Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

It is with great pleasure that we unveil the WaSP InterAct Curriculum, an initiative that aims to unite industry, educators, and practitioners with one common goal: to improve the quality of education that the next generation of web professionals have available to them. Combining best practices in web design and development with best practices in education and human resources, we have assembled a group of passionate leaders that care deeply about education and that want to ensure that regardless of who you are, or where you’re learning about building the web — on your own, in an education institution or even on the job — you learn best practices and have the skills that your employers want and need.

I was priveleged to see a glimpse of this in action at Web Directions North and saw the Shared Passion that was demonstrated by everyone there, and this initiative is nothing less than thrilling. We at WaSP hope that you’re as excited about this as we are.

Please join me in openly congratulating our team members of the WaSP Education Task Force that were so instrumental in planning and executing this unmatched resource: Aarron Walter, Steph Troeth, Leslie Jensen-Inman. There are many more contributors to this project, but without these three, this simply wouldn’t have happened. The three of you are inspirational to us all and give us a taste of what can be accomplished.

It doesn’t end there, though. The web evolves. Web Standards evolve. And so will this resource. If you have a passion for education and making a difference, we’d love to have you involved.

Your Replies

#1 On March 16th, 2009 7:09 pm WaSP Member plauke replied:

congrats. it’s great to finally see this up and running!

#2 On March 17th, 2009 5:02 am Ben Millard replied:

There’s now a topic about this on Accessify Forum: WaSP’s New “Best Practice” Curriculum.

#3 On March 17th, 2009 5:07 am chris replied:

Nice work guys :D

#4 On March 17th, 2009 5:35 pm Jon Gibbins replied:

Congrats to everyone involved. It looks like a lot of hard work went into this and I’m certain it’s going to be a great resource.

#5 On March 20th, 2009 1:52 am Pamela Fox replied:

Derek, Great to see you involved in this. I’ve got some curriculum I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with, and it seems like this is a good place to contribute it. And of course, I was hoping to find a place where educators would actually find it. Sounds like WaSP is that place.

I’ll contact WaSP through the official form now.

#6 On March 20th, 2009 4:52 am Zac Gordon replied:

I look forward to seeing this curriculum framework implemented at schools around the world.

Thank you to those who worked on the project. I can’t wait to help give back to it a bit.

p.s. Shout out to Jeff Brown who worked on the sole design course available thus far.

#7 On March 20th, 2009 2:59 pm John replied:

Our hat is off to the hard working Educational Task Force Team…….education is the world’s most precious resource.

#8 On March 29th, 2009 4:03 pm Ajeet Khurana replied:

The need to consider the web as an academic discipline has been long overdue. I explored the curriculum and found the Foundations section the most compelling. Isn’t that what it is all about. I wish there was such a well thought out design when I was a lecturer of MIS at the Univ. of Texas at Austin. A recommendation would be to significantly expand the scope of the syllabus. I see the present one as a good starting point.

#9 On April 2nd, 2009 7:52 am Damon replied:

I’m so happy to see something like this being done. I’m actually graduating this month from a popular online college, and it has been a complete waste of money. The only good thing that will come from taking classes at this institution is the piece of paper that say’s I have a degree.

The curriculum is narrow-minded, out of date, and too rudimentary for anyone to take into the workforce. They don’t teach the importance of validation (just to do it), they don’t teach coding best practices, usability testing, or even accessibility basics. Luckily, sites like this one, A List Apart, and many others have intellectual & insightful articles to help web designers. To be truthful, I have learned more by reading the vast amount of blogs by the top web designers, than I have in 2 years of college.

Hopefully WaSP can help remedy this problem, because something drastic needs to change.

#10 On April 17th, 2009 3:53 pm Ajeet Khurana replied:

@Damon I hear you when you talk about the wasted time on an online college. But no program, online or offline, can actually rely on a good curriculum. The execution of that curriculum, the testing, and feedback mechanism is what makes a real course stand apart all the me-toos. This currculum is hence only a good first step. Many more are needed, and hopefully will follow.

#11 On May 7th, 2009 7:02 am Alan replied:

Its great to see things like this coming about. Being a newcomer to the web design world and largly trying to learn it from home its great to see people taking the initiative to set some standards of education.
Well done.

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