All course content, projects, readings, and other handouts are collected in this Course Guide.
ENGL 4890 / 6890: Special Topics in Writing and Publication Studies
Dr. David Blakesley (dblakes@clemson.edu) |
ENGL 4890/6890 001 Spring 2015 T-Th, 12:30–1:45pm MATRF (Daniel 406) |
http://parlormultimedia.com/publishing (Available 1/13/2015)
These are the primary course readings. All are available at the Clemson University Bookstore or from online retailers. Any other course readings will be distributed through a shared Box account or reside on the Internet. The course calendar specifies what should be read and when.
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Kleon, Austin. Show Your Work. Workman Publishing, 2014. 978-0761178972. Website: http://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/ | Thompson, Clive. Smarter Than You Think. Penguin, 2014. 978-1-59420-445-6. Website: http://smarterthanyouthink.net/. Clive's Blog: Collision Detection | Kawasaki, Guy, and Shawn Welch. APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur Nononina Press, 2013. 978-0-9885231-0-4. Website: http://apethebook.com/ | Kidd, Chip. Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design. Workman Publishing, 2013. 978-0761172192. Website: http://gothebook.tumblr.com/ or http://chipkidd.com/journal/ |
Digital Coursepack: This will be distributed electronically via the course website, our Feed Aggregator, and a shared folder in Box. It will include additional readings, videos, audio recordings, and more, including the complete collection of Before and After Magazine.
This course explores the rapidly changing landscape of the book publishing industry as it adapts to emergent digital technologies and the demands of a connected public, the continuing presence and influence of printed books, the nature and future of the book as an artifact, and the book's possible evolution as transmedia, as augmented, and as social. Students will also explore the future of the digital and printed book from practical and generative perspectives, focusing on methods of producing high quality content for mobile platforms or other ebook readers and using Adobe's Creative Cloud and Digital Publishing Suite (DPS). Students will develop existing books and work with real clients to explore emergent models and processes of composition, design, collaboration, production, dissemination, promotion, and distribution. All students will use Adobe's Behance and Creative Cloud to manage book projects and will also explore O'Reilly's new Atlas publishing platform.
Together, we will work on a wide variety of book publishing projects, share work in progress in professional networks, and create case studies of all of our work with emergent technologies. You will also read, comment on, and elaborate what others write and say about the future of the book. Based on these readings and experiences, you will create your own theories and examples of future books, publish some of this work in a new DPS App, and, drawing from principles in Show Your Work, feature it in professional social networks (Behance) and a web-based professional portfolio (ProSite).
Blog Posts about Readings and Innovations in Publishing. Starting in Week 3, you should create a blog post on the course site that addresses a point or principle from the readings and in line with practices advocated by Austin Kleon. Every post should include two or more relevant images and two or more links to resources or references elsewhere on the Internet (such as interviews, video, or articles). The goal of these posts will be to share your work and ideas in interesting or creative ways, engaging the wider world of conversation about the future of the book and related topics. Some of your posts will report on your examination of existing and new publishing practices. Each blog post should include between 150 and 200 words. Additionally, everyone should plan on responding and commenting (by the following week) to at least three 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. After receiving peer feedback, you'll select at least three responses by midterm to revise further for possible publication in the class's Atlas or DPS App book project. You'll work with the class's editorial team during this part of the process. The calendar will identify the tags that you'll need to use. (20% of course grade.)
Behance and ProSite Portfolios. Throughout the course, you'll learn to use Behance to share your work publicly with the class (or your project groups) and then with a broader professional network. You'll be free to place any samples of your work in Behance, including your best blog posts. As you accumulate more work in Behance, you'll begin to develop your own ProSite, which functions as an online professional portfolio. You'll be responsible for choosing what content to make public. In the end, your Behance and ProSite portfolios will stand as an example of your best work in this course (and perhaps others as well, if you choose). By the end of the class, your Behance portfolio should have at least ten items (probably many more), and your ProSite at least five colleections or examples of your work (think of a collection as a set of images or artifacts on a particular theme or topic. (10% of course grade.)
* Note: Each of the following projects will be supported by a full project description when it is formally assigned.
Individual Book Project. 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 DPS App 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.).
Major Collaborative Book Project. 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 your project (e.g., share files, progress notes, and so on). The full project and all of its steps will be outlined on a separate page and assigned early in the semester. Throughout the semester, you'll be asked to present progress reports in class. Some projects may involve field work or attendance at special events on campus, to be arranged. 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. Regular but informal project reports will be presented during class time. (25% of course grade.)
Multimedia Case Study. Your case study will examine the process and results of your major collaborative book project and 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 project and results. The assignment description will provide many examples, including Drupal Case Studies. (20% of course grade.)
You'll have full access to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of tools for designing and developing a wide variety of content across all media and platforms, from print to smartphone. Some of the course readings will support your learning of these tools and will be categorized on a separate page at the course site. You will find the need to spend additional time learning to use the tools you need for each of your projects, and some class time will be devoted to learning specialized uses of the Adobe tools. If you use a laptop, you should install the Creative Cloud (see http://clemson.onthehub.com) and bring it to class. You can also install the software on your desktop machine. We'll also identify places on campus where you'll have access to the software, in addition to the MATRF. Also, our class has privileged access to O'Reilly Media's new Atlas publishing platform, so everyone will have an opportunity to learn about that web-based system during the semester.
