Revision of Syllabus for Introduction to Drupal from Wed, 2010-09-29 06:24

Before we start:

• Learning objectives:
  • Who is it for?
  • Set personal goals
• Activity:
  • Read the Welcome message
  • Introduce yourself & your goals on the Introduction forum
• Recording of orientation video, with Heather James: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub7XFT-rsRQ
• Test connection & sound

Week 1: Introduction

• Learning Objectives
  • What is Drupal?
  • Understand what this course will cover
• Activities
  • Tasks: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal/document/week-1-tasks
    • Review orientation & welcome screencasts
    • Identify some learning goals: "3-5 features you want to learn"
  • Discuss online: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/8692/forums/9454
• Recording of Week 1 Online Session, with Doug Vann: http://www.viddler.com/explore/LearnDrupal/videos/1/
  • What will this course cover & Introduction to Drupal 

Guest guide: Salim of WebEnabled, Doug Vann

Week 2: Set up and Go! 

• Learning Objectives
  • Understand: "What is Site Building with Drupal?"
  • Using Web Enabled environment
  • Using CCK & Views
• Activities:
  • Tasks: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/node/8692/document/9771
    • Installing some modules with Drush (would have learned this in Week 1)
    • Setting up a sandbox testing site
    • Create a custom content type
    • Create a view
  • Discuss online: http://p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal/discussion/week-2-discussion
• Discuss in Webinar 2
  • What problems people had
  • How can you use custom content on your own site?

Guest guide: Doug Vann http://dougvann.com/

Week 3: Starting and planning

• Learning Objectives
  • What distributions are available
  • How to access them from Drupal Gardens
  • Compare and discuss them online
  • What services available from the companies who created the distros?
• Discuss in Webinar 3
  • What the advantages or limitations of the distributions?
  • How can you extend them?
  • What do you want to do with your site, would the distribution help?

Guest guide: Ryan Price of Drupal Easy http://drupaleasy.com/

Week 4: Organize your site and content for findability

• Learning Objectives
  • Using Taxonomy; Menus & Blocks to organize navigational elements
  • Facted search with Acquia Search and ApacheSolr
• Task
  • Add taxonomy to content
  • Add items to a menu
  • Add an image field to a content type
• Discuss in Webinar 4
  • Questions about implementation
  • How these work together

Guest guide: Tom McCracken from Level Ten http://levelten.com/

Week 5: Make it look pretty 

• Learning Objectives
  • What is a theme?
  • How to make simple modifications to theme files
  • The Fusion/Skinr theme set
• Task
  • Install and test a few different themes
  • How to modify a file through version control
• Discuss in Webinar 5
  • Any problems people had
  • Best practices for theming

Ask: Salim to ask Steph

Week 6: Workflow that works

• Learning Objectives
  • What is version control
  • Migration from Web Enabled to local environment with DAMP stack
  • Working collaboratively
  • Backing up and maintenance best practices
  • Work environment & tools
• Task
  • Backup your site
  • Set up a local work environment
  • Local environment, overview of tools on Mac + PC; and command line (via Acquia Drupal or Xampp)
• Discuss in Webinar 6
  • Demonstration of various developers’ work environments

Guest guide:  Joshua Bruaer from Acquia http://acquia.com/

Finale!

• Learning Objectives
  • Connect to the community
  • Places to find resources and help
• Task
  • Locate either a local or topical group on g.d.o, write a post, or respond to a post
  • Respond to a forum post on drupal.org
  • Showcase! Screenshot a part of your sandbox.
  • Task: Describe How did you do that? Blog or post on drupal.org ‘Post installation’ forum.
• Discuss in Webinar  7
  • Showcase what kinds of things people did in the course.
  • Review of what is learned

Guest guide: as many as can attend!