Web Design and Programming
Effective web design is beautiful and promotes comprehension and ease of use. If you have a passion for technology, information and stunning design, VCAD's Web Design and Programming diploma program is for you.
This program teaches the techniques and technology necessary to build stylish and functional websites. Students learn colour theory, design, typography and industry-standard software, like Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver. They will also learn how to incorporate consistent branding and design between websites, packaging and advertising. Students will become proficient with Flash and Action Scripting and the underlying technologies and languages that combine to produce fully functional websites and applications.
Graduates of this program will have compiled a professional portfolio that showcases their unique website designs and will be prepared to compete for web design jobs such as HTML and Java Scripter, web page designer, website architecture developer, and web applications programmer.
- Create fully functional websites.
- Use creative solutions to web design problems.
- Produce an effective web design solution with the appropriate materials, tools, techniques and concepts.
- Create digital graphics and illustrations.
- Communicate ideas using colour.
- Process digital images using appropriate software.
- Determine the appropriate media based on project requirements.
- Optimize the readability of typography.
- Assess photographic images on quality and effectiveness.
- Produce user-centered interfaces.
- Produce functional web-based applications.
- Produce graphic high-resolution documents.
- Produce and edit audio and video content for publication in various formats.
- Write web-based interactive applications that draw content from databases.
- Use a variety of server side and client side scripting languages.
Program Courses
The program outline below is for British Columbia.
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- This course is an introductory level drawing course designed to have the students learn and apply the fundamental concepts of drawing. Students will experiment with the use of basic shapes and techniques in drawing simple objects comprised of lines, shapes, forms and shading patterns. This course will cover the notions of perspective, scale, and proportions, and their role in the production of realistic looking drawings. Students will also gain an understanding of light source placement and shadow casting and how these translate into a final drawing. Students will be able to practice the various techniques learned throughout the course by creating progressively more complex drawings and art work.
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- This course introduces the students to the industry standard bit-mapped image-editing software, Adobe Photoshop. The main objective of this course is to teach the student to create, manipulate, manage, re-purpose, and produce digital images. This is a ‘hands-on’ course. The student will learn the fundamentals of design, as well as advanced features in the preparation of files for web and print. Upon course completion, the student will be able to create and enhance multilayered image files. They will also learn how to apply special effects to original and composite images.
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- The purpose of this course is to introduce the students to the fundamental principles of design and color theory. Students will be introduced to the principle concepts of design such as layout, composition, and balance as well as the theories of color and how to use color creatively. These concepts will be presented in theory as well as reinforced through specific practical exercises and activities that will serve to demonstrate how each of the concepts is integrated into good design.
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| WD04 |
Web Development and Design I |
48 |
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- The course introduces students to a rapid prototype and web site authoring tool, allowing them to quickly produce interactive web pages and sites, while introducing them to the fundamental principles of web site design and structure. Students will learn to develop a web site using Adobe Dreamweaver. The emphasis of this first course is to use the features and tools of the authoring software to build and experiment with site architecture, structure, and content.
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- This course presents Illustrator as an industry standard tool for the production of professional quality vector-based technical, poster, and page layout production, mapping, illustrating from photographic reference, and colorizing bitmapped images. Students will not only learn how to create precise, organized and professional illustrations that will meet the demands and standards of art directors and advertising agencies, but they will also learn to express their creativity in design by using the advanced distortion, blends, fills masks and effects tools offered by the software. Students will understand how the production of graphics ties in within the overall design process.
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| WD06 |
Human Computer Interaction - User Centered Design |
48 |
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- This course is designed to introduce and explore fundamentals of user centered interface design. Students will learn about the issues of human computer interactions and how the development of high quality interfaces for interactive systems can address basic human computer design problems. This course will examine the guidelines, theories and principles of user centered interface design. Students will explore the different interaction styles and how they lead to design concepts to support those styles. Finally, students will explore some of the issues related to interface design.
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- In this course, students will learn to work with the advanced functions of digital imaging software to produce graphics and textures that can then be used in a variety of design processes and output formats. Students will learn to advanced work with layers, slices, rollovers and other features to produce quality images for print production or web display.
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| WD08 |
Interactive Media I - Flash |
48 |
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- This course introduces students to the production of interactive digital media projects. Students will learn how to design an animated prototype using interactive digital software. Most computer programs combine a certain degree of animation with static graphics and images. Interactivity between the user and the program is a mainstay. This interactivity combines animation, audio, video, and the ability for the user to respond to the program using a variety of input methods. This type of program is used in the game industry, education, simulators; computer based training and other applications. Students will learn how to import images and other vector-based artwork, create animated buttons and graphics, control and manage movie clips, and import audio files. Emphasis will be placed on design and optimization of files for deployment on the Web.
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- This course focuses on the basic principles of typography and its place and importance in graphic design. Students will learn how typography evolved from its earliest days in the form of basic symbols and forms to the present day sophisticated fonts and letterforms. Students will learn the fundamentals of working with type. Students will discover the building blocks of type, the typographic measurement units, and typefaces both classical and modern fonts. The course will integrate working with type in both a manual and a computerized context.
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| WD10 |
Web Information Design |
48 |
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- This course introduces and explores fundamentals of information presentation and design applicable to web sites. Students will learn how to organize, layout and present information on web sites. Building upon user centered design principles already introduced, students will learn how to present information in a manner that is typical for different types of web sites including personal sites, corporate sites and e-commerce sites. The course will then explore the typical layouts and features of a variety of different genres of web sites.
