The state of web education
This is a list of Manchester Metropolitan University student’s final web design and development projects.
I don’t mean to sound like a massive snob, but quite frankly I’m appalled.
These students pay £10,000 for a 3 year degree course, broken into modules including website design, web application development and digital media production.
Where is digital education going wrong? You be the judge.
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Luc said:
Agreed – they’re all pretty appalling. Only student8 (@craftedpixelz) and the 3rd group project (from the same person I suspect) stand out as something worthy of that level, and I’d guess they knew what they were doing before they started the course…
Ian James Cox said:
This is going to end in tears….
Nathan said:
That’s why Abid (@craftedpixelz) works with us @blisshq!
jonthebeef said:
Wow.
Will said:
Wow, the majority of them are horrendous! I don’t think the education alone can be blamed, it’s down to the student as well. You can’t teach good design, that part comes with practice and experience.
So is it the course not providing the platform/guidance/theory, or the student not putting in the effort to self-teach outside of the course? In some of these examples it seems to be a case of both!
Abid Din said:
I’d like it if there were to be some full blown discussion on this. From students, tutors and those working in the industry.
It’d be interesting to hear the thoughts from each side, in order to ascertain what’s being done to produce the next generation of web professionals.
Nathan said:
Hey Will, of course that’s very true. Design can’t so much be taught, although the principles can.
Perhaps it’s a balance of the two, although I believe in some cases some of the students don’t really care about the course, they’re just in it for a degree (not my words!).
Like Luc said above, there are a couple of examples that stand out that evidently represent the students who are genuinely interested in what they’re doing.
However that’s still irrelevant. The point that disgusts me is that people are digging themselves into tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt, wasting 3 years of their lives and coming out with the above. They’re going to simply walk into jobs aren’t they?!
If it’s the student’s decision not to put the effort in then so be it. But shouldn’t educational institutions be making more effort to inspire and educate more effectively?
Gareth Trufitt said:
For me I think it was a case of the courses trying to be too broad, I learnt a little about accessibility but was also learning Macromedia director at the same time.
As I said in a tweet, I feel that I learnt more in 3 months at my job after uni than I did for the whole 3 years at uni but maybe that is my fault for not self-learning although I did get my arse in gear and teach myself a bit of PHP and stuff for my dissertation project. I don’t think that education provides the solid foundation that it could and should do, the courses seems to be aimed too broadly to try and provide something for everyone and sometimes seem quite out of touch with the latest technologies and tools.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change my decision to go to university, it was some of the best times in my life but that is because of the social aspect rather than what I learnt, I’m quite happy with what I owe because I feel that it was worth it at the end of the day, although I know a lot of people that don’t. What university taught me was a greater understanding of how to learn, and while that may sound stupid, I think that is what gave me the inquisitiveness and drive to teach myself a lot of what I know now.
My suggestion to everyone in college would be to definitely go to university but try to pick a defined course that has a good reputation and a work experience / placement for a year because that year will most likely be where you learn most of your skills as I am sure Abid and I know Mark Weston can attest to. I didn’t do that, I wish I had, I would probably be a bit further along that I am now but that’s life, hindsight is a bitch.
Will said:
That’s true and in my experience of university there were many who didn’t care about the course and were happy to get any kind of degree!… I think that’s a problem with university education as a whole: Degree != job.
To do well on these types of courses definitely requires passion on the students half and if they can’t be inspired by the internet & web design, then there’s no hope. The institutions can definitely do more, such as talks from actual web designers and not lecturers. The only excuse they have is that these courses are relatively new and need refining.
Ian James Cox said:
MMU = Highway robbers
Nathan said:
DISCLAIMER
I would just like to note that I by no means intend to spite the hard work that students on this course have put in, or insult their abilities.
The objective of this post was to highlight that universities aren’t pulling their weight when it comes to taking large sums of money and attempting to teach a subject that is increasingly essential to both the economy and the landscape of today’s society.
Web design, development, social media, digital marketing and like are rapidly evolving subjects. If the institutions proposing to educate people on these subjects can’t keep up themselves… what hope is there?
