Working from scratch: why a knowledge of HTML benefits both students and staff

Sam Marsh (s.j.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk)
Simon Willerton (s.willerton@sheffield.ac.uk)
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield

Strike action alert! There is a serious risk of disruption to courses at this university in Weeks 9 and 10, with 8 days of strike action announced by university staff starting on 25 November. Under dispute are matters including pay, working conditions and pensions. You can read more about why here:

University strike could affect more than a million students, says union, Sally Weale, The Guardian
University staff don't want to strike for fair pensions and pay, but we're being forced to, Jo Grady, The Guardian

This presentation has been prepared for TELFest 2017 at the University of Sheffield, 3-7 July 2017.

Some of the links may require logins or a University of Sheffield VPN to work correctly.

By the end of their first semester, our first year students know how to make things like this, this, this and this from scratch.
They do this with HTML, a language simple enough for primary school children.

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HTML from scratch

The basics are very simple.
(We will build a webpage from scratch by typing in this code into Notepad.)
<html> <body> <h1>TELFest</h1> <p>Hello TELFest!</p> <img src="crystel_maze.jpg" height="50%"> <h2>About TELFest</h2> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OegJvjxI6BM?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> </body> </html>
One can get creative with styling.
(We will add a stylesheet using this code.)
<head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://mas115.group.shef.ac.uk/css/course_pages.css"> </head>

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Activity

(Spot the difference, with a difference.)

The HTML code on the circulated sheet almost corresponds to the code for this webpage. In pairs, try to spot as many places as possible that the code is different from what's on screen.

Activity document: original / annotated

Webpage: to display / as coded / with CSS / with different CSS

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Why should students learn this stuff?

It's easy and quick to pick up (just 3 lectures and 3 labs).
It opens up possibilities.

It feeds their curiousity.

The skills are higher level.

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Why should you be interested in this stuff?

All the same reasons as for the students!
Course webpages can be more flexible than MOLE pages.
Once you've got basic HTML under your belt, you could learn PHP and start to build your own learning tools.

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More information

Feel free to contact us.
Have a look through the materials on the
Mathematical Investigation Skills website
(Presentation materials, Weeks 8-10 lab sheets).

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Working from scratch: why a knowledge of HTML benefits both students and staff

Sam Marsh (s.j.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk)Simon Willerton (s.willerton@sheffield.ac.uk)School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield

What's this all about?

HTML from scratch

Activity

Why should students learn this stuff?

Why should you be interested in this stuff?

More information

Sam Marsh (s.j.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk)
Simon Willerton (s.willerton@sheffield.ac.uk)
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield