Bridge with reflection in water

Courses Description

The following is a list of 10 courses (not all) that I have taken to complete my ATA in Web Application and Cloud Development at Edmonds Community College.

Course List

CIS 234 - Systems Design and Development

Course Description: Provides hands-on experience in systems design and implementation using a prototype approach. The case study is designed and tested using application development software. User manuals are written.

Course Experience: This course is currently one of my favorite courses. It is a continuation of the Systems Analysis class which I didn't enjoy near as much. I really love getting in the mix and actually creating user interfaces and system design mockups, I see this being an important part of any upcoming career opportunites.

CIS 241 - Web Development I

Course Description: Website development using HTML5, approached from a source code perspective. Covers tags, forms, linked objects, CSS3, frames, tables, and introduction to the use of scripting. Students build multi-page websites using Git and GitHub.

Course Experience: Web development I was great. I got a refresher on the basics of HTML and CSS. This really helped prepare me for what was to come over the next few quarters.

CIS 242 - Web Development II: JavaScript and jQuery

Course Description: Students will explore the topics of embedding, inline and external scripts, functions, form validation, loops, conditional statements, strings, numbers, DHTML, and an introduction to JavaScript Frameworks. Introduction to creating Node.js websites. Students build multi-page websites using these technologies.

Course Experience: Web development II was difficult. Although it was one of the tougher courses in the whole program, I really enjoyed working with and creating files that functioned with javascript.

CIS 244 - Web Development IV: Intro to Joomla! and SEO

Course Description: Students will learn to work with open-source content management systems (CMSs) and search engine optimization (SEO). Topics include Joomla!, installation of Joomla!, creating and updating content, and SEO concepts and techniques. Students will apply these topics while building multi-page websites.

Course Experience: Web development IV was fun. It was cool learning about Joomla! as a content managmement system instead of the usual that is Wordpress. I wish more people were on board with Joomla! so that the plugins and templates and widgets could be on par or surpass those in Wordpress. I also learned the importance of SEO and how to impart and enhance any site that I create with it.

CIS 245 - Web Development V: Introduction to CSS

Course Description: Students will learn the details required to combine CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) with HTML, XHTML, or XML to create rich, powerful websites. Topics include: selectors, cascade and inheritance, text and font manipulation, layout, and positioning; SASS (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) and LESS (Leaner CSS) style sheet languages.

Course Experience: Web development V was one of my all time favorite courses. I have always been partial to CSS. Although it was frustrating at many times, I really enjoyed learning all the ins and outs of what it takes to make even simple web pages look nice and readable.

ART 225 - Introduction to Graphic Design

Course Description: Introduction to graphic design and Adobe InDesign for creating effective layouts for print and web.

Course Experience: I have always been good at are related things (web design included), so it was cool to have a break from all the coding/programming aspects of my degree. I got the gist of inDesign and put together what I thought was a pretty cool portfolio for my final project.

ART 226 - Intermediate Graphic Design

Course Description: Advance graphic design that incorporates the production process for the research and development of an individual project.

Course Experience: ART 226 was a bit more challenging than ART 225. A lot of time had to go in to the development and planning of what would be an ad campaign against distracted drivers. I did however enjoy this course as well and had a great time over the summer creating my "emoji" ad-campaign.

CIS 250 - Database Theory and Design

Course Description: Designed to recognize data as a business resource. Database models are discussed from both a developer’s and a user’s viewpoint. Topics include: conceptual and logical models, and data normalization through case studies.

Course Experience: During this course I had a realization that I might just enjoy SQL and database design more than actual web development. I learned what it takes to make a viable database for large scale use in a business or personal environment.

CIS 251 - Structured Query Language (SQL)

Course Description: Covers topics in Structure Query Language (SQL) including statements such as select, update, insert, delete, and create. Emphasis on the ability to extract, update, and maintain databases using SQL.

Course Experience: In this course I really got in to the depths of database creation and querying. Being able to create and query databases with a few simple lines of code felt so empowering. Again, this goes hand in hand with CIS 250 and I couldn't have enjoyed it anymore than I did.

CIS 253 - Application and Cloud Development Tools

Course Description: An introduction to application development using MS-Access and WordPress, Drupal, Odoo, SugarCRM, Magento Web frameworks. Includes development of tables, forms, queries, reports, macros, and menus needed to support the application. Includes application development in the Cloud platforms, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Course Experience: In this course I learned a lot about something I had no prior knowledge of. Development stacks and customer relationship managers. I had plenty of use with CMS' over the years but I never dug in to what it would take to make them "commercial." Learning how to setup online stores and CRMs to manage customers and inventory was really great.