Generic HTML course or CIW?

Kai123

Hey,

My girlfriend wants to take a online web design course. The actual site is down at the moment so I cant give any real detail, but one is 500 euro for HTML, and the other is the first CIW course which covers HTML, CSS and basic networking.

They are both the same price, but she is worried the CIW will not teach her the basics like the other course will. If it does, then we can save the money and take the CIW.

I know the CIW beginner course is better, but how well does it teach HTML and the basics?

kai.

Kai123

Here we go,

the generic course is here,

The CIW course is here. Any thoughts and opinions will be greatly appriciated!

erpadmin

How's about you litterally split the difference and go for this:

W3Schools Online Web Tutorials

She can take ANYTHING that deals with the Web for free.

Then, if she wants a credible certification, you can just take the corresponding CIW exams. Though I can tell you that the CIW 1D0-510 will involve some real IT knowledge, but she can also pick that up for free with some google searches if the IT knowledge is lacking.

That site helped me pass both CIW's 1D0-510 and 1D0-435 (Javascript). It'll be a lot better than spending 500 euro.....

impz

hmm I don't think paying 500 euros to learn xhtml/html is worth it especially with the advent of html5.

Back when I completed my CCNA a few months back, I wanted to delve into the world of web design. First place I checked out was W3CSchool and Youtube but I didn't really like it because the info I found at those 2 places felt a bit incomplete and at times, there was no real flow from one topic to another.

As a result, I spent some time googling and I found what I would consider to be the CBTNuggets of WebDesign: Lynda.com. They have a huge collection of videos covering a wide base of topic areas, stuff like html/xml/ajax/javascript/php with mysql/asp.net/css/photoshop/wordpress etc.

If your gf wants to maybe pursue a career in webdesign, a subscription at lynda is definitely worth it since it basically teaches you everything from code to photoshopping to creating animations and even to SEO.

Also, a website worth checking out is Web development tutorials, from beginner to advanced | Nettuts+. They have some great articles on topics pertaining to webdesign along with access to tutorials if you pay a small subscription fee.

In terms of books, I never bought any because I went to my local library for them so I don't know if they are the "best" for their respective areas:

Picked up stuff here and there, explained some concepts:
Amazon.com: Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML: Modern Guide and Reference (Beginning: from Novice to Professional) (9781590597477): David Schultz, Craig Cook: Books

Didn't know the power of CSS until I took a read through this book
Notice that you should have a solid foundation in CSS before your read it.
Also note that there are some new stuff you can do with css which is not in this book but most of them arent cross browser complaint yet:
Amazon.com: CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions (9781430223979): Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Cameron Moll: Books

Finally there is always the free resources:

Lots of great tutorials on many topics though some of them concentrated solely on "how to code" and not much "theory"
thenewboston's Channel - YouTube

Google.com (there are actually some badass sites which have great content in certain areas)

Kai123

I have told her about the free websites, but it is much more to do with structured learning v learning by yourself.

Maybe I could create a list of objectives for her

Thank you both for the advice! It was much more then what I was expecting

Kai.

krokodilo

It's a shame I didn't catch this 8 years ago as it was around the time I learnt Javascript and PHP with Codecademy, at the time the whole entire site was 100% free and there wasn't a single mention of a paid tier nor any of the other fancy stuff they have now. I guess the multi-million dollar investors must have put a lot of pressure on them to monetise...

Around this time I learnt CSS from a very blocky, 240p Youtube video which I can sadly no longer locate. If anyone knows the one I'm on about, please send it my way!