobe DPS App, so each team should select 11 titles to work on (Dr. B. will be helping, so don't worry!)

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, February 17

• Reading. Read the chapters 3 and 4 ("Public Thinking" and "The New Literacies") in Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think (pp. 45-114).
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on one or more key points in these two chapters, with a particular focus on the nature of new literacies, how these relate to publishing and books, or writing and creativity in the digital age. (These are just examples, so you can venture to your own favorites. Write a blog post in which you elaborate on Thompson's idea, connect it to your own experience, and then connect it with the experience of others. As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog5, smarter, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, February 17

Due Today

• Reading. Read the chapters 3 and 4 ("Public Thinking" and "The New Literacies") in Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think (pp. 45-114).
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on one or more key points in these two chapters, with a particular focus on the nature of new literacies, how these relate to publishing and books, or writing and creativity in the digital age. (These are just examples, so you can venture to your own favorites. Write a blog post in which you elaborate on Thompson's idea, connect it to your own experience, and then connect it with the experience of others. As always, include two more more images (photographs that you take and that might illustrate your ideas work really well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog5, smarter, and any others that may be relevant.

Activities to Complete by Thursday, February 19

• Be sure that you're able to run InDesign CC 2014 on a computer that you have easy access to. We'll be working on books in InDesign often from this point forward.
• Be prepared to select your books for the Individual Book Project from the list to be provided in class.

Thursday, February 19

In-Class Activities

• Discuss the Case Study Project.
• Assign books to project teams; share content with Atlas teams; begin individual book projects.
• Here are two links to a majority of the books for the Adobe DPS Project:
  • Perspectives on Writing Series: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives.cfm
  • Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/reference_guides.cfm
  • Additional titles at the Parlor Press website: Invasion of the MOOCs, Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion, Reading Maps, Graphs, and Trees, Looking for a Fight, Framing Theory's Empire, Writing Spaces (Vols. 1 and 2)
• Start meeting individually with Dr. B. to choose and discuss the book for your Individual Book Project

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, February 24

• Reading. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work (Chapters 3, 4, and 5; "Share Something Small Everyday," "Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities," and "Tell Good Stories")
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on what's involved in telling good stories and, in particular, the idea that "our work doesn't speak for itself" (93). Find one example of your own work (something you created) that doesn't speak for itself and tell its story. Your work could be something you wrote, a group project, a video, artwork, or anything else that you worked hard on and that is meaningful to you in some way. As always, include two more more images (images or examples of the work) and two external links to the work or writing of other that may be related. TAGS: blog6, stories, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, February 24

Due Today

• Reading. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work (Chapters 3, 4, and 5; "Share Something Small Everyday," "Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities," and "Tell Good Stories")
• Blogging. Respond to the reading by focusing on what's involved in telling good stories and, in particular, the idea that "our work doesn't speak for itself" (93). Find one example of your own work (something you created) that doesn't speak for itself and tell its story. Your work could be something you wrote, a group project, a video, artwork, or anything else that you worked hard on and that is meaningful to you in some way. As always, include two more more images (images or examples of the work) and two external links to the work or writing of other that may be related. TAGS: blog6, stories, and any others that may be relevant.

Activities to Complete by Thursday, February 26

• Be sure that you're able to run InDesign CC 2014 on a computer that you have easy access to. We'll be working on books in InDesign often from this point forward.
• Be prepared to select your books for the Individual Book Project from the list to be provided in class.

Thursday, February 26

Snow Day (Clemson cancelled).

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, March 3

• Reading and Blogging Holiday!
• Complete these "Steps for Preparing an InDesign File for eBook Production."

Tuesday, March 3

Due Today

• Reading and Blogging Holiday! No blog response due.
• Complete these "Steps for Preparing an InDesign File for eBook Production."

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration).

Activities to Complete by Thursday, March 5

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) and be prepared to iron out any issues during class. The goal is to have your ePub version done by the end of class on Thursday.

Thursday, March 5

Due Today

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) and be prepared to iron out any issues during class. The goal is to have your ePub version done by the end of class on Thursday.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, March 3

• Reading. Read Chapters 8–13 in APE. Focus in particular on Chapter 13, "How to Convert Your File."
• Blogging. Why do Kawasaki and Welch describe Chapter 13 as the "harriest chapter in the book"? What's hard about preparing a book for distribution to a wider audience along all the channels they describe in Chapter 12? How does or should "dissemination" of content influence the composition of a book in the first place? What would you tell aspiring authors or self-publishers about the process? You can answer any or all of these questions. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog7, publishing, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, March 10

Due Today

• Reading. Read Chapters 8–13 in APE. Focus in particular on Chapter 13, "How to Convert Your File."
• Blogging. Why do Kawasaki and Welch describe Chapter 13 as the "harriest chapter in the book"? What's hard about preparing a book for distribution to a wider audience along all the channels they describe in Chapter 12? How does or should "dissemination" of content influence the composition of a book in the first place? What would you tell aspiring authors or self-publishers about the process? You can answer any or all of these questions. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog7, publishing, and any others that may be relevant.
• Complete these "Steps for Preparing an InDesign File for eBook Production."

