A new session of each course opens each month, allowing you to enroll whenever your busy schedule permits!
How does it work? Once a session starts, two lessons will be released each week, for the six-week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends.
Keep in mind that the interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes 2 weeks after each lesson is released, so you’re encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The Final Exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the Final Exam has been released, you will have 2 weeks plus 10 days to complete the Final and finish any remaining lessons in your course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.
Week One
Lesson 01 - What Is Advanced Web Design?
Wednesday
If you want to take your web pages from okay to "wow," it's time to move up to Web 2.0. In this lesson, you'll explore the core elements of advanced web design: interaction, animation, and page design that's flexible and accessible to visitors on any device.
Lesson 02 - Creating Your First CSS Style Sheet
Friday
In this lesson, you'll enter the world of advanced web design by building your first CSS style sheet. When you're done, you'll link this style sheet to an HTML page and discover how you can instantly make changes to that page—or even to a thousand pages at the same time! In addition, you'll explore some key elements of web page design.
Week Two
Lesson 03 - Formatting Your Text
Wednesday
Your website text isn't just a collection of words—it's also a design element that can tell your visitors what you're all about! In this lesson, you'll find out how to specify the appearance of your text using your CSS style sheet. You'll learn about setting your font size, color, line spacing, alignment, background, borders, margins, and padding.
Lesson 04 - Designing and Formatting Links
Friday
Links are a key part of any web page, and there's more to designing them than you might think. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create links that suit the purpose of your site, the technological sophistication of your audience, and the image you want to portray. In addition, you'll analyze a controversial question when it comes to link design: to underline, or not to underline?
Week Three
Lesson 05 - Formatting Selected Text and Creating Content Boxes
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll expand your horizons by learning how to format selected page content. After that, you'll take a big step into advanced design by discovering how to use class styles to design content boxes. In the process, you'll learn all about two powerful web design tools: div tags and span tags.
Lesson 06 - Creating Containers, Headers, and Footers
Friday
Each web page is unique, but three elements are almost universal: a container, a header, and a footer. In this lesson, you'll build these three elements by combining a new tool—ID styles—with div tags. In addition, you'll find out how to embed div tags within containers.
Week Four
Lesson 07 - Adding Columns and Interactivity
Wednesday
In this lesson, you'll take your layout to a new level by adding columns to your web page. You'll discover how to place multiple columns on a page, how to pad your columns, and how to create an attractive column layout that's easy to read. In addition, you'll make your columns interactive!
Lesson 08 - Making Your Pages Look Great on Any Device
Friday
Do you use a mobile device to browse the web? More and more people do—and to keep them happy, you'll need to provide mobile-friendly content. But how can you do that, and still design a page that works on a big screen? This lesson will teach you how to create web pages that look different, but still great, on both full-sized monitors and mobile devices.
Week Five
Lesson 09 - Designing With HTML5
Wednesday
Web designers always need to be thinking about the future—and that future will include HTML5. In this lesson, you'll learn all about the advantages of this versatile markup language, and you'll add HTML5 elements to your own web page. In addition, you'll find out which environments currently support HTML5 and which ones don't.
Lesson 10 - Embedding Video in Your Web Pages
Friday
A great video can increase your website traffic, sell your products, or even make you a superstar. But here's the big issue you'll face as a web designer: Not all video formats work with all browsers. In this lesson, you'll learn how to overcome that problem as you master simple tricks for embedding videos that will play in any browsing environment.
Week Six
Lesson 11 - Creating Forms
Wednesday
What do you need to know about your website's visitors—their names, their email addresses, or maybe even how they rate your site? In this lesson, you'll find out how to collect information like this (and much more) by adding forms to your pages. In these chapters, you'll build your own form, add form fields, and define where your collected data will go.
Lesson 12 - Uploading and Fine-Tuning Your Pages
Friday
You've mastered it all—interactivity, animation, and accessibility—and you're ready to call yourself an advanced web designer. Now it's time to take the next step and reveal your site to the world. In this lesson, you'll learn how to upload your site to the web and how to check your spelling, links, accessibility, and browser compatibility. Here's the great news: You'll do it all for free!