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Fall 2025 Syllabus (Schedule): Classes meet M W F 2:30 – 3:20pm in Kochel 77

Read the Course Description

The Course Description page contains a detailed explanation of course policies and the basis for grades.

Jump Down to the Schedule

The button jumps to the closest day to today's date. Review the schedule as we get started to get a sense of how this course will work on a daily basis.

Tools and Resources

Download and install the following software on your own personal computer(s) as we start the course. These software tools are also available in our campus computing labs.

  1. <oXygen/>. The DIGIT program has purchased a site license for this software, which is installed in Kochel 77, Lilley Library, and other classrooms in Burke and Witkowski where students are taking DIGIT classes this year. The license also permits students enrolled in the course to install the software on their home computers (for course-related use only). When installing this on your own computers, you will need the license key, which we have posted on our course Announcements section of Canvas.
  2. Zoom: Make sure your Zoom installation is up-to-date, and you are ready to connect. (We will use Zoom when we need it for office/project meetings.)
  3. Slack: https://slack.com/help/articles/218080037-Getting-started-for-new-members). Download and install the Slack chat client, configuring your account to use use your Penn State email address (the official address, which looks like xyz123@psu.edu, and not an alias based on your name that you may have set up), so you can join our Slack workspace: DIGIT-coders. When you receive an invitation to join this workspace you should accept.
Resources for class:

Schedule

This schedule is subject to revision. Stay alert for updates and announcements of significant changes posted on Canvas.

Week 1 Class topics Do before class

M 08-25
  • Welcome! Introduction to the course.
  • Intro to XML and "plain" text in the oXygen XML Editor.
  •  Introduce XML Exercise 1 (due Wed. 8/26):
  • What happens when text-generative AI writes markup code, and when/how we'll be working with AI in this class.
  • Is typing a challenge? (Recent Wall Street Journal headline: “Gen Z-ers are Computer Whizzes. Just Don’t Ask Them to Type” (2024-08-24. A web game to help with typing more accurately with all your fingers on a QWERTY keyboard.
Respond to Dr. B’s Poll (see Canvas / Penn State email).

W 08-27
  • Visit from Dr. Paul Barrett and team (Waed and Daniela) from the Digital John Norton Teyoninhokarawen project at U. Guelph.
  • Review and discuss coding of the letter for XML Exercise 1.
  • Elements, attributes, comments, escape characters, and "pretty-printing" in <oXygen/>.
  • How file systems recognize XML documents (File extension, and XML declaration line).
  • Introduce XML Exercise 2.
  • Install oXygen XML Editor and add our license key if you have not done so already.
  • Read my Introduction to XML, open a new XML file in oXygen, and experiment with the code in the tutorial: Can you tell what makes markup well-formed or not?
  • Complete XML Exercise 1

F 08-29

 Discussion of Pierazzo's introduction of XML. Discussion of recipe XML homework, XML data and metadata. Document sources. Coding attributes and self-closing elements. Example of code used for visualizing: Map of Early Modern London Project Introduce XML Exercise 3
Week 2 Class topics Do before class

M 09-01

 Labor Day Holiday: No classes. ...

W 09-03

 Discussion of XML homework. How to work with distinct identifiers: @xml:id attributes and pointer attributes (#): Prosopography lists. Self-closing elements. Introduce git and GitHub.

F 09-05
  • Discussion of document metadata in The Ballad of Booker T.
  • Introduce version control concept
  • GitHub and Shell orientation: Working with the Git Bash Shell (Windows) and Terminal (Mac and Linux)
  • Introduce class GitHub (textEncoding-Hub) and how we will interact with it. Students join the class textEncoding-Hub. Intro to GitHub markdown. Markup vs. markdown. Explore GitHub markdown for writing issues, including code-blocks.
Week 3 Class topics Do before class

M 09-08

 Working with git and GitHub as a code developer.
  • GitHub file management:
    • Navigating between and managing multiple GitHub repositories.
    • Pulling, adding, committing, and pushing to your repos.
  • GitHub profile configuration: what, why, how.
  • Introduce class collaboration with the John Norton Teyoninhokarawen project at U. of Guelph, with GitHub repository.
  • GitHub Exercise 2
  • To help with this exercise:
    • Watch my short (15 minute) video showing how to git pull in changes, and the three-step of git add, git commit, and git push.
    • Review our short list of Git Commands to pull, commit, and push changes to your personal GitHub repo and/or to the textEncoding-Hub.
    • Set up your local Git Config in your shell, and your Personal Access (Developer) Token for GitHub
    • (Optional: good to try:): Watch / work with Set up a Git Bash Profile (short video how-to): (This is convenient for you, and more command line knowledge).

