Ask Slashdot: Modern Web Development Applied Science Associates Degree? 246
First time accepted submitter campingman777 writes "I am being asked by students to develop an associates of applied science in modern web development at my community college. I proposed the curriculum to some other web forums and they were absolutely against it. Their argument was that students would not learn enough higher math, algorithms, and data structures to be viable employees when their industry changes every five years. As part of our mission is to turn out employees immediately ready for the work force, is teaching knowledge-based careers as a vocation appropriate?"
Re:I'm confused (Score:5, Interesting)
SEMESTER 1
English I
Intro to computers (or waived) (CIS 100)
Programming tools (Github, IDEs, StackExchange, JIRA)
Intro to Programming Logic (CIS 104)
SEMESTER 2
Algebra I
English II (tech writing)
Project Management (software)
Web Development I (HTML & CSS)
SEMSTER 3
Government
Interpersonal Communication
Databases I (re-visit & modify current offering)
Web Development II (Javascript & jQuery)
SEMESTER 4
Cultural Anthropology
Introduction to Unix (CIS 140)
Web Development III (node.js, MVC frameworks, e-commerce)
Capstone Project
Why Not? (Score:4, Interesting)
To me the question is who is better off: someone who half-assed their way through a CompE degree, got out with $50,000 in debt and is still barely employable as a entry level programmer? Or someone who skipped all the "fluff" and got a 2 year practical programming degree for a fraction of the cost, and is still barely employable as an entry level programmer? I'm arguing it is the guy with less debt.
Re:Teach the fundamentals (Score:4, Interesting)
Precisely. When I was at UCSC, the students were agitating for a course in ... [wait for it] ... VAX Assembler.
The department (quite rightly) ignored our plea.
Web design isn't CS (Score:5, Interesting)
Such a degree, if it were to exist, should focus NOT on the basics of CS, but on good design.
1) Do cover human factor engineering principles and techniques. Include lab work to do usability testing.
2) Do cover the basics of good design (perhaps a joint Art department effort).
3) Do cover the foundations of programming, but using several web focused languages. C/C++/Algol and friends are wonderful, but you have limited hours.
4) Do provide an introduction to computer security. Chances are it is folks in the backend that need to focus on it, but security holes can occur anywhere.
Good luck.