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration).

Activities to Complete by Thursday, March 12

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) and be prepared to iron out any issues during class. The goal is to have your ePub version done by the end of class on Thursday.

Thursday, March 12

Due Today

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) and be prepared to iron out any issues during class. The goal is to have your ePub version done by the end of class on Thursday.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, March 24

• Continue working on your ePub versions of your individual book projects during spring break
• No reading/blog post is due

Tuesday, March 24

Due Today

• No reading/blog post is due.
• Complete these "Steps for Preparing an InDesign File for eBook Production." Note that they have been updated with information from Adobe's Help information on how to "Export Content for EPUB": https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/export-content-epub-cc.html

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration), including Kindle and iBook formats.

Activities to Complete by Thursday, March 26

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) for Kindle and iBook formats and be prepared to iron out any issues during class.

Thursday, March 26

Due Today

• Complete the export process on your book (Individual Book Project) for Kindle and iBook formats and be prepared to iron out any issues during class.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, March 31

• Continue working on your ePub versions of your individual book projects during spring break
• Reading. Read "Digital School" and "Ambient Awareness" in Smarter Than You Think (175-244).
• Blogging. Address either of these two questions: From "Digital School": How does writing (and/or designing) for a public audience affect what you say, how you think about your work and what difference it might make? Or, from "Ambient Awareness": Describe the idea of "ambient contact" and how it has worked in one situation you've been involved in. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog8, digital publics, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, March 30

Due Today

• Reading. Read "Digital School" and "Ambient Awareness" in Smarter Than You Think (175-244).
• Blogging. Address either of these two questions: From "Digital School": How does writing (and/or designing) for a public audience affect what you say, how you think about your work and what difference it might make? Or, from "Ambient Awareness": Describe the idea of "ambient contact" and how it has worked in one situation you've been involved in. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog8, digital publics, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration), including Kindle and iBook formats.
• Meet in collaborative book project groups. Prepare to present a progress report to the rest of the class on Thursday

Activities to Complete by Thursday, April 2

• Prepare to present a progress report on your collaborative book project to the rest of the class on Thursday

Thursday, April 2

Due Today

• Present a progress report on your collaborative book project to the rest of the class on Thursday
• Respond to Dr. B's request for information about your blog posts, nominated blog posts, and comments.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, April 7

• Continue working on your ePub versions of your individual book projects during spring break
• Reading. Read "The Connected Society" in Smarter Than You Think (245).
• Blogging. Address either this question or one that you create: What is pluralistic ignorance and what is its impact? How does the connected society address it? What could we do with books to address it? (Think about sharing, collaborative reading, networked reading, etc.) As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog8, pluralistic ignorance, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, April 7

Due Today

• Reading. Read "The Connected Society" in Smarter Than You Think (245).
• Blogging. Address either this question or one that you create: What is pluralistic ignorance and what is its impact? How does the connected society address it? What could we do with books to address it? (Think about sharing, collaborative reading, networked reading, etc.) As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog8, pluralistic ignorance, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration), including Kindle and iBook formats.
• Meet in collaborative book project groups. Prepare to present a progress report to the rest of the class on Thursday

Thursday, April 9

Due Today

• Present a progress report on your collaborative book project to the rest of the class on Thursday

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, April 14

• Continue working on your ePub versions of your individual book projects.
• Reading. Read Chapters 6, 7, and 8 in Show Your Work (111-57).
• Blogging. What does Kleon have in mind when he says that we shouldn't "turn into human spam"? If we don't promote our own work, who will? What do you think he has in mind? Find an example or two of human spam (not the obvious email kind, but the more subtle but still spammy kind). You could look at any social network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest) or retails sites like Lulu.com, Amazon.com, or even GoodReads for possible examples. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog9, human spam, and any others that may be relevant.

Tuesday, April 14

Due Today

• Reading. Read Chapters 6, 7, and 8 in Show Your Work (111-57).
• Blogging. What does Kleon have in mind when he says that we shouldn't "turn into human spam"? If we don't promote our own work, who will? What do you think he has in mind? Find an example or two of human spam (not the obvious email kind, but the more subtle but still spammy kind). You could look at any social network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest) or retails sites like Lulu.com, Amazon.com, or even GoodReads for possible examples. As always, include two more more images (screenshots of your own workspace while producing an ebook might work well!) and two external links to the work or writing of others. TAGS: blog9, human spam, and any others that may be relevant.

