A few months ago I was desperately trying to find a part-time/evening course web design course in CSS and HTML. I hunted through course listings from local colleges, but there was very little out there locally for me apart from a few 2 day Dreamweaver courses, which were still teaching tables rather than CSS. I found a couple of downloadable courses in HTML and CSS and learned some of the basics but what I was really looking for was something which included support when needed.
I finally found an online web design course with the Open University and though I wasn’t interested in following it as a exam course I decided I would take the course and just skip the end written dissertation. The 12 week part time learn from home course promised that students would become confident users of HTML and CSS. I searched the web for reviews of the course and even asked in a couple of forums but could find no impartial information about the course.
It is now week six of the web design course and I have all but abandoned it. I had high expectations of this course but I am deeply disappointed. The majority of the course seems to be on a theoretical basis, in my opinion far too much. Take for example one lesson which teaches you that the size of images should be kept to a minimum for fast loading, now I agree this is something everyone should know but it then proceeds to tell you how to calculate loading time with a formula. To me some of these theoretical lessons would be fine if it was a one or two year course but not for a twelve week course. Another lesson asks you to work out how you would manage your team (who does what, programmers designers etc) to create your website – now if I had that team would I really be taking this course? The book that is provided is also not very easy to follow, I have far superior books from http://www.sitepoint.com
If you are a print based designer like myself looking to learn more CSS, HTML and web design I would give this course a miss. The people who might find this course useful are people who have a good understanding of CSS and HTML but want to fill in some theoretical gaps they may have missed. I am still trying to teach myself more about designing websites so will pass on any useful links I find.
Have you tried any online or local evening classes in web design, what did you think to them?
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54 Comments
Anyone have any opinions about Shillington College?
I remember doing a dreamweaver course at college and did find it useful but have to agree about the open university one. I found very little relevance in it and in hindisght have found little use for it today.
Hiya, I did the exact course in 2010, and I just thought I’d let you know that it’s not changed one bit!
However, they ARE taking it down within this year because it’s becoming extremely outdated. Hurrah!
Personally I have found the lynda.com courses to be very useful when it comes to home studying web design. The only drawback to lynda.com is the price of a subscription. Most of their stuff is [illegally] available via file-sharing if you truly are a struggling student. Just make sure when you start to earn you also start to pay!
abookapart.com have an excellent series of good value books dealing with HTML5 & CSS3. They focus on the essentials, in easy to follow language. Well worth a look at their site.
There is the Open College of the Arts, similar to the OU. Currently they are offering a graphic design course, but no web design. Traditionally the OU was very science/maths focussed, which might explain the poor quality of their web design course. Glad to know its not worth following, as I’m looking for something similar, having just completed a Level 3 City & Guilds in GD.