The State of Online Web Design Education

Since I posted my idea for the personal web design degree a lot has happened. Not the least of which has been the release of the WaSP Interact Curriculum, which has actually reinforced my original plan. As I had originally anticipated, it appears that this program is focused heavily on development and standards. While it does touch on the visual aspects of design, it is only a small portion of the program. Taking a quick glance at the curriculum framework, you can easily see this.

WaSP InterAct Curriculum Framework

Secondly, I did some further research and have found a number of other programs that are currently being developed to help solve similar educational problems. Programs such as the The Opera Web Standards Curriculum and Ed Directions North contain valuable information that I hope with time may be referenced. Both of these programs contain information that will most likely only be introduced as a part of the Personal Web Design Degree. It is my goal that further education in these areas is served by the already established programs. For a full list of other educational initiatives currently being developed, check out the article “Brighter Horizons for Web Education” from Issue 276 of A List Apart.

Proposed Personal Web Design Degree Curriculum

Looking at the proposed curriculum for the Personal Web Design Degree, you can see that it is based on a simplified prerequisite system. In order to keep the program as simple as possible and keep the learning curve from becoming too steep, each of the “levels” should be completed in order. Within each level is a core area of study that will contain its own set of readings, projects, and eventually review materials.

Please note that web development will be introduced in the 100 level and further explained in the 300 level. However, as I have stated earlier in this post, the goal of this project is not to recreate information that is shared in depth in other programs such as the WaSP or Opera initiatives.

At this point I would like to get the community’s opinion about what other skills web designers believe should be included in the list, and where they would fall in terms of the proposed level system. If you have any skills you think are missing please share them.