Looking At Web Design Courses...

[voodoochild16]

Hey all, I am looking at Web Design as the course I think I want to take, though there are plenty of courses that are offered all over Canada, some being online and some being required to be taken at the college. I think that a dipoma looks better than a cetifercate, and I am wondering if this college for distance learning looks legit to you guys?.
http://www.darttinstitute.ca/program-web-design.html

What's that one like compared to this one?
http://www.vanarts.com/programs/web-development

The top one costs $10,000 for the estimated tuition, where the bottom one is $25,000 apparently. And I also found out a web design cetifercate only covers half of what the diploma program covers, according to VanArts. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[ronaldroe]

The first one doesn't even look like they're attempting to look legit.
The second one looks better, but you have to check accreditation.
The second one says they're accredited by the Private Career Training Institutions Agency of British Columbia. Being American, I don't know whether that's good or not. I know down here you have nationally accredited and regionally accredited. A lot of people don't realize it, but if a college isn't regionally accredited, their diplomas aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

So, I guess what I'm getting at is:
1. Have you considered brick-and-mortar schools that have an online component?
2. Before you sign up for something like this, I'd suggest tracking down information about their accreditation to make sure they're legit, and their diplomas are well received by employers.

 

[DHDdirect]

I'd also go one step further.

Once you find a course that you think would be good, at a accredited brick-and-mortar school, talk to the school as well as the proposed instructor to gauge whether the class would be taught using up to date information.

You'd be surprised how many are not trying to keep up at all. Some things you can ask them are what software are they using, what scripting languages do they cover if any, do they teach cross-browser compatibility, do they go over designing for mobile browsers and so on.

 

[voodoochild16]

I'd also go one step further.

Once you find a course that you think would be good, at a accredited brick-and-mortar school, talk to the school as well as the proposed instructor to gauge whether the class would be taught using up to date information.

You'd be surprised how many are not trying to keep up at all. Some things you can ask them are what software are they using, what scripting languages do they cover if any, do they teach cross-browser compatibility, do they go over designing for mobile browsers and so on.

Well, I for one can't afford either honestly.. but even if i could afford the $10,000 one i wouldn't pay that much for a poorly designed website that doesn't even look legit. Here is a better college offering the course for just a certificate for just $4000, let me know what you guys think:
http://www.bcit.ca/study/programs/6420acert
It says distance learning so I hope that means I can take it from an 9 hour drive away...

Is a certificate as good as a diploma when getting into web design?, I am guessing that it all depends on your actual experience and skill, not the value of the diploma or certificate that you obtained.

 

[Edge]

web design courses

As an employer of web designers I'd have no interest in some qualification I'd never heard of. I'd just be interested in someone's portfolio. If I was interviewing I would say 'show me your work' and ask some technical questions. People look upon these courses as some kind of silver bullet which will fix their knowledge gap. The reality is that all you need to know can be found on Google. If you want to give your learning some structure get a couple of books which get you stuck into building web sites - you'll learn much faster than being on a course.

And learn HTML 5.

 

[n1c0_ds]

As an employer of web designers I'd have no interest in some qualification I'd never heard of. I'd just be interested in someone's portfolio. If I was interviewing I would say 'show me your work' and ask some technical questions. People look upon these courses as some kind of silver bullet which will fix their knowledge gap. The reality is that all you need to know can be found on Google. If you want to give your learning some structure get a couple of books which get you stuck into building web sites - you'll learn much faster than being on a course.

And learn HTML 5.

This man speaks of the truth. No one cares about web design certifications and diplomas. Either get a graphic design or programming degree.

Web design changes every 6 month anyway, so what you learn will be obsolete before you graduate. As he said, everything you need to know can be found online, and it's much easier to understand than programming.

 

[voodoochild16]

This man speaks of the truth. No one cares about web design certifications and diplomas. Either get a graphic design or programming degree.

Web design changes every 6 month anyway, so what you learn will be obsolete before you graduate. As he said, everything you need to know can be found online, and it's much easier to understand than programming.

Ok so I guess it's obvious that you can learn most of web development and web design entirely online, but im curious if there is indeed some resource like this that is designed like a program by a college and is free, which would be a more scaled and disciplined route, you know what I mean?.

Or did anyone find it difficult to learn this way and just decided to go the college route for a more disciplined way of learning web development?.

 

[anna]

Ok so I guess it's obvious that you can learn most of web development and web design entirely online, but im curious if there is indeed some resource like this that is designed like a program by a college and is free, which would be a more scaled and disciplined route, you know what I mean?.

Or did anyone find it difficult to learn this way and just decided to go the college route for a more disciplined way of learning web development?.

No. Nothing worthwhile is free. You can try http://lynda.com but even that is a subscription based service. If you have the motivation and discipline, you can follow the advice of others and learn online. However, there's a learning curve, so that's where the motivation and discipline will be needed.

I took a course last year, just to brush up my skills, and the professor was teaching TABLE-BASED LAYOUTS so be careful who you learn from. Good luck!