Learning Creative Cloud Tools. Almost all of the work you produce in class will be with software in Adobe's Creative Cloud suite of tools, which are vast. At the start of class, you'll be asked to create and verify your Adobe ID, install the Creative Cloud on a computer you have easy access to, and then begin learning more about how to use the programs by watching and reading Adobe's many tutorials. You don't have to have much, if any, prior experience with Adobe software at the start, but you will need to be eager and willing to learn more, develop existing skills further, and spend extra time learning to use the tools you need to use to complete course projects. Although we'll use a wide variety of them, the most commonly used applications will be InDesign, Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Premiere.
Additional course resources will be shared via the "Handouts" section of the course site.
Blog Posts about Readings and Innovations in Publishing | 20% |
Behance and ProSite Portfolios | 10% |
Individual Book Project | 25% |
Major Collaborative Book Project | 25% |
Multimedia Case Study | 20% |
Total
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100% |
To earn full credit for blog posts and revisions, you will need to complete each one on time and as a fully engaged designer/writer and actively respond to your peers. Blog posts will be scored on the following scale: 2 (excellent), 1 (satisfactory), 0 (incomplete, late, or not submitted). The criteria for evaluation of the other major projects will be spelled out on its full description. For the collaborative projects, you'll be asked to complete a Collaborative Project Evaluation Form and submit it privately to me right after your group presentation. You'll receive feedback along the way throughout each project from your peers and a grade on the projects after they're completed. Much of the feedback you receive from me (as the instructor) will be provided orally during class or during my office hours whenever you would like to discuss your progress or recently completed work.
Attendance is required at all scheduled meetings. Three absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than four absences can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences will only be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you make a written request to me no less than one week in advance and that you complete any required work before the due date. Being excessively or regularly late for class can also be counted as an absence. Note: If the instructor is late to class, you only need to wait fifteen (15) minutes.
All students are expected to behave responsibly and collegially in the course's online space, via email, or in any other interactive course communication (e.g., Skype, if used), just as they would in a face-to-face course. Everything you write in the course, including email with each other and the instructor, blog posts and replies, peer responses, and even text messages should be conducted professionally and (probably) more formally than you might expect. You should be especially mindful of decorum, which is alertness to the ethical practices of a community. Harassment of any kind in email, blog post, or other communication will not be tolerated and may be subject to a warning from the instructor, dismissal from the course space, or referral to the Dean of Graduate Studies. Students who feel they have been harassed in some way should contact the instructor privately by email or phone.
Clemson students and their instructors are expected to adhere to the community and ethical standards for behavior and academic integrity at the University:
"As members of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas Green Clemson's vision of this institution as a "high seminary of learning." Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust and respect of others. Furthermore, we recognize that academic dishonesty detracts from the value of a Clemson degree. Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form."
"Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form. In instances where academic standards may have been compromised, Clemson University has a responsibility to respond appropriately to charges of violations of academic integrity."
You should review the graduate integrity policy here: http://gradspace.editme.com/AcademicGrievancePolicyandProcedures#integritypolicy
Unless otherwise noted in assignment guidelines, you should not submit work for this course that has been submitted for a grade in other courses.
Students with disabilities who need accommodations should make an appointment with Arlene Stewart, Director of Student Disability Services, to discuss specific needs within the first month of classes. Students should present a Faculty Accommodation Letter from Student Disabilities Services when they meet with instructors. Student Disability Services is located in G-20 Redfern (telephone number: 656-6848; e-mail: sds-l@clemson.edu). Please be aware that accommodations are not retroactive and new Faculty Accommodation Letters must be presented each semester.
In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. You can acquire updated information from the course website, by emailing, texting, or calling me using the information provided on this course description, or by contacting me through the English Department at (864) 656-3151.
The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted.
Follow the links at the bottom of this page for a schedule of readings, assignments, and due dates for each week of this semester. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all assignments are to be completed before class on the day listed.
This course calendar may be updated throughout the semester. I'll notify you about any major changes, but you are still responsible for keeping up with the current schedule.
IMPORTANT: You must visit all of the links provided within the course calendar. There are many links to follow and read. Make sure you visit all of them. Some links provide easy access to other parts of the class site which will help you in your coursework. Some links are to required readings. Others provide you with detailed instructions on completing projects. Eventually, you may come to know the instructions that supplement assignments repeated throughout the course, but it's still a good idea to continue to revisit the instructions to make sure that you are satisfying all of the course requirements.
Goals for Today
Activities to Complete by Tuesday, January 13
Before Tuesday, January 13, please complete all of these steps:
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
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.
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).
Dr. Blakesley has to attend Board of Trustees meetings at the Madren Center, so there will be no in-person class meeting.
Snow Day (Clemson cancelled).
Due Today
Due Today
Due Today
Activities to Complete by Tuesday, March 31
Due Today
Activities to Complete by Tuesday, April 7
Due Today
Activities to Complete by Tuesday, April 14
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
In-Class Activities
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.
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.)
In-Class Activities
Activities to Complete by Monday, April 27 (by Midnight)
Course handouts, guides, tips, and miscellany will be collected here.
To get started with your course, you'll need to complete a few steps, which include
Registering for the course website
To get started with your course, you'll also need to complete this second step:
Logging in for the first time
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.
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.
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,
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.
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:
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
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.)
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.
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.
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.)
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!
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/
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:
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.
4. Plan and Compose Your Case Study. Rough drafts due April 7; Full drafts due by April 21.
5. Progress Reports. Plan on presenting these weekly, starting Week 8.
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.
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.
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 will include ones from the Parlor Press catalog.
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.)
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).
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.
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!)
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.