Abid Din said:
In my experience at University, there were 3 students in my year (including me) that showed a genuine interest in designing for the web. Others I spoke to felt that they hadn’t learnt enough during the course in order to pursue a career in the field. Admittedly, this will in part be down to their lack of self development and progression, yet I still ask myself what the universities are doing in order to inspire students and make them want to go and discover their niche.
I found that a lot of the modules I was made to undertake were full of waffle that wasn’t relevant to a career in the web. Other modules that were relevant, were taught badly and generally the course was quite outdated.
HTML/CSS is taught from work books put together in 1995, I recall having ONE lecture on design principles, PHP lessons consisted of copying/pasting code snippets, without gaining an understanding of what they did and assignment briefs stated things such as “Tables may be used for laying out your website, although CSS is preferred”. WTF?
In my opinion, the curriculum was outdated, muddled and contained too much waffle, when it should have been focusing on the fun aspects and helping students to build on basic skills, whist allowing them to leverage more complex techniques in the later stages.
Things need to change, but it’s unlikely any curriculum will be able to keep up with the fast changing face of the web.
Tom Wilks said:
Some people just don’t have the eye for aesthetic design and these people won’t get a job designing websites. They may however get a job developing websites, as they all seem to have competent-ish skills at putting together the mark-up.
Everyone starts somewhere, I remember being at college with Abid (above) and we would just modify free templates and pass it off as our own and look where he is now…
It will be interesting to see one of the above students take on the course and whether they feel they enhanced their learning out of university.
Abid Din said:
=O I never did such a thing Thomas!
Ian James Cox said:
He still does that now!!
Colin King said:
This is just sad… by the looks of it the problem is that they were having to learn Dreamweaver as well as html, css, db etc. Can’t do that in the limited (usually 11-13 weeks for a module) time. The brief also seems to be quit restrictive. Nothing really inspiring for the students to get engaged with.
When I taught Web Design, I let the students choose what kind of site they wanted, as long as it validated. All coding was done in a text editor, so that they could work on it at home as well.
Like any other subject, Web Design needs to be taught by someone who actually enjoys it rather than treating it as just another project for the students to complete.
Nathan said:
Thanks for the input everyone.
@Colin – “Web Design needs to be taught by someone who actually enjoys it” – couldn’t agree more, although this would ideally be the case with all subjects!
Zahid Rasul said:
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Abid said:
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Zahid Rasul said:
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Zahid Rasul said:
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Abid said:
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Abid said:
This is a reply.
Zahid Rasul said:
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Nathan said:
Now now children, we seem to have strayed off topic a wee bit here eh?
If you’ve got some differences to settle then I suggest a good competitive game of Tiddlywinks – works everytime for me!
@Zahid – in Abid’s defence; we’ve all been there as designers. It’s the easiest way to get your head around bringing the tools that Photoshop offers and interactive design principles together. You’re more than welcome to express your own views on here but before you start making direct digs at Crafty Pixel – what have you got to show for yourself?
Nathan
Ian James Cox said:
Zahid, I was only joking. You seem to have sort of personal issue with Abid. Your on the wrong place for that really kidda.
Abid, good luck at JWT, you’ll do well.
Anna Green said:
My Web education was really basic we had one class where we all designed a homepage and then the tutor let me upload the whole of mine as an image and we used go live! Im now a competent web developer not because of my higher education but because i got a job with a company who where happy to train me from scratch.
Nathan said:
Unfortunately I’ve been asked to removed some of the comments due to some false accusations and rather immature name calling.
Personal issues shouldn’t be dragged out over a comment thread, although I respect that the topic of my post may have caused offense to certain people.
Willy Fernandez said:
It is worth remembering that web design is something that can – to an extent – be self-taught. Therefore, the ball is in the court of the student to a large extent.
Too many late nights for some of these chaps i reckon.
Dave said:
All subject matter concerning the internet in formal teaching, HAS to be job specific.
Its great to write an essay on the beginnings of the internet, blah, blah, but students have to know what skills potential employees are looking for, then read, practice and create.
If not, the course is just acedemic theory.
From day one, students should be building websites, optimising them for the web, then promoting.
I’ve come across a few students in their second year, who say they have learnt some xhtml, php, etc. but nothing to show for it aprt from a few essays and bit of code and design.
Basically, more vocational work that acedemic theory.
Manchester web design