Future students enrolling in Delaware Technical Community College’s web development program might be in for a treat.
Until now, the program was a little out of touch with the industry, its courses revolving more around computer programming and networking than development and design.
In December, the college decided it was time to bring the program up to speed with current trends. They added two new faces to their advisory committee — Bryan Cordrey and Nick Bumgarner, developers with Georgetown-based web development agency Inclind.
“The program just needs refocusing,” said Cordrey. “We have identified courses that could add more value to a web developer.”
“While we can’t change the program to be exactly what we would like, we’re suggesting which technologies and methodologies should be taught,” said Bumgarner.
One of those suggestions is to split the program into two separate tracks — one for front-end devs and one for backend. A front-end dev student in the new program might take courses in CSS preprocessors, Javascript and jQuery, and possibly basic UX design principles. Students studying backend development, on the other hand, would focus on Object Oriented Programming, advanced PHP and MySQL and CMS custom development.
“We are working to increase students’ exposure to languages that they are far more likely to see in the work world,” said Cordrey. “While students are learning the fundamentals, we’re proposing that they are utilizing modern programming languages.”
These are all suggestions. Cordrey and Bumgarner’s role on the advisory committee is to identify current trends and technologies in the industry. When it comes to packaging the actual curriculum — well, that’s up to Del Tech.
Considering Inclind has partnered with Del Tech in the past to recruit interns and revitalize southern Delaware’s tech scene, modernizing the web development program would ultimately be in the best interest of the college, the students, Inclind and southern Delaware as a whole.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
