Excerpt from Thesis :

Student accounts will be located behind a proxy server that is part of the university network. It is expected that the websites will be reasonably safe, but there is never a 100% guarantee. Therefore, it is highly suggested that students refrain from posting information that could endanger them and make them a target for phishers and theft.

Personal safety and security is the responsibility of the individual. Students must keep their passwords safe. Do not tell anyone your password. Although, you may think that you can trust someone, you never know. Students should also refrain from posting information such as their social security number, bank account, or credit cared information. They should not publish their personal address or phone number. It is believed that with a few common sense rules, the student's experience can be a safe and meaningful one. However, one must never become complacent because computer crime happens every day.

1.6 Right to Amendment and use of University intellectual property

In the future, the University of Colorado may see fit to amend these rules or to establish new rules and procedures. The university reserves the right to make these modifications without prior notice to the student body or staff. Students and staff are encouraged to check for modifications frequently. Notices will be posted on the home page alerting students and staff of these changes.

Students are not permitted to use any image, logo, the University name, trademarks or other copyrighted symbols without the express written consent of the appropriate governing university body. Students are only allowed to post materials for which they own all entitlement and rights, unless they can demonstrate that they have obtained proper permission from the owner of that property. Plagarism will not be tolerated.

2.0 Creating Your Webpage

2.1 Getting Started

You should now be familiar with the general rules and policies that will govern student websites. It is now time to begin thinking about your design and how you wish to represent yourself on your web page. This section of the guideline will outline design requirements and certain things that must be included in the design. It will then go into the basic mechanics of how to build and publish the website to the university servers.

2.2 Web Page Requirements

Web pages must include certain minimal requirements for publication. The following list represents the bare minimum information that must be included on your personal web page.

1.

2. Link to your email address

3. A copyright Symbol followed by your name and date

4. Any additional pages other than the Home page must have a link back to the home page.

These four items represent the minimum requirements and must be included in every student and faculty web page. It is suggested that you provide your email address, rather than a personal phone number for security purposes. You are free to expand on these elements according to your own creativity, but these elements must be present for publication.

2.3 Avoiding plagiarism

All content on student and faculty web pages must be their original creation. Copying and paging another web page is prohibited. Using any materials without permission of the creator is a violation of copyright law and goes against university policy against plagiarism. The source for graphics on web pages must be cited properly and permission obtained for their usage where appropriate.

2.4 Designing your webpage

The university offers courses in website design that teaches the mechanics and other aspects of website design. However, students are not required to take those courses in order to create their own web site. Anyone, regardless of experience or expertise may create a website. Once the basic requirements are met, the rest is up to your own creativity. The following guidelines will help you to create a web site that represents you in the best light.

1. Decide how you wish to represent yourself and what you wish to say about yourself.

2. Consider your audience and how they will perceive the images and content that you post.

3. Be kind. Avoid colors and patterns that strain the eyes.

4. Be creative, let your website express your personality...

Dreamweaver is the suggested editor, as this is the most compatible with the university system. Other systems may be used, as long as they are compatible with the system. The system is not compatible with FrontPage. Due to security and other technical issues, the university has discontinued allowing use of FrontPage for editing.

Name the page that you with to be your primary home page index.html or index.htm. There is wealth of information and many tutorials available on the web that can provide you with the basics of web design. You are free to use templates, as long as there are no potential copyright issues. Have fun, but keep your audience in mind and how they will perceive you when they visit your website. The website is a direct expression of you.

2.6 Publishing Your Webpage

These represent the general instructions for publishing your website. Student web pages will be contained in your University of Colorado Student Account. To access your account, log into your student account using your username and password. The server name is homepages.uofc.edu. Your URL will be hompages.uofc.edu/~name/. Your username name will be your first initial plus your last name, in lower case with no spaces. For example, a username the URL for John Smith would be homepates.uofc.edu/jsmith/. Each student will be allotted 50MB of space for their creation. University servers support FTP using WS_FTP_LE. This is the recommended software for FTP, others may not be compatible with the university server.

2.7 Support

If you have any questions or trouble with the webpage, the IT department will be able to answer any questions that you may have. You may contact the IT staff at [HIDDEN] ext. 115. You many also contact them by email at -- .

2.8 Tips and Pointers for Success

By now, you may have ideas running through your head and are ready to begin the design process. However, at this point, you may have absolutely no ideas or a clue of where to start. This section will cover some of the most important design basics and mistakes that are made by beginning web designers. This discussion is meant as a summary of information to help you avoid the most common mistakes. If you wish to have information beyond the scope of this basic guideline, it is suggested that you take one of the many courses on web design that are currently being offered by the university.

Avoid Complex Backgrounds

Complex backgrounds may be appealing as a work of art, but they can make the text on a web site nearly impossible to read. Readers are not likely to spend time at websites that are difficult read. The following examples would be poor choices for home page designs, as the text would be difficult to read. The page would look visually cluttered and difficult to read.

Illustration 1. Examples of Hard to Read Background Images

The next set of background would be suitable for use in personal web pages, as they have ample spaces for the insertion of text in a contrasting color.

Illustration 2. Good Background Images

All images used in these examples are found on http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp, According to their Free Use Rules, they are permissible to use for non-commercial interests (http://www.freefoto.com/browse/99-05-0?ffid=99-05-0).

Simple Designs are better than visually cluttered ones (McGovern). The following is an example of a visually cluttered website. It is difficult to find what you want and where you want to go. Web sites this cluttered should be avoided for maximum success. In addition, they take up quite a hefty bit of web space and fail to get their message across.

Illustration 3. Design that is too cluttered

Image Source: http://www.subhub.com/articles/the_worst_website_design_mistakes_of_2008

These examples demonstrate that simplicity is often the best policy in website design. In an interview with Daniel Shaefer, he felt that using designs that are too complex are the most common mistake that he sees made on student websites. According to Schaefer, students should strive for a clear, readable sight with only a minimal amount of flashy content. Shaefer reminds us that student websites demonstrate who we are and how we wish to portray ourselves to the world, a simple well-designed website says more positive things about our personalities than one that is poorly done and visually cluttered (Schaefer).

Following these tips will help you to build website that will say what you want to say about yourself while avoiding the most common mistakes that students make on their personal websites. This will help to make the student's first experience on the web a positive one. Every student does not have to be a master web-designer; these recommendations are only advice that will help you to learn the basic of…