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project (follow-along demonstration), including Kindle and iBook formats.
• Meet in collaborative book project groups.

Thursday, April 16

Dr. B. will be traveling to George Mason University to present on "Creative Dividends in the Digital Economy." Please plan on meeting with your groups to finalize plans for your group projects and case studies.

Activities to Complete by Tuesday, April 21

• Continue working on your ePub versions of your individual book projects. Be prepared to receive directions for turning in all of your work by the end of this week.
• No reading or blog posts due this week.

Tuesday, April 21

In-Class Activities

• Discuss submission procedures for individual and group projects.
• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project, including Kindle and iBook formats (45 mins.).
• Meet in collaborative book project groups to complete the project (30 mins.)

Submitting Individual and Group Projects

Individual Projects

1. You should submit the following to a new folder in your "Individual Book Projects" folder in your Creative Cloud Assets (go to adobe.com, log in, and then you'll see the folders you have access to). Under "Actions," select "Create Folder." Call it "ebooks Completed" (as shown here).

2. In your eBooks Completed folder, you should submit these files, named as shown. Be sure the file extensions are correct.

• booktitle.epub (e.g., mortedarthur.epub)
• booktitle.iba (iBooks Author file; which can be edited later)
• booktitle.ibooks (the actual iBook for reading/viewing)
• booktitle.mobi (Kindle format)
• Packaged InDesign Folder: When you are done exporting/formatting the InDesign content, save that InDesign file with a new name (e.g., mortedarthur-epub.indd) and then "package" the file (File > Package). Put the whole packaged folder (containing InDesign file, a PDF, and font/links subfolders) into your eBooks Completed folder.
• Submission Notes: if there are any notes or issues Dr. B. should know about, you could also include a SubmissionNotes.docx file with that content.

Group Projects

Your team will need to be sure to share files with the other DPS or Atlas team prior to completing the project(s). In the end, team leaders should create and share folders with these names:

DPS Teams

DPS Application Assets: In this folder, put all the separate InDesign files for each of the book pages to be included in the App. Please include the original template you worked with, any source images (e.g., book covers, logos, etc.) also. To make sure the images used in individual book pages are included, there will be a packaged folder for each book page (see directions above for creating a packaged folder in InDesign.

Case Study: DPS. Create a "Case Study DPS" folder and put your complete case study (or a link to it on a submission page, if using something like Slate) and video file(s) there. Video files should be processed for Web delivery. (You may put them at YouTube or Vimeo and just share the link if you prefer.) Since the format and content may vary, at minimum there should be one page in this folder with an explanation of what has been submitted. (Include all team member names on submission notes.)

Atlas Teams

WACBook Files: This should be submitted in the form of an InDesign packaged folder. You can put it in the "Atlas Assets" folder that you already share. Call it the WACBook Folder. A goal is to prepare the InDesign file so that it is ready to export to ePub and other formats, so please also include the ePub formatted book.

Case Study: Atlas. Create a "Case Study DPS" folder and put your complete case study (or a link to it on a submission page, if using something like Slate) and video file(s) there. Video files should be processed for Web delivery. (You may put them at YouTube or Vimeo and just share the link if you prefer.) Since the format and content may vary, at minimum there should be one page in this folder with an explanation of what has been submitted. (Include all team member names on submission notes.)

Thursday, April 23

In-Class Activities

• Work on processing ebooks for the Individual Book Project, including Kindle and iBook formats (45 mins.).
• Meet in collaborative book project groups to complete the project (30 mins.)

Activities to Complete by Monday, April 27 (by Midnight)

• Submit your Collaborative Project Evaluation Form to Dr. Blakesley by email (dblakes@clemson.edu). Download the form in PDF (fillable) or Word format.

To get started with your course, you'll need to complete a few steps, which include

• Registering for the course website (here).
• Logging in for the first time.
• Editing your account for the first time.

Registering for the course website

1. Go to the course website.
2. Click on "create new account" under "User Login" in the User Menu block on the right.

   

3. Create a username that will identify you in the system and that you will use for logging in. Because this site is public on the Internet, your username should not include your last name. You are welcome to use any username or screenname that would not be offensive to others or otherwise inappropriate for a course website. Capitalize your username as you intend to use it; usernames are case sensitive.

