Information Technology—Web Development

A Survey of Courses and Curricula in 134 Research Universities
Conducted in January 2005 by Pat Logan (http://www.uri.edu/cels/pls/logan.html)

This personal Web page is not an official University of Rhode Island Web page. See disclaimer

This is an appendix to a discussion of the status of web development curricula at research and land grant universities. It is drawn from a database of web information on "information technology—web development," gleaned from a search of 134 universities. It is online for purposes of discussion. The database consists of links to information about academic units offering programs related to web technologies (mostly dealing with databases and programming), with text that I hope captures some of the critical flavor of the unit. I also include links to specific courses and their descriptions, and in a few cases links to online position papers or studies that are relevant and interesting.

The source of this information is the websites of each university. This is not a complete or scientific survey. It is a personal inquiry, not supported by the University of Rhode Island or any funding agency. The informal approach is based on simple reasoning that if there exists a core web development curriculum, with an active (and web-savy) faculty, then a search for such basic terms as "web development," "web technology," or "asp.net" should produce some visible signs of this group. (If I can't find a curriculum using these search terms within the first 50-60 results from a University site, somebody isn't writing their pages correctly, or they are burying their curriculum in PDF listings (Syracuse, others)). I also look for departments of information studies / technologies, departments of computer science, etc., or units that may have relevant content (sometimes, extension divisions or affiliated adult / professional / night schools), and I scan these sites for evidence of web technology materials in courses. I repeat, this process is not intended to produce a complete or scientific review, but rather to produce a general snapshot of what's visible right now. I undoubtedly have missed some programs and many courses, and I am certain that I have failed to understand or fully appreciate the significance of major developments on at least a few leading-edge campuses. One of the values of compiling this sort of snapshot is that others may see it and take the trouble to point out its deficiencies so that it may be updated, corrected, or expanded. It does no one any good to find fault with what I've done here without letting me know about the error of my ways, so please help if you see an opportunity to do so.

—Pat Logan (mayfly@uri.edu)

<%Dim strSQL, rs_list, rs_univs strSQL = "SELECT * FROM tblUniversities U ORDER BY U.university" Set rs_univs = objConn.Execute(strSQL) ' Outer Loop Governs Universities Do While Not rs_univs.eof%>

"> <%=rs_univs("university")%> (<%=rs_univs("state")%>)

<% strSQL = "SELECT * FROM tblWDCenters C WHERE C.u_id = " & rs_univs("id") & " ORDER BY C.id" Set rs_list = objConn.Execute(strSQL) ' First Inner Loop Governs Web Centers within Each University Do While Not rs_list.eof%>

<%If Not (rs_list("image") = "") Then%>

" >

"><%=rs_list("caption")%>

<%End If%>

"><%=rs_list("unit")%>

<%=rs_list("prog_desc")%> <%Dim rs_courses,strSQL2 strSQL2 = "SELECT * FROM tblCourses S WHERE S.unit_ID = " & rs_list("ID") & " ORDER BY S.code" Set rs_courses = objConn.Execute(strSQL2) If Not rs_courses.eof Then%>

Courses:

<%End If Do While Not rs_courses.eof If Not (rs_courses("code") = "") Then%>

"><%=rs_courses("code")%>—<%=rs_courses("title")%> <%=rs_courses("desc")%>

<%End If rs_courses.MoveNext loop%> <%Set rs_courses = Nothing %>

<%Dim rs_refs,strSQL3 strSQL3 = "SELECT * FROM tblReferences R WHERE R.unit_ID = " & rs_list("ID") & " ORDER BY R.citation" Set rs_refs = objConn.Execute(strSQL3) If Not rs_refs.eof Then%>