Interview Premise

Let’s face it. Technology moves fast; academia doesn’t. So how do we teach web design and development—a subject that is constantly changing? How do we prepare our students for the real-world and for real-world expectations? And how do we, as educators, stay up-to-date about the information we are teaching?

The best way to approach this topic is to seek the expertise of leaders in the web design and development fields. As the people who will hire our students, they should have input about what type of students we are producing. With that in mind, I interviewed thirty-two leaders in the fields of web design and development, each of them is acutely aware of the importance of formally educating the next generation of web designers and developers.

Interview Questions

  1. What skills and technologies should colleges and universities teach students who want to be web designers and/or developers? Why?
  2. Should students be educated in both web design and development or just one? Why?
  3. If you could create your dream curriculum for web design and development, what courses and information would you include? Why? What courses and information now in such programs would you eliminate? Why?
  4. What type of projects do you want to see in a recent graduate’s web design and/or development portfolio?
  5. How can colleges and universities keep web design and/or development curriculum current and relevant?

Interviewees