The following is an alternate curriculum for Communication Design majors, informed by my team-teaching CST 251 last semester and continuing contact with the students from that course. I have been working professionally in web development since 1997, and have many contacts in professional web development and design firms, and have asked others to review and give feedback on this curriculum before sharing it.
There are two things missing from this curriculum that most CSUMB majors have: major proseminar and concentrations/emphasis. Major proseminars are unneeded apologetics for a terribly designed curriculum. Concentrations are flimsy structures that are at best FTE padding for a department, and at worst the underpinnings of one or two faculty creating a fealty of students. Concentrations dilute course offerings, bloat major units, increase time to graduation, and fracture the already small community of students in a major. Concentrations don't go on your diploma. No one cares about concentrations. Emphasis are just concentrations for programs that didn't get their paperwork in on time.
All the print stuff is also gone. You can cover more print if desired via more electives, but if you are doing design at all today, you are probably doing it for the web with print on the side. The market for designers is web, and it's far better to give students the skills to be great web designers that they can transition to print if needed, than locking them into the incredibly crowded print world with no exit. Teaching someone to be a print-only designer is like insisting that cinematic arts students learn to develop film.
Below is a list of courses that would be required for the program, followed by a collection of electives:
How to be a good designer outside of the actual designing part.
###Computing skills It's like tech tools, oops, did I say that?
###Project management Covering a variety of different project management skills and practices. This can be a 2 unit lab.
Every students needs to understand the fundaemntals of the web, and these courses cover HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a fashion that is still applicable to print students (who will invariably be working with the web as well).
###Structure A pure HTML course, users will learn about all the elements, DOM, urls, resources, and how to use and debug with the browser. No Dreamweaver.
###Style Covers CSS, selectors, styles, pseudo-selectors, load order and selectivity. Requires co/prerequisite with Structure.
###Interaction Teaching JavaScript as an intro to programming course, covers basic programming as well as common JavaScript libraries and frameworks. Requires structure & style as prerequisites.
Separating theory from tools helps give students a sturdy foundation for being creative individuals.
###Design theory I Basics of design and design concepts. Uses paper! Paint! Mylar!
###Design theory II More design theory. Typography?
###User experience Theory and methods of user experience and interface design.
Stuff like Photoshop and Illustrator.
###Raster How to take, handle, and manage photographs and raster image manipulation. Ok, Photoshop.
###Vector Handling vector graphics. Illustrator.
Covers a single open-source project, probably a CMS. Students are required to participate in that open source community so they see how professionals do their work and manage projects.
###Web tools I Introduction to the web tool used by the program.
###Web tools II Intermediate & advanced topics.
Similar to the current capstone.
Electives are where students can differentiate and focus their experience. With the exception of prerequisites, there should be no specific structure to group these together.
- Advanced JavaScript I & II - Useful for people going into frontend work.
- More theory courses - For people who really love to read about Bauhaus.
- CSS Frameworks - Grids, bootstraps, how to get more done faster.
- Print production - For those who hate trees.
- User experience - Advanced testing techniques, analytics, card sorts.
- Information architecture - How to work with content.
- Content strategy - Working with content, how to write for the web.