   

4. Enter your email address. You may use your Clemson email address. If you have an alternate one, use the one that you check most regularly.
5. Provide your real name. Note that your real name will only be visible to students registered at the site.
6. Provide your contact information so that your peers and instructor can contact you. This information will only be visible to students and the instructor.
7. Provide the URL of your homepage, portfolio, or blog.
8. Tell us about your interests.
9. Check whether or not you grant permission for your instructor to send you grades via your registered email address.
10. Click on "Create new account" at the bottom of the page. If moderated registration is turned on, registration information will be sent to the email address you listed, so check your email soon after you register. You will need the password that it sends you. Your instructor will approve your registration (if new account requests are moderated), and then you will be able to log in to use site features. If moderation is off, you will be able to use the site immediately.
    

To get started with your course, you'll also need to complete this second step:

Logging in for the first time

1. If new accounts are moderated at your class site or confirmation is required, you should have received an email from the system with directions for completing the process. With that email handy, return to the course website.
2. Enter your username and password in the "User login" box. Your initial password can be retyped or cut-and-pasted into the password box. If you cut-and-paste it, make sure you don't include any extra spaces before or after the password characters. The password and user name are case sensitive.

   

3. Click on Log in. When you've successfully logged in, you will see your name in the upper-right corner of the page and then "My Account" and "log out" in the User Menu on the right side of the page (at the bottom on a smartphone). After logging in, you will also see additional links and options that aren't available to anonymous users. If you are unable to log in successfully, try re-entering your password. Remember that usernames and passwords are case sensitve, so make sure you don't have Caps Lock turned on by accident and that (if pasting in your password) that you don't include extra spaces. You may also click on "Request new password" if you ever forget yours.
   
   

To get started with your course, you'll also need to complete this third step, which will take a bit more time than the previous two.

Editing your account for the first time

Once you've logged in successfully, you need to edit your account and provide some additional information about yourself.

1. Click on my account link on the upper-middle of the page, next to the log out link.
2. On the next screen, click on the edit tab.

   

3. On the account settings screen, you can change your username, email address, password, and more.
   
4. Scroll to the Picture area.
   
5. Upload a picture of yourself or avatar (an image that represents you well) that you would use in a public context. You may have to find one and edit in an image editor. If you need help editing an image, send a copy to your instructor for help.
6. Scroll down the page to enter or change information in the Real Name or Contact Information boxes.
7. Scroll to the Contact settings region.
   
8. Check the Personal contact form box if it is unchecked. This will allow the instructor and other students only to contact you via the course site.
9. In the Comment Follow-Up Notifications Settings box, check whether you'd like to receive email notifications when people comment on your posts.
   
   
10. When you have made all of your changes, click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

That's it! You have completed all the steps of the Getting Started process. If you ever need to change any of the information, you can always edit these pages again.

If you have any trouble along the way, please be sure to let your instructor know.

On or after the first day of class, you'll want to explore some of the features of the site. This document gives an overview of a few features you might want to take a look at that will help you to navigate the site.

Navigation

Once you've logged in to the site, you'll also find one or more "blocks" that contain additional site navigation or other content boxes. These boxes may be located on the left or the right side of the page, depending on the site's design.

The navigation block is your gateway to many areas of the site useful for creating and viewing content and managing your work. For example,

• Add content
  From here you can post to your individual blog ("blog post") or the front page (called an "article").
• Blogs
  Lists all the blogs on the site and includes a direct link to your blog in its submenu.
• Compose tips takes you to a page that walks you through various methods of posting content to the site.
• Recent content
  This display allows you to access all of the recent content posted by everyone. In the content listing, the red asterisks denote pages you have yet to read and notices of new unread comments.
• Feed aggregator collects (via RSS feeds) content that has been published elsewhere and may relate to course content. There may be a few blocks on the front page that include feed summaries.
• Contact allows you to contact the instructor via the course site. (You can also click on a person's name when you see it above a post to contact him or her this way.)

Book Navigation

All course materials on the site are integrated into the course guide, which you can reach via the main menu bar near the top of the page.

The course guide is a hypertext with many levels of pages.

• You can use the book navigation links that show previous and next pages below the main text or use the breadcrumb navigation at the top.
• Use the printer-friendly version link beneath any page to get single-page version of that page and all of its subpages collated into one. For example, if you go to the top page of the guide and click on printer-friendly version, you will see the entire course guide, including the calendar, handouts, project descriptions and more all on one screen (a very long one).

Throughout the semester, you will be responsible for writing blog responses regularly. Each reading response should be specifically focused on the reading and the prompt provided on the calendar, clearly indicate that you have read and thought seriously about the reading, and be sufficiently developed. Reading responses should between 150 and 200 words (no longer). Use the tag provided in the prompt itself on the calendar, plus any other tags you'd like. In most cases, you've been asked to provide images and links with your blog posts.

