This is a talk I presented at the 2011 campus festival in the Philippines, covering the problems with web education, and how to use free resources such as WaSP InterACT and the Opera web standards curriculum to customise your own modern, best-practices web design/development curriculum.

1. Web Education, and
the Opera WSC
Chris Mills, Opera Software
Slides available on http://slideshare.net/chrisdavidmills

2. Today we’ll talk about...
‣ The web education problem
‣ Potential solutions
‣ Using the WSC and other tools in the classroom

3. The web education problem
There is a skills shortage in the web industry
‣ Many web developers need educating
‣ Well-trained graduates are also needed
‣ But these needs aren’t being met

4. Think of other professions
‣ Accountancy
‣ Architecture
‣ Law
‣ Medicine

5. These have features like
‣ Regulatory bodies
‣ Codes of practice
‣ Qualifications
‣ Faculties at university

6. The Web is different!
We have the W3C, which is a standards
body, but what we call standards are
actually recommendations.

7. Codes of practice?
There are best practices...
...but mostly we just view source, and copy and
paste.

8. Low barrier of entry
‣ The web is easy! (well, sort of)
‣ This is largely a good thing
‣ And it make the web what it is today
‣ But there is a lot of bad code out there...

9. And it hangs around forever!
(like the undead)
(that’s Jeremy Keith!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/2990904057/

10. There are exams
‣ At some universities
‣ But good ones are few and far between
‣ and they vary a lot in content
‣ Some consistency would be nice

11. Many educators get it
‣ Including many of you guys!

12. But many don’t
Courses vary a lot
‣ Some teach bad front end practices
‣ Some don’t teach them at all
‣ Some teach a really odd mix of skills
‣ Some are just comedy

13. So ... WTF?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anemoneriot/258339006/

14. Standards becoming
standard?
Didn’t happen at the beginning
‣ For example HTML didn’t become a standard
until about HTML3
‣ Browsers took a while to catch on

15. Browser support...
...was a nightmare for ages
‣ So tables for layout, etc., were needed
‣ We weren’t thinking about accessibility as much
‣ Or progressive enhancement
‣ etc.

16. Outdated courses
This is when many course were written
‣ Things have changed so much
‣ 10-15 years is a lifetime in web terms
‣ Updates in courses and teaching skills
desperately needed

17. Courses should have
‣ HTML, CSS, JavaScript + best practices
‣ Universal design — REAL accessibility and
usability
‣ Proper production skills, like workflows, testing,
teamwork
‣ websites not looking the same across all
browsers!

18. We should get rid of
‣ Tables for layout, spacer GIFs, inline JavaScript
‣ Resources on HTML3 and Netscape DHTML
‣ Courses that try to fly before crawling
‣ Dumb sysadmin policies (e.g. IE6 lockdown)

19. The web is an orphan
Where does it fit into education?
‣ CompSci is a solid technical discipline
‣ Traditional design is not very technical
‣ Web design is technical, artistic, social, linguistic,
media, publishing, psychological...

20. Therefore it isn’t taken
seriously
‣ CompSci folk think it isn’t real programming,
and is a bit “arty farty”
‣ Design folk think it is scary as it involves code,
and loss of control

21. Why oh why (oh why)??
‣ Lack of web standards teaching experience
‣ Updating curricula too hard/expensive
‣ Lack of support from department
‣ Lack of teaching resources

22. Enough moaning
already!!

23. Let’s look towards
some solutions

24. Getting rid of the excuses
‣ Create the resources teachers need
‣ Do evangelism/outreach
‣ Mold better web developers!

25. The Opera web standards
curriculum
‣ http://www.opera.com/wsc/
‣ Over 60 articles
‣ All the web design and development basics you
need
‣ Translations underway in multiple languages
‣ Released under creative commons

26. (Aside) Open knowledge
sharing
‣ ...is absolutely vital
‣ It represents the spirit of the Web
‣ Makes everything easier
‣ Build up a useful network of allies

27. WaSP InterACT
‣ http://interact.webstandards.org
‣ Resources for teachers
‣ Course structures, rubrics, sample assignments
and exam questions, etc.
‣ Perfect complement to the WSC
‣ Also Released under creative commons

28. InterACT with web
standards
‣ http://interactwithwebstandards.com
‣ Written to meet the needs of educators
‣ A collaboration between educators
and web industry people
‣ Holistic view of web design

29. Using these resources
together
Let’s look at an example topic. Let’s choose HTML
and CSS-based web design.

30. HTML and CSS courses

31. Each contains useful
resources

32. Competencies

33. Competencies (cont.)

34. Assignments

35. Assignments (cont.)

36. Exam questions

37. Resources

38. Learning modules

39. Web standards curriculum!

40. WSC article example

41. WSC article example

42. WSC article example

43. WSC article example

44. Other resources worth
mentioning
‣ Mozilla/P2PU school of webcraft — education
that works outside traditional channels
‣ W3C Open Web Education Alliance — looking to
create a worldwide standard for web education

45. Final thoughts

46. Reach out!
‣ Getting everyone doing outreach
‣ At universities, school, colleges, local companies,
user groups?
‣ Helping those who don’t get it
‣ Pointing them to reliable learning resources

47. It’s not just educators...
‣ What about existing web developers?
‣ What about non-technical team members?
‣ They need to understand modern best practices
too

48. How does it all work
together?
Improve Create
curricula resources
Examination/ Web
Accreditation Professionals!
Train
Evangelise
educators/
best practices
students

49. Thanks for listening!
‣ cmills@opera.com
‣ @chrisdavidmills
‣ http://dev.opera.com
‣ http://www.opera.com/wsc
‣ http://interactwithwebstandards.com