Drew Whitworth, School of Computing,

1
Who wants to learn web design anyway?

• Course design for student diversity in an ICT
  sub-discipline
• Dr. Drew Whitworth, University of Leeds

2
Presentation summary

• I discuss the Leeds University module, ACOM1770
  Web Design and Technology
• http//www.leeds.ac.uk/acom/webdesign
• This has been researched in various ways but
  emphasis today is on questionnaires distributed
  prior to first lecture What do students want
  from the course?
• Part I why web design, and why diversity?
• Part II report on results of questionnaire
• Part III how course design responds
• Conclusion the need for comparative study

3
The teaching of ICT
Part I
ICT teaching to a general HE student audience
is often fixated with the
T

• Why this limited technology-based approach?
• a great many pre-packaged courses and books
• lack of specialist staff
• lack of time and resources lower-class
  teaching
• skills not properly embedded in degrees

4
The teaching of ICT
To teach these technological skills in a
productive way we must engage with the other
parts of the term
ICT

• how do these technologies change students rela-
• tionship to information?
• how can they be used to communicate?
• A dynamic, rich public sphere is a diverse
  public
• sphere

5
Student diversity
Traditional equal opps acknowledges race,
gender, disability, sexuality
6
Student diversity
these of course matter, but the fact is everyone
has a different relationship with information
communication
in discipline
in preferred learning style
Difference
in background
in experience
in motivation
7
Understanding students
Part II

• How much do we really know about our students?
• Problem of abstraction, particularly on large
  courses faces in a lecture, names on an essay
• We see feedback, but often only at the end
• What about students prior expectations of
  courses?

8
The ACOM1770 questionnaire

• Distributed to students in last three runs of
  course (semester 2 2002-3 both semesters
  2003-4)
• n84 in 2002-3 n175 in 2003-4
• Literally the first thing that students do in
  week one so a good test of prior expectations
  desires
• General demographics (comparable across both
  years)
• 62 / 38 male/female split
• 15 overseas
• drawn from every other department of university
• rough 2 1 1 ratio for freshers finalists
  others

9
Why did students enrol?
2002-3 2003-4 To improve existing web
design skills 39 28 Will look good on a CV
44 50 Will be useful in degree 39
36 Is an important life skill 67
44 Want to be professional web designer 10
3 Seemed an interesting module 39
43 Seemed an easy module 15 11

• Comments
• Few of those enrolling see web design as
  professional end in itself (course
• is admittedly inappropriate for that)
• Slightly higher CV-awareness in finalists, but
  otherwise no pattern when
• compared to year of study
• Diversity in motivation is clear even with this
  crude tool

10
Previous web design experience
2002-3 2003-4 Formal IT education 22
17 Work-based training 16
13 Self-taught from books 40
32 Self-taught from the WWW 67
57 Self-taught from PC magazines 19 23

• 2002-3 2003-4
• None 61 65
• Handcoded HTML 28 23
• Dreamweaver 12 15
• Front Page 15 11
• Other generator 11 7

• Comments
• 21 split in experience of course intake
• No relationship between these two
• tables mode of education does not
• influence what is learnt
• Could it be that no market leader exists
• in web design therefore, a lack of pre-
• packaged content?

11
What did they most want to learn?
(not all answers shown here) 2002-3
2003-4 Training in HTML coding 24 31 Graphic
design/layout skills 16 23 Training in
Dreamweaver or 12 5 other generators

• Comments
• Does this cast doubt on claims that students do
  not like to get
• their hands dirty with coding (see Edexcel
  syllabus)?
• There are other explanations but again it
  suggests an oppor-
• tunity to get away from teaching applications,
  and into teaching
• skills

12
Preferred teaching methods
2002-3 2003-4 Lectures 14
12 Printed teaching materials 25
30 Web-based teaching materials 19
13 Practical workshops 32 30 Private
study 2 5 Collaborative work
n/a 5 No particular one 8 4

• Comments (overall)
• We should not be surprised by the diversity in
  any of these answers
• Nor, therefore, should we be surprised that
  one-size-fits-all models of
• ICT education are often rejected by students (see
  Selwyns work)
• Web design gives rise to certain opportunities
  however it is too complex
• a set of skills to be encompassed in one easy
  package
• But is course design in the face of this
  diversity a major logistical headache?

13
Course structure content
Part III
but students then personalise their course by
choosing from a list of components in part 2
All ACOM courses start with a six- week core to
teach key technical and non-technical skills
Advanced HTML
Graphics
Cyberpolitics
Basic HTML (not generators)
Layout principles
Usability
Legal issues
Accessibility cross-browser compatibility
XML
Types of web site (structure content)
Linux
Past, present future contexts
(others are available though taken more rarely)
14
Teaching methods

• Traditional lectures are used for students who
  want them
• but virtual lectures have been introduced for
  2004-5
• comprehensive set of teaching materials
  technical info is online background info is
  printed
• drop-in workshops help students on a one-to-one
  basis if they need it
• Therefore many ways of engaging with the
  learning environment depending on student
  preference
• and they can engage with the materials at
  different levels

15
Assessment

• Learning by doing coding a site is an obvious
  test
• This a two-part process
• Students have free choice of subject but in first
  part they must describe and justify their choice
• Justification includes review of existing sites
  with quality criteria taught on the course
• In second part they must respond to feedback
  given on first draft site imitation of real
  design conditions?
• Final site must also be published

16
Conclusion

• When time and resources are short, package-led
  teaching will always be tempting
• But one-size-fits-all methods by definition
  cannot cope with diversity
• The results are often
• Rejection of skills
• Failure to embed skills in the remainder of their
  degrees
• No sense of how skills can be applied beyond the
  campus or even beyond the course
• The more we can accommodate diverse responses to
  information and communication the better our
  teaching will be

17
Future directions

• Evaluation of this course has also included
  pattern analysis of course work monitoring of
  web site focus groups
• Research has been interesting but like many
  projects in this field it is just looking at one
  course
• Comparative study vital if we are to really
  understand the role of ICT in education
• I am looking for partners!

Drew
drew_at_comp.leeds.ac.uk