Web Development Should Be a Third Level Degree

I’m a college drop out. This is not something I’m particularly proud of, but it is a fact of my educational life and something that hung over me like the proverbial Damoclean sword for some time post-college; it caused problems where none existed, robbed me of some self confidence and continues to affect me to this day. Although I’d like to think that it has become a driving force in my desire to succeed (and prove that I am entirely capable of doing what I love without the degree) I have no illusions about the profound effect those years had on me.

My dropping out is a fairly straight forward story and isn’t what this post is about, but it provides background for my opinion.
I started Computer Applications in DCU with a determination to learn how to program. In this, I feel I was very successful, my instruction in Java and Assembly quickly enabled me to learn the fundamental concepts of programming. Within a few months and with the resources and peers afforded to me by Redbrick, the college networking society, I was delving into PHP and MySQL. When summer rolled around, I spent all the free time I had writing my first content management system in a sort of one-upmanship coding duel with a classmate. This was the root of where I disconnected from college. In first year, I had great interest in the woefully underemphasized HCI option. I had also been looking forward to the web design element of the course, which turned out to be a walkthrough of mid ninties design, FONT tags and all. By second year, I was being instructed in Java “Netbeans” which bored me to tears, and the increasing emphasis on maths paper exams eventually drove me away from the course entirely. I had also started earning money at this stage working as technical support for BT Ireland, and having used my familiarity with PHP, MySQL and Debian to secure myself a partial development role, decided just to skip straight into doing what I enjoyed.

For me, DCU’s Computer Applications Information Systems stream became an obstacle course. I knew what I wanted to do and it eventually became an inhibitor. I learned how to program and then hit the ground running. I have great admiration for my contemporaries who successfully completed the course. Even as I complain about this course, it was character building. Without the rigorous and challenging first year of the course, complemented by my seniors in Redbrick I would not be doing what I am today. While my classmates who graduated are now software engineers,  it would obviously be presumptuous of me to follow suit

There is no course in Ireland that I have found which caters to my interests, interests that are obviously shared with many others. I think there is room for a much more focused, web-orientated bachelors degree in modern universities. Any course that attempts to veer from pure computer science appears to become a weak business I.T. course. I believe that it’s important to prepare students for the Internet age that becomes ever more entwined in our lives.

In much the same way that the modern Information Systems student is not expected to be able to write a compiler or build a computer from first principles ( although I personally think both are pretty sweet ) I think computing education should be allowed move to the next layer.

There’s room for broad computer science courses, engineering courses and many others.

I propose a BSc. in Web Development and Design.

What would such a course contain? As far as I’m concerned the content of such a course nearly writes itself. In fact, I imagine trying to fit design and development into one course may even be too much. A rough outline for such a course might look like the following:

Year 1

• Presentation Technologies (HTML/CSS/Javascript/Flash)
• Web Programming (PHP/Ruby/Perl/Python)
• Server Scripting and Maintenance (Shell scripting, package management systems, middleware configuration, logging)
• SQL for Web Applications (MySQL/PostgreSQL)
• Interface Design 1
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Documentation

Year 2

• Scaling – (Caching, optimizing queries, reducing code overhead, database design, OS customization)
• Application Frameworks (intro to Ruby on Rails, Code Igniter, Django)
• Interface Design 2
• Data Portability (XML-RPC, JSON, FOAF, SIOC, Designing an API)
• Mobile Technologies

Year 3

• Advanced Scaling (Designing for Distributed/Cloud systems, failover, CDNs)
• Building an Application Framework
• Building Scaling Technologies
• Building Desktop Internet Applications
• Starting a Business

Year 4

• Project: “Killer App”?

The person who comes out of this course is not going to have a place in the I.T. department looking after the company’s Microsoft Office installations and Anti Virus updates.

Obviously this particular format I’ve chosen makes certain assumptions about the potential student, it’s also quite messy, but the concept should still be visible. A course like this is going to need to keep abreast of current technologies, and can’t be too flavour-of-the-monthy as some of the hypothetical courses I’ve listed are. I know that there is great investment of thought going into planning the future of the web. Some of these people are in DERI, amongst myriad other places.

What I’m getting at here is that there is way more going on behind the scenes than a lot of people are aware of. Attend some of the more academic brainstorming sessions and you’ll find yourself facing technologies and concepts you may never have heard of or even imagined, but a year or two or three down the road are the “Big Thing“.

I’d welcome the thoughts of my seniors and contemporaries on this though (I have a tendency to take a thought and run with it).