Karl Stolley, PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition, Purdue University
Production Portfolio
Although my research theorizes digital media, including the Web, an essential part of my work is developing digital artifacts that reflect and inform theory. This work also guides the courses and workshops I develop, providing me with insights into the types of material and production issues such instructional opportunities should address.
Purdue OWL
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) helps writers and researchers from across the globe. To bring the OWL into the 21st century, I iniated both a visual redesign and a complete restructuring of how the OWL functions. It is now driven by a custom content management system (CMS) built on MySQL and PHP. I've built the CMS in a way that encourages broad participation in the revision and further development of OWL content; graduate and undergraduate students across the department of English continue to assist in content development and markup. OWL pages now follow the W3C XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.0 specifications, guaranteeing the site's technical-level accessibility and long-term sustainability across all browsers and platforms. The redesigned OWL is also single-sourced; rather than having separate URLs for printable and screen versions of the handouts, all pages are printable in a format that is suited to print.
Visitor Information System (VIS)
The Purdue University Writing Lab helps thousands of students every semester with all aspects of writing, research, and language learning. I created the Visitor Information System, or VIS, to help Lab administrators track student visits to the lab. The VIS is built on MySQL and PHP, and a standard, accessible implementation of Web forms in XHTML. The information collected from students falls under the FERPA directory listing guidelines, although information is transferred securely using the Secure Socket Layer on the VIS' home server. Writing Lab administrators and authorized Writing Lab staff can access up-to-the-minute information about Lab usage and visits. Because the system is private and password-protected, I've provided captioned screen shots of the VIS here.