Adobe Flash I Home Page

Kathlynn Spencer Section Instructor   kspencer@vcccd.edu

Adobe Flash is the number one application used to create interactive media for the web. The goal of this course is to help you learn Flash's tools and begin to explore the literally tons of possibilities for adding interaction with web clients to a website. Skills will include: drawing, image use, text, animation, sound, and how to use basic action script. The method we will use is a website we will built from start-to-finish, including site map and navigation building, button making, output, optimization, and testing.

Requirements

Software: You will need either  Adobe Flash CS5 (the current release)  OR Adobe Flash CS4 (one version earlier than current release) 

The Community Colleges of California have an agreement with http://www.uscollegebuy.com/s.htm for students to purchase software at some pretty amazing discounts.  So far, that's the best pricing students for my classes have been able to find.  Be aware that if you do buy from them there you'll have to verify your student status-- which process will be explained on their site.

Textbook:   Adobe Flash  Classroom in a book-- get the CS5 or CS4 version to match the version of the software you have   

You will also have to be able to log into the myvcccd portal:  http://my.vcccd.edu/cp/home/loginf  (you'll need your student ID and pin number for this)

Class Participation

Participating will be 40% of your grade. Why? Online courses have the same requirement for participation in classes as traditional courses do. The major difference is that the participation happens within an online environment. This means you can access and do your work at any time of the day. However, there are contact requirements that you will have to meet.

Every week a discussion topic (or two) will be posted to the discussion section of the class. You are required to post on the discussion threads at least 5 times each week (30-post minimum for the six week term). Please make sure to post as early in the week as you can. What I've found to be true is that we have some really interesting threads develop where students learn as much from "talking" to one another that way as we would if we were in a face-to-face class

I recommend that you set up a regular time to log into the class (it can be at lunch or at 2 am --whatever fits your schedule). Why? Because it is very easy to get behind ("oh, I can catch up."). Believe me, it is not. Especially when we have such a shortened timeline. For this summer session, you will spend six to twelve hours a week between reading, posting to the discussion threads and working on your own flash projects. Again, the advantage is that you can do this when your schedule allows but make sure that you give yourself that block of time to work with the program and the tools you can pick up here.

Grading

There are 10 chapters in our text book.  There will be three (3) projects due over the term of the semester each valued at 20% for a total of 60% of your grade in projects.

17 weeks, 3 discussion posts per week for a total of 51 discussion posts for a total of 40% of the grade in the discussions.

Simply put your grade will be composed of 60% from the projects and 40% from class participation.  If you turn in all the projects but don't join our discussion threads, you grade will be 60% of 100% ---  that's a C.   The importance of participation cannot be any better emphasized! 

The tools I'll be using 

I will be creating videos for you to watch (and download for personal use after the class).  These will help you walk through the steps as outlined and I can add things that the book does not cover.

How to log in to the class:

To log in you will need: your student id number and your pin 

Go to:  http://my.vcccd.edu/cp/home/loginf    Go ahead and mark this page as a Favorite and/or Bookmark depending on which browser you are using and log into the sytstem.

On the right hand side you should see a link that says "My Courses" -- click that

This will take you to the Desire2Learn listing of your online courses.  Click on the link for Flash for Spring 2010 and you're in.

 Let me know ASAP if you have trouble logging in so we can troubleshoot the problem before class actually starts.

I would greatly appreciate an email from each of you to make sure you got this information.

Once class starts, you will have an inclass email to send/receive messages and submit assignments.