Internet Authoring Program

Foundation Layer

The Five-level Web Development Model

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About The Foundation Layer

Image representing the Internet.

A lot of people mistakenly assume that the Internet and the World Wide Web are one in the same; this is not correct. Think of the Internet as all of the cables, wires, wireless signals, routers and switches that transport the billions of bits of information, like email, Web pages, music downloads, streaming video, and tweets, all over the world every day. There are numerous services, based on Internet standardized protocols, that operate over the Internet's data communication infrastructure, examples include: email, which uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP); blogs, which use the Real Simple Syndication (RSS) protocol; and the World Wide Web (WWW - pronounced dub dub dub) which uses the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

The goals of the Foundation layer are the following:

  • Increase scholarly awareness of the technical differences which differentiate the Internet from the services which operate over the infrastructure it provides; i.e. email, the World Wide Web, and emerging cloud services.
  • Increase scholarly understanding of what an Internet protocol is and make scholars aware of commonly used protocols on the Internet
  • Provide scholars tutoring and practice using basic IP-based tools for troubleshooting and diagnostics
  • To promote the importance of information literacy and make scholars aware of the far reaching implications of information literacy to the future of their professional careers.

Course Information

In order to complete the requirements for the Foundation layer you must enroll in and successfully complete one of the following courses (for best learning experience both courses should be completed):

What You'll Be Learning

There is a lot you will learn in the Introduction to the Internet course about the Internet and how it works. In the Fundamentals of Computer Programming course you will learn skills for building console applications. Some of the important concepts you will learn, which are foundational to Web development, are the technologies used by the Internet which include, but are not limited to:

Technologies

At the Foundation layer you will learn about many of the protocols and technologies which are at the foundation of the Internet.

Introduction to the Internet

  • HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
  • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
  • Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
  • eCommerce
  • Internet Security

Fundamentals of Computer Programming

  • Character Encoding
  • Primative Data Types
  • Decision Stuctures
  • Looping Structures
  • Arrays

Skills

You will learn many skills while completing the Internet Authoring program. At the Foundation layer you will learn the following skills:

Introduction to the Internet

  • How to post to discussion board forums
  • How to maintain an electronic journal
  • How to use advanced Internet search techniques

Fundamentals of Computer Programming

  • How to use an ASCII text editor to create an HTML page
  • How to write and compile source code
  • How to correctly implement variables
  • How to correctly implement if/else and switch blocks
  • How to correctly implement for and while loops
  • How to correctly parse an array

Organizations

At the Foundation layer you will learn about two prominent organizations that are responsible for creating and maintaining the standards which make the Internet and the WWW function correctly. Those organizations are:

Introduction to the Internet

World Wide Web Consortium icon.Internet Society icon.

Fundamentals of Computer Programming