In composing your reading response you should:

• Be sure to focus your response on the subject of the prompt.
• Link your response to recent class discussions online, your current project work, something you might have read elsewhere, and/or previous professional, academic, or personal experience writing and communicating in other contexts.
• Discuss how the reading contributes to your understanding of the current project, expands your understanding of recent discussions, or suggests ideas for your work in the class.
• Be sure to properly cite the original reading and any other sources you might mention. Good citation practice is critical in all writing and especially so on the Web.
• You can apply the rhetorical considerations discussed in Principles for Posting to Your Weblog to your reading responses.

You'll do a lot of the writing for this class in your individual weblog space on the course website. You can access your weblog via your my account page.

One way to think of a weblog or blog is as a journal. However, unlike a journal which you might keep at home (as well as most if not all of the writing you have done in school before), your blog space is public. Your fellow class members will be invited to read your blog. Classmates may respond to your posts with comments and replies. Group members will review notes you take when doing research. And, of course, since it's on the Internet, other Web readers may encounter your writing and take a look at what you have to say.

There are many uses for weblogs, but we'll only use them for a few things here. During this class, you'll be asked to use your course weblog to

• respond to readings
• share drafts of your work-in-progress for peer review
• keep a project log

Good Blogging Practices

• Titles for blog posts should reflect the context of what you have written, not merely restate the name of the title of the assignment or reading. Interesting and informative titles draw more interesting responses from others.
• Blogs should demonstrate the principles of writing for the Web as they are covered in this course.
• Bloggers link. Use hyperlinks when referring to another post on the public Internet and follow good attribution practices. Hyperlinks require converting text to a link, not merely cutting and pasting in an URL. The Drupal site is set up to automatically convert URLs into hyperlinks, and you can also use the "Insert/edit link" button above the Body box where you enter content. A hyperlink should be accompanied by some descriptive text that explains where the link goes and what it shows ("click here" is not a good form for a hyperlink)
• Good bloggers always keep in mind that they are writing for a public audience.
• To receive credit for your work, be sure to follow the course requirements for reading responses and use the tags listed on the calendar and any otherss that are relevant.

UnSplash (great photography)
http://unsplash.com/

Atlantic Monthly's Survey of Free Image Sources (new)
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/a-guide-to-the-web...

Creative Commons
http://search.creativecommons.org/

iStockphoto.com
http://iStockphoto.com

Wikipedia: Public domain image resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Music
Dan-o
http://www.danosongs.com/#music

Flikr Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Books
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/

Here are some resources for learning and using HTML 5

W3C HTML 5
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/spec.html

20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web:
http://www.20thingsilearned.com/home

HTML 5 Rocks (from Google; examples, introductions, code)
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/

HTML Living Standard (technical specification resource)
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/

Marcin Wichary's Tools of Change Presentation (Tools and Resources)
http://www.aresluna.org/toc/

Smashing Magazine (HTML 5 Cheat Sheet)
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/06/html-5-cheat-sheet-pdf/

Repository of Examples and Experiments
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

For this project, you'll work with three or more peers on an extended book project using either the DPS or Atlas platforms. The project will involve the development, production, and publication of content across a variety of book-related media. You'll be asked to use Creative Cloud tools and spaces to manage the content of your project (e.g., share files, progress notes, and so on). Throughout the semester, you'll be asked to present progress reports in class. Some components of the project may involve field work or attendance at special events on campus. At least one group will work with Atlas and be led by a graduate student. The other groups will work with Adobe DPS as the publishing platform. (25% of course grade.)

Project Teams

We'll break up into five teams, each with its unique responsibilities, to be decided by the group. Throughout the process, everyone will share in assembling assets for the DPS App or Atlas book. Students will be able to choose which project teams to join at the start of the project, and everyone is expected to contribute equally and consistently throughout all stages of the App or book development.

Deliverables

Weekly Project Log: Each week (by Friday at midnight), your project team should post a project log in which you identify what you've accomplished thus far, set goals and milestones, and report on discussions with other project teams. Only the team needs to post a project log (not each member of the team). (Tags: project log, team name, and any others you'd like.)

Identify Your Deliverables: because of the nature of this project, each team should determine all of its deliverables at the start of the project and then set deadlines for collecting and preparing them for publication.

The DPS App teams will need to identity at the start all of the books to be included in their App, then collect existing assets (InDesign files, book descriptions) from Dr. Blakesley. The App will include all the Parlor Press books that have been published as open access content, which includes all books in the Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition series, the Perspectives on Writing series, and other standalone books with a CC license. One goal will be to have most of the content ready to assemble in early November. Some teams will play more prominent roles in the latter stages of the production process.

The Atlas team will create its contents from existing resources on writing across the curriculum provided by Dr. Blakesley. Some of the content will need to be revised or shaped for publication on the Atlas platform. Some of the content will also be drawn from student blog posts that are relevant and revised for publication. The Atlas team will lead this process of collecting content from peers.

