Truman College Continuing Education Career Programs

Web Development

About the program

Enroll in our new Web Development certificate program and learn the skills you need to be a web developer. Web developers, sometimes called front-end or back-end web programmers, develop dynamic applications for web sites adding critical functionality such as database integration, adaptive user interfaces, responsive navigation, security, content management systems, shopping carts and dynamic content. Our certificate program will give you the skills you need to establish yourself in this rapidly growing field. The program takes approximately 10 months to complete.

Note--A certificate of completion will be issued only to students who complete the entire program in our onsite classes. Online courses or courses taken at other institutions do not apply toward the certificate.

Courses required

To receive the Web Development certificate, you must complete the three 7-week core courses, one 7-week elective course, and three 1-day elective workshops. Click here for the current course schedules.

Core courses

• Introduction to Web Development (offered twice in the Fall and twice in the Spring)
• Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Level 1 (offered once in the Fall and once in the Spring)
• Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Level 2 (offered once in the Fall)

Elective courses (7-week courses, choose one)

• ActionScript
• JavaScript

Elective workshops (1-day workshops, choose three)

• Photoshop to CSS
• Focus on Forms
• Six Easy Pieces: Using JQuery to Enhance Website Functionality
• AJAX
• Relational Databases for Web Development
• CSS Techniques
• Current Topics in Web Development
• Web Analytics

About the instructor

The primary instructor, Joy Walker, has ten years of experience in web development and a long career in education. Contact her at jwalker@ccc.edu if you have questions about the program.

Additional resources

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Certified Internet Web Certfication

World Wide Web Consortium

Courses

Introduction to Web Development
This course will introduce the field of web development and provide an overview of the technologies used for client-side scripting, server-side scripting and database development. Web development will be contrasted with web design and the types of careers available to web developers will be discussed. This is an excellent opportunity to meet the web development instructor and ask questions about course offerings.

Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Level 1
Create a dynamic, data-driven website using PHP and MySQL. We will use the latest PHP programming techniques to develop projects that are progressively more complex throughout the course. Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No programming experience is necessary.

Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Level 2
Open only to students with previous experience in both PHP and MySQL, this course will focus on more advanced topics in PHP such as object oriented programming techniques, associative arrays, swift email, integration of PHP with JavaScript and CSS. Students must have their own web hosting environment with PHP/MySQL support. Students should contact Joy Walker, jwalker@ccc.edu, for an interview before signing up for the course to determine their readiness for this level.

Flash MX ActionScript
Learn how to control Flash movies with ActionScript, Flash's built-in scripting language. This course will cover how to create, target, animate, modify, load and unload MovieClips, and how to use variables to unleash a whole new level of interactivity in Flash. Students will also learn to use conditional logic, looping, functions, objects and how to send and receive data with a Flash movie. This course does not cover advanced programming techniques.

Introduction to JavaScript
A comprehensive introduction to programming in JavaScript, this course provides a foundation for other web technologies such as AJAX and JQuery. JavaScript is widely used on websites to provide interactivity and rapid response to user actions. It is the most widely used client-side scripting language currently used in websites. You will also gain a thorough knowledge of the DOM, the document object model. Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.

Web Analytics
Based on books by Avinash Kaushik, this seminar will introduce Web Developers and Web Designers to the rapidly growing field of web analytics. We will discuss the pros and cons of data collection methodologies, various types of analysis and analytics tools. You will learn about pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, rich media marketing and internal site search. We will discuss the kinds of data that can and should be used to drive changes on a website. You will learn how to create a customer-centric website and how to produce reports for your clients about the analytical data you have gathered. And analytics are not just for business websites - any website that wants to improve the user experience and deliver an effective message to the public can benefit tremendously from an analytics approach.

Photoshop to CSS Workshop
Construct a web page using Adobe Photoshop and CSS. In this workshop, Alexis Steinkamp will help you design a web page layout in Photoshop, including selecting and arranging colors, fonts, graphics and photographs in separate layers. Then Joy Walker will help you develop a CSS style sheet that renders the design into XHTML (including sliced images from the original Photoshop file). Participants should have experience with Photoshop and HTML.

Six Easy Pieces: Using JQuery to Enhance Website Functionality
Students will be introduced to the popular and powerful JQuery JavaScript framework through the hands-on practice of creating Slideshows, Expander, Tree Table and Treeview, Pull Quotes, Tablesorter, and Tabs. Students will be provided with files to complete working examples of each application. A one-hour break will be provided for lunch on your own. Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.

AJAX Workshop
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) combines multiple technologies and allows a web page to communicate with a server without page refresh, enabling a responsive web-based client. This is the secret of dynamic Web 2.0 sites. In this workshop, you will learn to use the XMLHttpRequest and build AJAX-enabled pages. Students enrolling in this class must have a background in HTML and CSS. No other programming experience is necessary.

Focus on Forms Workshop
If you are making or learning to make websites, you need to know how to build well-designed, properly-functioning web forms! In this workshop, you will learn to use correct HTML markup and CSS--including some new CSS3 features--to design a professional-looking form that addresses usability and accessibility issues. You will also learn to use a object-oriented PHP script to perform server-side form validation and produce error messages when the form is filled out incorrectly. A one-hour lunch break is included. Students entering this course should have completed Dynamic Websites with PHP and MySQL: Level One.

CSS Techniques
In this hands-on one-day workshop, you will start with a basic web page based on semantic XHTML markup and correctly style the page elements--header, footer, content, navigation--using best practices in CSS. In creating a linked CSS style sheet, you will learn several ways to create a 3-column layout without tables, and will address a variety of key CSS concepts: organizing your style sheet; using reset styles; building a fixed, elastic, or liquid layout; positioning elements (floats, relative and absolute positioning); streamlining your code; and integrating some new CSS3 modules. You must have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS to register for this course.

WordPress Customization: Beyond the Blog
Learn to use the power of the WordPress platform and build WordPress sites that go beyond the basics. Participants in this workshop will learn to build themes, create custom login forms, integrate theme options, build plugins, create better navigation, and use conditional control elements. This workshop is based on the Book "Smashing WordPress Beyond the Blog" by Thord Daniel Hedengren.

How to Register

To register, call 773-907-4440 (Visa, Master Card, or American Express required for phone registration), or visit our office in Room 1442 during the following hours: 10am-7pm Mon-Thurs, 10:00 am-4:00 pm Fri, and 9:00am-1:30pm Sat. NOTE: You can register online at my.ccc.edu if you already have a Student ID.