Frogleg said:
I'm trying to determine what's needed for a 'build a web site' class I
may teach. I've made up a questionnaire for prospetive students. I
don't want people to take the questionnaire, just check it over and
see if you think I've covered the relevant material. TIA
http://home.earthlink.net/~absolutelyfake/question.htm
Here are my thoughts...
1) The quiz you have is pretty irrelevant unless you plan to filter your
students. IE: if you were a post secondary school this type of quiz might
work if you were going to pick which applicants you were going to let in the
course or not. Otherwise you have to go with the least common denominator
as far as knowledge goes (if EVERYBODY in the course has previously done a
website except 1, you either have to kick that 1 out or start at his/her
skill level)
Some of the questions you have might be best asked as group questions... ie:
"Show of hands... how many of you have already created a website and
published it to the internet?"
This way slower students would know who they might turn to for help if they
fall behind and you are not available.
2) If you want to test what they actually know... then what you should do is
devise your course and course material up first. Then write up what you
think would be a good final exam (something that somebody who paid attention
to everything in class should get 100% on) and then on the first day give
the students that as a quiz and see who got how much right (this is for your
reference, not for marks)
Some example questions might be:
- What would the following do <span style='font:black bold 5em'>Hello
World</span>?
- Which of the following is an example of a WYSIWYG (what you see is what
you get) editor?
- Which of the following is valid HTML
- etc
3) When you ask if they know what "domain name, hosting, FTP, bandwidth,
url, search engine, links" mean... most of this is irrelevant to teaching
HTML. You would be best off giving a little 15-20 minute lecture at the
start where you can cover relevant related topics and save some of the
things (like FTP and Search Engines) for the end of the course as a 'So you
made a website... now what do you do?' if you have time to cover this at the
end.
4) For the actual course itself you are best to start off with the basics of
HTML using a text editor and some VERY BASIC CSS (just for fonts, colors,
text size, bolding, itallics, justification, etc). This means pretty much
starting off with using a <span> or <div> and doing the "Hello World" thing.
Don't worry about going into things like CSS layouts and similar.
5) Unless the course is specifically about programs like Frontpage or
Dreamweaver, you should start them off using a text editor (like notepad or
editplus) and then work them up towards using a WYSIWYG editor. If you show
somebody how easy it is to walk with a crutch they might not bother to learn
how to walk without it. So best to start with hand coding and then later
teach them tools that might make the task easier.
6) As far as the overall content of the course goes: You might try buying
one of those "Learn HTML in 24 Hours" or "Learn how to build websites in ___
steps/hours". Most of them have a good step-by-step layout and a well
thought out progression (what to do first, what to do next, etc)
7) If you are prejudiced against certain aspects of web development (eg:
ASP, Microsoft, Frontpage, Internet Explorer) you are best to leave those at
the door.
