Class designs from the heart

Nesreen Khashan
Staff writer

Learning to design and publish a web page doesn't have to be a tangled process.

Since spring 1996, the Department of Design and Industry has offered Web Design and Management -- a class that pools together students with different skill sets, including networking, programming and graphic design abilities -- to teach them the production process of web design.

The class collaborates with SF State's Center for Community Non-Profit Web Design, an organization created this semester dedicated to providing web pages for non-profit entities in the Bay Area.

Also this semester, San Francisco's Urban Institute awarded SF State a $2,500 Campus Compact Grant to help launch the non-profit web design organization.

"The students in the class facilitate the project, while the center coordinates them and makes the contacts," said Kristen Gates, the class instructor.

Gates, who also works as an outreach specialist for SF State's Computing Services, said she is excited about a classroom setting that provides outreach to the community, while it teaches professional skills students need to be competitive.

"Students get the experience of working for a customer -- it's a real life work experience," Gates said. "They're responsible for all the aspects that a web designer would do on the outside."

Many students in the class are already working professionals involved in some aspect of the computer industry, while others work for low-tech companies that have hired computer savvy staff to work as webmasters.

Candy Carlson, a graduate student in museum studies who works at the Oakland Museum, is designing a web page for her day job while working on her project in the web design class. Although she didn't know HTML, a page-description language used in web design, a stated prerequisite to the class, she was allowed to enroll because she has 6 years experience in computer graphic design.

"It's really an important class and is something all students should consider," Carlson said.

"It's not just about how to build a page, but how to think in terms of using the web in everyday life. All the industries are using the web now. Who would think that a museum would need it?"

While Carlson likes the curriculum and learning environment of the class, she doesn't agree with designing web pages for organizations without compensation.

"I feel like we're being taken advantage of," Carlson said.

John Miller, another student in the class, is a webmaster for the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. He said he is self-taught in HTML, but didn't have the knowledge to explain his skills to his colleagues.

"I wanted to take this class to go about learning this in a structured environment," Miller said. "There's people (enrolled) that aren't here to get college degrees. There are a lot of people who have professional experience in a lot of areas."

Presently, Design and Industry offers courses that teach software applications useful in web design, but doesn't have an integrated web design course path for students interested in working in this endeavor. Gates, along with other faculty in the department, are working to change that.

By fall 1997, Gates hopes to offer more than one section of the class to students interested in learning web-production.

"We are really excited about expanding our program, and we're really interested in learning provocative web-site design," Gates said.

She added that because the profession is so new, her class provides an environment that is both a learning and teaching environment. From this class, Gates plans on developing ideas for future curriculum.

"The class has both undergraduate and graduate students and a lot of students who are in the web business right now," Gates said. "It gives us an opportunity to learn from each other's expertise."

[ Golden Gater - March 4, 1997 ]