Why I choose to Enroll in the Responsive Web Design Course
In January 2017 I decided to take the Responsive Web Design course to learn more concepts about interaction design. Responsive web design has become increasingly important now that audiences view websites on various devices. Responsive web design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and/or screen sizes. This course is the second in the Responsive Web Design specialization from the University of London. In the following review for the Responsive Web Design course, I will discuss thoughts and opinions on the course below.
Price & Length
In terms of cost, you have two options to choose from. The free option allows you to take the course without the benefit of a grade or credit. Coursera refers to this as Auditing. The paid option is $79 USD in which you get the chance to earn a certificate upon completing this course. As a result, you can add the certificate to your LinkedIn profile and use it to aid in your job search. The length of the Responsive Web Design course is four weeks.
Workload
I thought the workload for the Responsive Web Design course was manageable. During the four week course, you can expect quizzes, assignments, and peer-reviewed projects. There are four quizzes in total from the four-week long course. There are two projects and two peer-reviewed projects. Each of the video lectures last under ten minutes. On average there are between ten to twenty videos each week.
What You Get
I found the Responsive Web Design course beneficial in terms of providing hands-on project experience. There are two potential projects that you can add to your portfolio. The first project is to design a website using the responsive framework called Bootstrap. Bootstrap is an open source front-end framework. It is helpful for faster web development and to create quicker responsive web designs. The second project is an image gallery using javascript to dynamically display images.
What You Won’t Get
I felt that the projects could have been more intensive. A week to complete a project feels short in my opinion. I think more priority should have been put into the projects in this course rather than quizzes. Since the course is four weeks long, the class moves at a fast pace. I would have thought it would have been useful to dive into the subject of templates more thoroughly.
Final Thoughts on Responsive Web Design Course
In conclusion, I think any web designer would benefit from taking the Responsive Web Design course.