W 09-10
  • Getting used to GitHub and getting help. Solving common problems.
  • Preview Ballad of Booker T. exercise.
 GitHub Exercise 3: Clone and push files to textEncoding-Hub and to your personal Repo

F 09-12
  • Discussion of The Ballad of Booker T.: Multiple ways to encode a poem and manuscript information. Overlapping hierarchies.
  • Introduce XML Test
  • Launch GitHub Weekly Practice Series
 XML Exercise with Norton Metadata. Push to your GitHub repo.
Week 4 Class topics Do before class

M 09-15

Special guests: Dr. Lauren Liebe (Behrend) and Dr. Paul Barrett (U. Guelph): Introduction of John Norton Teyoninhokarawen and the Document Data Modeling challenge with U. Guelph

Dr. B is attending the TEI Conference in Kraków this week.
  • Norton Journal Orientation Exercise 1
  • Start weekly GitHub practice series

W 09-17

 XML modeling discussion of Norton’s journal (with special guests). Norton Journal Orientation Exercise 2: XML

F 09-19

 Complete XML test. XML Test due
Week 5 Class topics Do before class

M 09-22

 Well-formed vs. Valid XML. Introduction to schemas with Relax NG.

W 09-24

 Writing Relax NG:
  • Technical details and big picture issues.
  • Introducing datatypes, rules for mixed content, attribute value options, datatypes.
  • Practice with sequence indicators, options, grouping.
  • Demonstration: Why we do NOT use oXygen’s Generate/Convert schema.

F 09-26
  • Grouping and mixed content.
  • What is causing the red square? Determining sources of error
  • Getting / giving help on the DIGIT-Coders Slack:
    • How to ask good questions and get help!
    • Slack practice with code blocks / markdown
  • Relax NG Exercise 2: Select an XML homework assignment you completed. Inspect your encoding (and any comments you received on the assignment). Then determine how you might want to change it to make it more systematic and efficient. Your code should feature attributes and apply datatypes, and mixed content. Write Relax NG and modify your XML so that it is valid against your schema plan.
Week 6 Class topics Do before class

M 09-29
  • Loose vs. tight? What is best for a schema?
  • Who are schemas for? Revisiting the John Norton collaboration.
  • Working with xsd:ID, xsd:IDREF, and xsd:IDREFs
  • list{ } content model, with review of mixed{ }.
  • Dates, times, numbers and datatypes: Looking Stuff Up
  • Introduce semester team projects
  • Relax NG Exercise 3: Choose a new document (any genre, any language, manageable size for homework, interesting to model): Try writing a schema first, and then coding to fit the schema. (Edit both the XML structure and the Relax NG rules as you go.)
  • Repair any broken Relax NG syntax and/or XML validation issues on previous homework submissions.
  • GitHub practice series

W 10-01
    • Review of Relax NG Pretest.
    • Specialized community schemas: TEI, MEI, CBML: Applying these in projects
    • Issue Relax NG Test.
    • Project options discussion.

F 10-03
  • TEI Orientation Exercise: Read this slide deck: Overview of Text Encoding and the TEI and respond on our discussion thread on the textEncoding-Hub.
  • Submit repairs and revisions for any previous Relax NG assignments as needed.
Week 7 Class topics Do before class

M 10-06

 Form semester project teams! Initiate project milestones, launching team GitHub repos.
  • Sign up for semester project. If you do not meet the requirements, meet with Dr. B to help catch up / determine options.

W 10-08

 Handling text data structures, context information, and metadata the TEI way. What the TEI Header is for How to research the TEI Guidelines and TEI Roma. Norton schema modeling collaboration.
  • Project Milestones Series Begins: Teams set up GitHub repos

F 10-10

 Norton project discussion with TEI.
  • TEI Exercise 1: Norton project data and metadata in TEI
  • Relax NG Test due
Week 8 Class topics Do before class

M 10-13

 Schema modeling in TEI with ODD (One Document Does it all).
  • TEI Exercise 2: Working with the teiHeader. (Read about and work with the TEI Header chapter in the TEI Guidelines)
  • U. of Illinois LibGuide: TEI in Action: look at the examples and consider whether the code structures make sense for your project!

