Web Development Foundations
The purpose of the Web Foundations Series is to provide students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds a common foundation of understanding to website development. Just as a carpenter uses hammers and screwdrivers or a teacher uses textbooks and assignments, the tools to build websites are programming languages. These courses introduces the programming languages: HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.
What sets the web development industry apart from others is the necessity to collaborate, create, and innovate. The Web Foundations Series will also provide a foundation for students to accomplish this through version control known as Git and GitHub. Students will learn how to use Git, GitHub, as well as the Unix Command Line as a way for those students to become enabled at collaborating, creating, and innovating.
The Web Foundations Series is comprised of two sections: Primer Basic and Primer Pro
In Primer Basic, students will be introduced into those three programming languages, along with the fundamental tasks of using Git. This class is specifically tailored to students with little or no prior knowledge of computer programming. The desired outcome for the students taking this course is to feel like their curiosity has been satisfied and to feel empowered to learn more in the safe learning environment created at Portland Code School. Students in this course will have the opportunity to receive 6 hours a week of instruction and lab time over the course of 4 weeks for a total of 24 hours. On average, most students that have completed the Primer Basic have put in at least an hour each day to become proficient in meeting the expectations of the instructor. As a commitment to our students, the teacher to student ratio is 10 students per instructor. When there are more than ten students in a class, PCS provides teacher assistants for additional help.
In Primer Pro, students dive deeper into creating websites for future and potential clients through using tools such as JavaScript/jQuery and Bootstrap. This class is designed to fit the profile of a student that has successfully completed the Primer Basic course or was able to demonstrate proficiency in the curriculum of the Primer Basic course. These students are eager to learn more and are career oriented. This course prepares students for some of the other courses at Portland Code School such as Full Stack JavaScript.
Primer Pro meets these goals by enabling students to learn from and complete the following objectives:
- Internship at a web development or creative design studio
- Creation of simple websites for small businesses or individuals
- Participation in further Portland Code School classes
There are no shortcuts to mastery, but you don’t have to go it alone. Bring your energy and hunger and we’ll get you started on the right path.
For a more detailed look at what you’ll learn, check out the syllabus and the course curriculum.
Simplified Schedule
There are a minimum of 6 classroom hours per week with between 6 and 10 hours of homework per week. For current date and time, see the school web site.
| Class | Week | Topics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 1 | Introduction to HTML, CSS & JavaScript (JS) & Git; introduction to the basic tool set: command line, text editor, and Chrome Developer Tools; basic teamwork; intro to the community | |
| Basic | 2 | HTML: Basic interactivity with forms; CSS: styling, positioning and the cascade. Git: Cloning, Staging and committing | |
| Basic | 3 | Teamwork roles and responsibilities; Project work; Git: Basic collaboration: branching and merging; using Github pages to deploy web sites | |
| Basic | 4 | Using web services; Intro to client work: product demos and code walkthroughs; Basic Primer retrospective & celebration | |
| Pro | 5 | Mobile first development; CSS: media queries; HTML: Basic interactivity with forms; JS: variables, statements, functions & objects; | |
| Pro | 6 | CSS: interactivity with hover states; HTML: Form validation; JS: Debugging, jQuery - events and class manipulation; | |
| Pro | 7 | Introduction to Frameworks: Bootstrap; JS: DOM element manipulation | |
| Pro | 8 | Project presentations and class celebration. |