Case Study: One major associated project will be to document the book publishing process, so each team will contribute to a Case Study that will tell the story of this book project from beginning to end in an interesting way to a public audience, involving video, interviews, photographs, and documentation. A separate handout will describe the Cast Study project in detail.

Prototypes of each assembled book project (DPS App or Atlas) will need to be ready for testing during the second week of April.

Grading

Your collaborative project is worth 25% of your course grade. Your work will be evaluated for the quality of the deliverables, your contribution to the team effort, whether you met all milestones in a timely way, and the consistency of your engagement with the project over the course of the semester. You will need to complete all the steps in the process to earn credit for the project, including presentation of the book at the end of the semester. It won't be possible to complete the collaborative book project successfully if you don't work at it regularly, meet all (self-imposed) deadlines, and create high quality deliverables on time. Each team member will be required to submit independently a collaborative project evaluation form.

Our work doesn't speak for itself, says Austin Kleon. In this project, you'll work with your book project teams to create the story of your team's DPS App or Atlas project. Your case study eventually should be presented (and presentable) in multimedia formats including text, audio, video, and other forms of interactive media. Your audience for this project will be book publishers, industry specialists, Clemson faculty, students, and staff, and the wider public. Each collaborative group will be responsible for producing a case study documenting its component of the larger project and the results. 

Because both platforms are new technologies designed to solve a real world problems, you'll need to do some background research on the applications and how they may have been used by others (including interviews). Your finished case study will tell the story of how you approached these problems or challenges and the steps along the way and your decisions as you addressed them. There should be two main components of the finished case study: 1) ~5-minute video; 2) print- and web-based document with visual, aural, and animated content embedded in text. Together, the case study components will provide background information on the problem or challenge, a description of the current challenge and your goals, a detailed overview (supported by visual content and verbal content) of the steps taken to address the challenge or achieve the goal, and then a discussion of how well your solution has worked. You'll be asked to complete a Collaborative Project Evaluation Form at the end of the project. (Collaborative; 20% of course grade.)

Prompt

Working with your major collaborative project team, tell the story of your work with the DPS App or Atlas platform. Because there are two teams in each category, you'll want to divide responsibilities for each part of the final package. Use Adobe Story to organize your project(s). The length of your case study should be about 2,000-3,000 words (more or less), not counting images, screenshots, illustrations, audio, and video. Each "chapter" of your story should have descriptive headers, every image/video/sound clip should have captions, and you should document all citations with a references section at the end. You will also likely link to similar work by others. Use the examples below to inspire your work. Be creative and innovative, and (if at all possible) have some fun. If you can tell a great story, you'll be asked to tell it again and again!

Some Examples

These examples include both images and text in good proportion, and each describes the successful application of some technology to solve a problem or achieve a goal. Some of them are longer than yours may need to be, and some much more technical, but they will still give you a good sense of the genre. Notice how the writers articulate problems and then show you how they approached solving them.

Mobile Media Production (School of Journalism and Comm, Univ. of Oregon; 5 min. video)

Adobe Case Studies (DPS-focused; be sure to check out the printed format of some of these; you can emulate ones like the Lord Abbett Case Study)

Drupal Case Studies (Website development; entrepreneurship; lots to choose from; about the right length)
https://drupal.org/case-studies

Case Study: Find Your Way to Oz (computer game development; highly detailed)
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/casestudies/oz/

Seven Creative Social Media Marketing Mini Case Studies (short, but well presented)
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-creative-social-media-marketing-mini-case-studies/

Social Media Examiner (lots of great ones here, so just pick a topic you like; hese are like "how-to" guides in some cases).

Startup Company Eliminates the Cold Call With Twitter (at Social Media Examiner)
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/startup-company-eliminates-the-cold-call-with-twitter/

Steps in the Process

1. Focus. Atlas and DPS App teams should discuss and then apportion the various responsiblities for the completed case study, appoint team leaders and other responsibilities, and create the project in Adobe Story.

2. Research. Find out everything there is to know about your topic:

• Read any existing company or organizational documents relevant to your topic.
• If possible, write some interview questions and ask someone in the organization (Clemson, Adobe, Atlas/O'Reilly) if he or she would be willing to answer them briefly. Important: Follow these Ethical Guidelines for Conducting an Interview with a Client. You should talk with Dr. B before contacting anyone and only after formulating your interview plan carefully.

In your team's weekly blog post, you should assemble and report on your research. Some content can be stored in your team's Creative Cloud shared folder(s).