W 10-15

 Refining and customizing a TEI ODD schema. Deciding on attributes and customizing attribute values. Document data modeling for a TEI project. TEI exercise 3: Working with a TEI ODD customization for the Norton project: Experiment in TEI Roma Beta with further customization of our starter ODD.

F 10-17

 TEI modeling for the Norton project. TEI Exercise 4: TEI and ODD work with Norton material
Week 9 Class topics Do before class

M 10-20

W 10-22
  • Connecting files together makes an HTML project. Making links, adding images, and associating CSS: absolute vs. relative.
  • Building web pages in your GitHub repo.

F 10-24

 Introducing XPath!: Explore XPath DHSI Tutorial Part I (Introduction to XPath in eXist-db and oXygen), Parts A and B: following instructions and peeking at the answers.
  • Read our Introduction to XPath, complete XPath Orientation Exercise (try out some XPath on your code)
  • Complete and submit HTML Exercise 2
Week 10 Class topics Do before class

M 10-27

 Querying XML with XPath. Searching for nodes on axes, and setting predicates. XPath Exercise 1

W 10-29
  • XPath Predicates as boolean filters (using and, or and the not() function)
  • Revisiting XML markup decisions, based on what XPath can show.
  • distinct-values()
  • XPath math: count(), min, max(),
XPath Exercise 2

F 10-31

 XPath string functions:
  • Handling only one node at a time: contains(), matches(), translate(), replace(), string-length(). Cutting a string in parts: tokenize(); taking substring-before() or substring-after()
  • Bundling up a sequences of strings: string-join()
 XPath Exercise 3
Week 11 Class topics Do before class

M 11-03
  • Review XPath string functions exercise
  • Applying XPath in Project Code Inspection: Introducing Schematron
  • How Schematron is different from Relax NG. Asserts vs. reports. Associating Schematron files with XML, Schematron workflow.
 XPath Exercise 4 (String functions)

W 11-05

 Schematron: rules and patterns. Schematron Exercise 1

F 11-07

 Debugging Schematron homework, applying Schematron in projects. Schematron Exercise 2
Week 12 Class topics Do before class

M 11-10

 Introducing XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheets Language Transformations). XML to XML, XML to HTML. Namespaces. Setting up oXygen to write XSLT and saving as .xsl. Writing your first XSLT stylesheet transformation.

W 11-12

 How XSLT template matches work. XSLT to create HTML, trimming the tree.

F 11-14

 XSLT to HTML: Making an HTML reading view for semester projects. XSLT Exercise 2
Week 13 Class topics Do before class

M 11-17
  • Putting the pieces together: Workshopping XSLT, HTML, CSS.
  • Modal XSLT: processing the same nodes in multiple ways.
  • XSLT Exercise 3

W 11-19
  • Internal links on an HTML page, from XSLT
  • Using XPath sort() vs. XSLT xsl:sort to sort your output.
  • XSLT Exercise 4: Modal XSLT over a Collection

F 11-21
  • Review / discuss XSLT over collection: linking and sorting. Introduce Creative Commons. Pulling and highlighting interesting data for project sites. Planning how to style your output; looking stuff up.
  • Issue XPath/XSLT Take-Home Test
  • XSLT Exercise 5: adding internal links, sorting, and styling the collection output with CSS
Week 14 Class topics Do before class

Sun 11-23 – Sat 11-29

 Thanksgiving Holiday Have a peaceful and productive week!
Week 15 Class topics Do before class

M 12-01

 CSS Flex and Grid for Reading View Layouts: Work on XSLT test and Project Milestone

W 12-03
  • XSLT Test due

F 12-05
  • Planning DIGIT works presentation: expectations and how to prepare
  • Review project completion expectations (projects due during Finals Week)
  • XSLT for Layout: XSLT/HTML/CSS with Images (combined with Project Milestone)
Week 16 Class topics Do before class

M 12-08
  • Documenting your project decisions and coding on the website
  • Permissions, licensing, crediting sources, documenting your project team work
  • Choose, embed, post a Creative Commons License
  • Project development sprint!
 Penultimate Semester Project Milestone

W 12-10

 Project development sprint! Preparing for presentations and completing the projects

F 12-12

 Last day! DIGIT Works presentations You and your team share your project with the class and DIGIT Works audience.
Finals Week: 12/15 – 12/19 Due

W 12-17

Semester projects due by 11:59pm.

Send a post to me on GitHub and Canvas to indicate that your team is finished.