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| WD11 |
Programming Essentials |
48 |
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- This course is designed to introduce and explore fundamental software programming concepts and problem solving processes. Students will learn how to design, construct, and test general computer applications using structured programming techniques. Emphasis is on establishing a solid understanding of current programming practices and methodologies.
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| WD12 |
Digital Photography |
48 |
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- This course introduces students to the fundamentals of digital photography. Students will learn how to set up the camera and learn common program modes. Students will learn how to manage parameters such as composition, lighting, and exposure. The course will cover different lenses and focal lengths. The course will discuss the download and transfer of photos and organizing photos. Students will learn how to fine-tune and edit photos with Photoshop Elements.
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| WD13 |
Interactive Media II - Advanced Flash |
48 |
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- In this course students will build upon the skills learned in Interactive Media I and create engaging interactive content with Action Script 3.0 for Flash CS4. Students will learn the fundamentals of adding interactivity to Flash files using Action Script via the Actions panel, as well as in external Action Script files. The course covers the creation of simple navigation and timeline control and progresses through controlling animation with Action Script code; using Event Listeners and writing event-handling functions; and controlling loading of and interaction with data, text, video, sound, and images.
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| WD14 |
Applying Audio /Video Techniques |
48 |
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- This course is an introduction to video and audio editing using Adobe software, Premiere, Soundbooth, Encore, and After Effects. The concepts of non-linear digital editing are applied to the editing of video and audio files in a number of source formats, leading to the final editing of media for inclusion in web-based, Flash, CD and DVD formats.
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| WD15 |
Web Development and Design II |
48 |
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- This course is the foundation of all studies for web based products and applications, introducing students to principal concepts used in web development. Having already learned to create web pages using dedicated authoring tools, in this course, emphasis is placed on mastering XHTML and CSS. Students will produce well-formed, hand-coded web pages, which will strengthen their knowledge of web design, production, and delivery.
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| WD16 |
Database Essentials |
48 |
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- Relational databases are often the foundation behind organizations’ key applications and ecommerce sites. Consequently, you can greatly enhance your portfolio of skills by being able to design well-formed databases and knowing how to “speak” a universal database language. To prepare you for today’s work environment, this course will provide in depth instruction on relational database design strategies as well as fundamental Structured Query Language (SQL) syntax. This course will teach you to design, create, and maintain a relational database.
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| WD17 |
Scripting Languages I |
48 |
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- This course introduces the student to the fundamentals of JavaScript. Students will learn how to write proper JavaScript code both in form and in function. The course will focus on the syntax of JavaScript and how to code the various control statements and functions. Students will learn to use arrays to store and access data and use the built in JavaScript objects and events to produce robust and highly dynamic web sites.
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| WD18 |
XML Web Technologies |
48 |
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- This course is designed to introduce and explore fundamental XML programming concepts and problem solving processes. Students will learn how to design, construct, and test general computer applications using structural programming techniques. Emphasis is on establishing a solid understanding of current programming practices and methodologies as they relate to common business applications.
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| WD19 |
Web Site Development - Total Site |
48 |
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- In this course students will create the design documentation and functional specifications for three websites by using the features and tools presented thus far in the program, starting with functional planning of the site, designing the interaction and interface, defining and creating the visual assets, building the CSS templates, coding requirements and sourcing content. This course emphasizes the application of theory, tools, and techniques in website development and delivery.
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| WD20 |
Integration Project |
48 |
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- This course is designed to allow the student to produce three different types of web sites. Students will be able to apply design and layout principles adapted to the different types of sites and target audiences. Students will use the various tools, features, and scripting languages to design and build three fully functional web sites that meet the specified requirements for personal, corporate, and E-commerce web sites. This course emphasizes the proper design and function of the content of the web sites.
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| WD21 |
Portfolio Production |
96 |
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- This course is aimed at preparing the students’ transition to the professional world. The focus of this course is to prepare students for job interviews by helping them compile and defend their portfolio. The portfolio will contain pieces produced by the students that demonstrate their skills in web design and development. All portfolio components will demonstrate the student’s mastery of the programs core competencies while highlighting the uniqueness of their work. Selected pieces will reflect a standard of quality evidenced by additional time spent polishing applied skills. Students will be required to complete their presentation website and marketing collateral. Students will be required to explain and defend the presentation structure of their portfolio and individual pieces to a panel of their peers and industry.
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| WD22 |
Server Side Technologies |
48 |
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- Client and server-side scripting is a key ingredient in the production of efficient and dynamic Web sites. This course will integrate core programming and database skills with Internet architecture basics, so websites that display dynamic content, retrieve and manipulate form data, connect to and maintain a relational database, and personalize web content. Students will learn the techniques using PHP and MySQL, which can be used on a Windows or Linux platform.
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| WD23 |
Scripting Languages II |
48 |
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- This course continues the exploration of the current client and server side scripting languages used in web development. By this point, students will have had the opportunity to use JavaScript and PHP for much of their work. In this course, students will explore a variety of other scripting languages and technologies including AJAX, ASP, JSP, JSF, Ruby on Rails and Java Web services. Students will apply the various technologies to a variety of web applications.
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- This course looks at the standard marketing strategies and principles applied to a web environment. Students will look at how marketing strategies and principles can be used to leverage the possibilities offered by web sites to attract and keep customer, generate inquiries and business and revenues. In addition to the standard web and e-Commerce sites, this course will also look at the use of the social network sites as a means of marketing.