3. Collect Assets. As with the documentation project, you'll need images, video, audio, screenshots and more for your project, ones that you create yourself (with a camera or screencapture software) or that you use from other sources. If you use images from another source, you must have permission to use it in your project, which means that you'll want to use Creative Commons licensed, public domain, or royalty-free content. Here's a page with Sources for Photos, Illustration, and Content. The collection of assets will start on day 1 and continue throughout the project.

• Asset Collection: Using authentic content, produce samples and screenshots that you'll use later to illustrate key parts of your case study.
• Screen capture: (Repeated from the documentation project): Install the Google Chrome browser add-on for making screenshots. Try "Screen Capture" by Google or "Awesome Screenshot: Capture and Annotate" by Diigo. Practice using it to create annotated images. Or use GrabIt (a pre-installed app in Mac OS) or check out this list at The Best Screen Capture Tool for Windows at LifeHacker.
• Create your team's Creative Cloud folder to store your team's assets and share the folder with team members and Dr. B. (Be sure to give it a name that clearly identifies what it is and who owns the folder, e.g., DPS App Video Team Assets.) Some assets can be included in or linked to from Adobe Story.

4. Plan and Compose Your Case Study. Rough drafts due April 7; Full drafts due by April 21.

• Your team will need to decide, based on all the examples and possibilities, the best method for presenting a first-class case study project.
• Your final document(s) and deliverables should submitted via a "Case Study Deliverables" folder in either the DPS App or Atlas teeam folders. Your project submissions should consist of a single PDF document or (if you use another media for your presentation, such as HTML) a folder with supporting files, images, etc.

5. Progress Reports. Plan on presenting these weekly, starting Week 8.

Collaboration

Please complete the Collaborative Project Evaluation Form at the end of the project and submit it to Dr. Blakesley separately by email no later than April 28, 2015.

Grading

Your project will be graded based on the quality, documentary accuracy, and creativity of your case study, as well as its presentation and usability for multiple audiences. You are expected to be a good collaborator, someone willing to do his or her share and to make sure that everyone is involved and productive. You must complete all steps in the process on time, including the collaborative evaluation form, to earn a passing grade on the project. The project counts for 20% of your course grade.

Overview

On your own, you'll develop an interactive, multi-touch, ebook from existing (verbal and visual) content for multiple platforms: ePub, Kindle (where interactive elements may be minimal), iBook, and (possibly) DPS App (in the form of a Folio) with an eye for enhancing the content with multimedia components and interactivity (where possible and desirable), which might include integration with social media, external links or additional available content. You'll be able to choose your project from a list provided to you, or you may choose to work with a book from another source. Some of your work may involve working with authors or client organizations. At the end of the semester, you'll present your project with your team at our end-of-the-semester showcase. (20% of course grade.).

Available Projects

Available projects will include ones from the Parlor Press catalog.

Steps in the Process

1. Meet with Dr. Blakesley: Meet face-to-face with Dr. Blakesley, during or outside of class, for a 5-10 minute discussion of the project. Due: meetings should take place on or before February 12.
2. Asset Collection and Development: As early as possible in the project begin collecting and developing assets (source text, images, video, recordings, photographs, illustrations, information graphics, thumbnail images, and any other content that you might eventually use). Create a Creative Cloud folder that you can share with Dr. Blakesley (dblakes@clemson.edu). Use this naming convention: CourseNumber_YourLastName_BookShortTitle Assets (e.g., 489_LastName_Rhetorics Assets). We will discuss in class how to develop, collect, and use assets in the book project, including the form they should take (e.g, file format). You should collect or create many more assets than you may actually use. You should also keep a spreadsheet that includes identifying information about each asset (filename, source, copyright info if any, etc.; keep this spreadsheet in the Assets folder). Due: ongoing; but plan on an asset review on February 26.
3. Storyboarding Layout iBooks Author: For this step, you'll want to design your own template or customize an existing template in iBooks Author. iBooks Author comes with a number of useful templates, but you'll likely find that you need to change elements, such as background images. You should create a sample page template for each of the types of pages in your book (page with text only, page with image or illustration, page with video, etc.). Due: Have your storyboards for each of your pages ready for review by March 5.
4. Full Draft: The full draft of your iBook, ePub, and Kindle versions should be ready for a thorough peer review in-class on April 2 and should include all the content that you plan to include, with the understanding that fine-tuning will be needed before the book is ready for publication. Due: April 2.
5. Final Draft and Poster: This will be the version to be presented at the showcase at the end of the semester, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 23. For the showcase, you'll be able to show your eBooks on iPads, Kindles, or laptops, and you'll also need to print some sample pages for a display poster, which should provide some context for the book and your process of creating it.

In all cases, you will work closely with your peers and me to complete your project. You may also make use of the Production and Design Studio in the 1941 Studio for Student Communication or the MATRF. (For Studio work, tell Barbara Ramirez you are working on a project for this class.)

