Hey! This is my first attempt at crowdsourcing on my blog, but I need help from you guys and gals. Here’s the skinny:
I’m teaching a basic web design class this fall semester. Supposedly most of the students won’t know anything about XHTML, CSS, divs, javascript, headers… anything. But I know some of them will. I don’t want to start the class out too slowly, so the very first thing I’m having them do is take an assessment for me to gauge what they know and don’t know.
But I need help with questions. Will you help me out? If I can get 10 people to leave a question about web design in the comments, I will be a very happy camper. If more than 10 do this, I’ll be ecstatic.
Questions should be relatively basic (probably not getting too detailed into browser-specific hacks or JS logic), and can concern HTML, XHTML, CSS, tags, elements, floats, images and even go into things like RSS, PHP (well, server-side scripting) and basic JS.
So what do you say? Help!!!
to get a feel for whether or not those who do have some web knowledge keep up to date:
What are the newest versions of HTML and CSS?
I’d do something as simple as giving a simple set of HTML code, then multiple choice screen shots of how it would actually display in a browser. Make them choose which is correct.
what is W3?
I always found that making someone explain the difference between static, fixed, absolute, and relative positioning separates the men from the boys pretty well. You will also want some really BASIC questions – what’s a character entity, and when is one needed? Is a div a block-level or inline element? Maybe some really conceptual questions too, like T/F: structure and presentation should be separated, that kind of thing.
also, you could see if Deloy still has some of his actual tests. they were pretty simple… though the students typically didn’t do well.
What does CSS stand for? Students knowing the acronym may help them understand the full purpose of CSS.
There is millions of questions possible for the test. Taking into consideration the nature of the test, a good idea would be to end it with an open question.
For example: In your opinion, what are the fundamentals of a good website design.
It will allow you to know your students a little more and start a subject of discussion. I find that teachers are often mute on a first class.
I’d recommend showing some text that includes a heading, bulleted list and a paragraph and ask them to write the HTML. Some may include everything needed for an HTML document, while others may at least know what a paragraph and heading tag is from playing with blogs, etc. Step two could ask them to write CSS for changing the background color, font color and a few other basic things. Since this would be an open-ended question, maybe place it at the bottom of the assessment and present it as “bonus,” so it doesn’t intimidate student that know nothing.
What is the difference between a static and dynamic page? Is there anything you need to create a website other than a text editor? Define SEO. Just some suggestions….
How many internets are there?
A bit late to the game here, and your class has already gone I think so this may not be any use, but if I was in your shoes, I would do two or three classes on the basics of HTML and CSS, what they are, history, basic functions, and then I would give them a simple layout to go, say, fixed width, one header div with some elements within, two columns for the content, and then a footer div in the same nature as the header.
After that stage you will be able to gage exactly who will do well and who won’t, who will take to it quickly or has some previous knowledge, and who won’t.
It may be a bit boring for people who already know what they’re doing, but if you do those introductory lectures correctly then they should still learn something, even if its just a bit of CSS history!