Content of the Course

Using the Tonic Tutorial

Aims

To introduce the tutorial and how it works

Objectives

To demonstrate how to navigate and work through the tutorial

To demonstrate how to check your progress through the tutorial

By the end of this section you will:

Be able to use the TONIC navigation system

Be able to check your progress through the course

• Using the tutorial
• Introduction
• Using your browser
• Conclusion

Introducing the Internet

Aims

To introduce some of the concepts of networks and specific features of the internet

Objectives

To see the components and characteristics of the internet

To learn about connection to the internet

To understand how an internet address is formed

To introduce you to the concept of network etiquette

By the end of this section you will:

Know what networks are and what sort of a network the internet is

Be able to recognise the individual parts of an internet address and why they are important

Be aware of what constitutes good practice and behaviour on the internet

• What is the internet?
• Networks
• Connecting to the internet
• Domain names
• Components
• Personal addresses
• Recognising domains
• Internet etiquette (netiquette)
• Conclusion

Exploring the Internet

Aims

To introduce the types of information and resources available on the internet

Objectives

To investigate the range of different types of information available on the internet

To explore how such information can be found and retrieved

To introduce the World Wide Web as an interface to the information on the internet

By the end of this section you will:

Have seen examples of the types of information available on the internet

Understand the tools available to retrieve such information

Contents

• Introduction
• What's out there?
  • Media
  • Software
  • eJournals
  • Information gateways
  • Data
  • Institutional websites
  • Library catalogues
  • Mailing list archives
• What's out there?
• Conclusion

Internet Tools

Aims

To introduce some of the concepts of networks and specific features of the internet

Objectives

To see the components and characteristics of the internet

To learn about connection to the internet

To understand how an internet address is formed

To introduce you to the concept of network etiquette

By the end of this section you will:

Know what networks are and what sort of a network the internet is

Be able to recognise the individual parts of an internet address and why they are important

Be aware of what constitutes good practice and behaviour on the internet

Contents

• Introduction
• Common concepts
• Client-server
• World Wide Web
  • HTML
  • Hypertext
  • URL
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Video
    • VRML
  • Interactivity
• Telnet
• File transfer
• Exploring the internet
• Conclusion

Searching the Internet

Aims

To use the internet and especially the WWW to find and evaluate information.

Objectives

To appreciate the differences between different types of search tools

To use these search tools to locate specific types of information

To evaluate the information found using these search tools

By the end of this section you will:

Have experience in using the web to search for information

Be able to select an appropriate search tool to locate different types of information

Be able to evaluate internet-based information found using these search tools

Contents

• Introduction
• Internet growth
• Resources
  • Search engines
  • Metasearch engines
  • Classified directories
• Subject gateways
• Searching for people
• Searching for software
• Personalised services
• Searching for information
• Conclusion

Communication

Aims

To learn about the tools and techniques for communicating with real people over the internet.

Objectives

To introduce the internet as a medium for communication

To introduce both synchronous and asynchronous online communication tools

By the end of this section you will:

Have looked at a range of tools and facilities for communication over the internet

Understand the mechanisms behind these communication tools

Have seen how these facilities can be of professional and personal use

Contents

• Introduction
• Asynchronous
  • Electronic mail
    • Advantages of email
    • Using email
    • Email etiquette
  • Mailing lists
    • Using mailing lists
    • Mailing list archives
  • Email
  • Newsgroups
    • Newsgroup etiquette
    • Usenet news
• Synchronous
  • Chat
  • Telephony
  • Videoconferencing
• Conclusion

Creating web pages

Aims

To introduce the concepts of creating and publishing pages on the web

Objectives

To demonstrate the nature of the hypertext markup language (HTML)

To demonstrate how HTML can be used to create web pages

To demonstrate how web pages can be published

By the end of this section you will:

Understand the principles of using HTML

Be aware of the importance of HTML standards and validation

Be aware of how HTML files can be published on the web

Contents

• Introduction
• HTML
  • Structuring
  • Formatting
  • Hyperlinks
  • Multimedia
  • Writing
  • Standards
  • Accessibility
• Publishing
• Creating web pages
• Conclusion

Course Conclusion