Task #2: Markup and Web Code

This assignment aims to teach you how to use a markup language to style and manipulate text for display online.

We will use GitHub Pages to complete this assignment.

Skillsets

You will be exposed to the following skillsets:

  1. Using markup (Markdown and HTML)
  2. Managing and updating web content using GitHub
  3. Using a dynamic web content engine (Jekyll) to create online content
  4. Manipulating visual style of web content (CSS)

Expectations

I expect you to create a well-formed web page using a Jekyll theme and GitHub pages. Your website will have some sort of blog or newsfeed.

The goal is to make your website an attractive place online where you can place information about yourselves, your interests, and your skills. Or your site can be about a project or hobby that you would like to put online. This assignment is intended to help you create an online space that you can actually use while also giving you new skills related to working with web content.

Prerequisites

You need to do the following things in before you dig into the rest of the instructions.

  1. Accept the invitation to the INLS161 organization on GitHub (if you already haven't). Make sure you are logged into GitHub and follow this link: https://github.com/orgs/inls161/invitation

Instructions

You will need to do the following for the assignment to be considered complete. The knowledge necessary for all of this is in the class session notes.

  1. Choose a Jekyll theme for your website. I will provide a list of recommended themes. Clone the theme to a new Cloud9 workspace. Install jekyll with gem install github-pages
  2. Edit the configuration and put your site online at http://YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io. You will need to change the url of origin to do this.
  3. Edit and customize the style of your site.
  4. Create pages relevant to your purpose (e.g. - an "about" page, a "projects" page, an "interests and hobbies" page, etc.).
  5. Ensure that your site has sensible navigation (i.e. - Can I get to all of the pages you have created? Is this process intuitive?)
  6. Create your first blog post. This post should be about either something relevant to the purpose of your site, or about what you have learned about working with web content, markup, and computing so far in this class.
  7. Place images, links and at least one embed in your blog post. You can add to or revise your post to do this. Make sure I can see a commit history!
  8. Customize at least one of your _layouts
  9. Use at least one branch in git with differing styles and layouts, and push it up to a branch on github.com so I can see the code

All of the above should be committed into logical chunks using the git skills we've learned.

In addition to the above list, your site will be evaluated on overall style. I will be looking for a reasonably polished look. It doesn't have to be perfect, but if you demonstrate creativity and willingness to explore ways of meeting the above goals, you will do well on this assignment.

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