Answer to Mike's Question about online courses

Mike writes:

I am looking for an online course for web design and development. I have tried the traditional colleges (and prefer them), however, I find them not user friendly to the student who is not full-time, residing on the campus, etc. I find it difficult to get the classes I want or need because the 'full-time' students get the slots and then the part-time students can get in if there is an opening. If there are not enough full time students enrolled, then they cancel the class. Any suggestions? Thanks

May 15, 2009 5:20 AM

That is a very frustrating thing about doing part time studies... I know that as a prof I detested it when courses I was slated to teach would be cancelled at the last minute... it has happened to me more than once. And sometimes, I would be thrown into teaching some other course entirely, only to find out that half the people in the new course didn't actually want to take it - they had wanted to take the other course I was supposed to be teaching. Quite often happened with the course in HTML & xHTML web development I used to teach, actually.

I think that the main thing to decide is whether it is the actual credit you need, or if it is just the information. If it is the course, seems like all you can do is keep trying - and keep hounding whoever the person is that makes the decision about which courses run (nicely, of course). It might also help to talk to the Program Co-ordinator that oversees the department the course is offered in.... at least in my own college setting, that would be the approach I would take (and have advised students to take).

Or, of course, you could also look at online courses through recognized colleges or universities. The University of Phoenix offers several courses in Internet Technology and Web Development, for example. eLearners has a list of 37 online courses in web development that might be a good place to start.

If you are looking for the information but don't actually need the credit there are tons of resources out there. Free-Ed.Net offers Fundamentals of HTML Scripting, Fundamentals of Javascript, or (sort of) Web Page Authoring, for starters.

There are also millions of free online tutorials, including those offered by W3Schools Full Web Building Tutorials.

Another option, depending on your learning style, is just to buy one of the textbooks that the course you would have taken if it had run required and work through that, doing all of the assignments and using the online tutorials and free resources to expand your horizons as desired.

When I was teaching these sorts of courses, I used the New Perspectives Series:


Even though the course was on campus and not intended to be distance learning, several of my students did it as an online course and did very well.

Even if you DO need the actual credit(s), working through any of the free opportunities can only help, right? By the time you get to actually take the course, you'll be a pro.