I have been asked to teach web design next spring semester online at my local community college. As far as I can see, most schools teach Dreamweaver CS5, but the cost of that software and a text are excessive for most students in this rural area.

Has anyone used Coffee Cup as the WYSIWYG Editor for a college level course? If so, would you be prepared to share course outlines, and especially what you used for a text? I have been using coffee cup for several years in my small web design business, but frankly don't have the time to create a program from scratch.

Thanks,

Brian

In general this is how web design works on the educational level:

Most instructors require all coding to be done from scratch and they oftentimes don't allow students to use html editors. The exception of course being when you have to teach a class on applications like an html editor. I would use CC html editor. The reason is that the other major editors have a WYSIWYG interface attached, and you dont want that when teaching students. CC does not have that function on their editor. In fact, you can use their templates both CSS and full to teach from. Show them one of their templates and go through step by step on how it was created.

There are a lot of good text's you could use, but it depends on what area you will be teaching. Are you teaching coding or design principles?

Feel free to email me, we can talk further about this in a quicker fashion.

ericenglish@innovatewebdevelopment.com

CC also has school priceing if I remember correctly

Speaking from experience, I tell you this. It would better serve your students if you were to approach Adobe for an educational discount. Your students will be more marketable to potential employers if they can demonstrate a working knowledge of the leading industry tools such as Adobe.

CoffeeCup software is great for the average person wanting to easily build a website, or even the part time free-lancer. To secure a job as a developer, you must be proficient in both the languages and the editors invested in by the employer.

This is the exception! I am also teaching WEB 210 which is pure HTML, XHTML, CSS and some Javascript and is all hand coding. No problems with that one.

The other class, that I am teaching is WEB 140 which is specifically using web development software suites. Hence the predominance of Dreamweaver. I recognize the value of using Dreamweaver as the software suite and its potential for a better resume. However, with text and software the total is around $230.00 plus course fees. This is a rural NC state with lots of unemployment and most students on some form of financial aid, so I was looking for a solution that was a lower cost option.

I have to say that the university course I did avoided the big names, and got us using the free WYSIWYG and html applications offered by Open Source (NVU and HTML Kit). I got special permission to use the CC Editor as I already knew it pretty well. I think you will be perfectly ok with the Editor and once the kids know how to code they should be able to turn to almost anything.

Well, in that case, perhaps CoffeeCup can offer your school and students an educational discount. If a deal there doesn't go as planed. Try HTML-Kit. It is free, has many plugins, and has professional written all over it. Good Luck to you and your students.

Janys, do you think Dreamweaver is easily mastered because one knows html and css? I think not. That is the primary reason folks who don't need the bells and whistles look to simpler alternatives like CoffeeCup and Notepad++.

I have used most of the major editors and the top two that employers will want their employees to know are Dreamweaver and Expression Web. You might consider using expression web, its much cheaper than Dreamweaver and has more features. The only thing dreamweaver has the ability to do is to incorporate flash into their editor. However, dreamweaver is easier to use than Expression as well. Both have the joined interface of code and WYSIWYG.

I don't know how you come to that conclusion but I'd say that if you were to hop over to a developer forum, many folks would say you are wrong on all accounts.