Resources and Technologies

In the 1941 Studio (middle room, back wall) there are also resources on creating ePubs (Elizabeth Castro) and good Adobe books on using InDesign. Additional resources will be provided, but you can also plan on getting familiar with InDesign and (free) downloadable programs like Sigil, Calibre and iBooks Author (Mac).

Grading

Your individual book project is worth 20% of your course grade. Your work will be evaluated for the quality of the deliverables, whether you met all milestones in a timely way, and the consistency of your engagement with the project over the course of the semester. You will need to complete all the steps in the process to earn credit for the project, including presentation of your book at the Showcase at the end of the semester. It won't be possible to complete the individual book project successfully if you don't work at it regularly, meet all (self-imposed) deadlines, and create high quality deliverables on time.

Overview

These first steps are some of the most important ones in preparing to convert a book designed to be printed for delivery as an ebook. People sometimes rush past them and pay the price later, with a low-quality ebook that can even alienate readers and resellers, which makes you (as a publisher) and your authors look bad (ethos and "intellectual capital" are really important in publishing!)

1. Assignments: All students have the files needed for the project in their associated Creative Cloud folder.
2. Files: Your book's folder contains all the files you need for the interior, in InDesign format. Download all of these files locally (including the all-important subfolders), then open the InDesign file to see if you get a "missing fonts" or "broken links" report when you open it. If you do, then you will need to install the missing ones in the "Document Fonts" subfolder. If there are broken links, that means InDesign doesn't know where to find the image files used in the book. Open the Links palette (see Window > Links) and then select one of the missing images and click on the "relink" icon. Navigate to the location of the file (in the Links subfolder), select the file with the same name, and then "agree" if it asks you to update all the other links automatically. This should fix all/any issues.
3. Immediately rename and save the file. It would be best to use the same ISBN number (in the file name) but just add at the end (before the extension) _2-26-2015 (underscore and the date) so that you know what version you're working on.
4. Your next goal should be to verify that the File Info is correct (see File > File Info). In the title field, put the main title of the book (in title case). Put the author or editor's last name only in the author field (if more than one, list them as shown in the example below).  In the "Description" field, copy and paste the "Short Description" that you will find in your book's "Vital Information" file (which I've added to your Creative Cloud folder sometime today--you'll see the name.) You can add keywords from the description if you like, including the genre (e.g., novel, poetry, mystery, etc.). Choose "Copyrighted" in the drop down menu (as shown below). Fill in the copyright info (e.g., (c) 2015 by Parlor Press; use the date listed on the copyright page in the book, which appears right after the title page). And then make sure there's an URL there (http://www.parlorpress.com). Click Okay when you're done. What you've just done: you've ensured that the book's most important "metadata" travels with the book files; when you produce the ePub, the File Info is used to create running headers and other important file information. 
5. ADDED: Create export tags. Since you want the ePub to use page breaks at more than just "Chapter Title" styles (e.g., in the frontmatter), you will want to create export tags to associate with all the Styles that you want to use to create page breaks. That usually includes "Chapter Titles" and if used in the book, "Part Titles." You will also want to create new styles for the first line on the copyright page or any other pages where a break should fall. To do this, place your cursor anywhere on the line that should start the break, then create a new paragraph style and apply it to the line (no changes necessary). After you apply the style, double click on it in the Paragraph Styles pane and under "Export Tagging" make sure that "Split Document (EPUB only)" is selected.
6. Save your InDesign file again. You will now be ready to make some serious progress on your book project.. The next steps involve exporting it as an ePub, adding the cover, testing the contents and the epub version, and more. In order to accomplish that much in class (where you will have help), you'll need to make sure you have already completed these basic steps and checks. If you're not ready, you will miss some very important steps that will make it hard to complete the process later. (eBook production can be a very delicate operation, with lots that can go wrong!)

Exporting to EPUB

Adobe has provided a detailed guide here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/export-content-epub-cc.html. The particular settings that work best for these projects are shown in the screenshots below.

For each of the steps shown, it's presumed that you completed 1-5 above. All of your images are inline, your TOC style has been created, and you have created "export tags" to help with page breaks (#5 above).

Export your file (choose "EPUB (Reflowable").

1. Screen 1 (General).

2. Screen 2 (Text).

3. Screen 3 (Object).

4. Screen 4 (Conversion).

5. Screen 5 (CSS).

6. Screen 6 (Javascript).

7. Screen 7 (Metadata).

8. Screen 8 (Viewing Apps)

Now you're ready to export and view your ePub. You can make adjustments to these settings (and to the file) as needed, then re-export to fix minor details.