In this course, you'll learn to make and maintain (maketain) effective websites. "Effective" means that sites:

• Meet visitor and owner goals
• Have a professional feel, or at least don't look terrible
• Are inexpensive to create and maintain

Why?

Various reasons. First, there's the Benjamins.

Web tech shows up in pretty much every area of business, as well as education, law, theater, music, journalism, IT... everywhere. You can help companies maintain their websites. They will pay you your very own Benjamins.

You can also start your own business. These days, the web is how many small companies hook up with customers.

You can make websites for groups or causes you care about. Your neighborhood association, animal shelter, drama group, whatevs. A website helps you organize.

You can make websites just for yourself. Show off your writing, or photography. Make a super resume site, so you can find a good job. Whatever you're into, that you want to share.

What you need

You need access to the internet, but you already have that, or you wouldn't be reading this. You need a computer, and some free software. You'll get links to the software later.

You'll also need a web hosting account, with your own domain. That's the only thing that will cost you money. About $30.

This website

This site is an open educational resource (OER), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Anyone can read the content. Anyone can reuse it, as well.

There are a couple of wrinkles, though. First, Kieran Mathieson created this site for a course at Oakland University. Students in that course have accounts created for them, and get grading services that Kieran pays for. If you're not in that course, contact Kieran (kieran at skilling.us) if you want to get grading services. Or if you have other questions about the course.

Second, the lessons on this site are not static web pages, or PDFs. They're active, with pauses, reflections, quizzes, and other things. The site uses Skilling, open-source software that helps people create and run skills courses. You can copy the pages to reuse the content, but to get the full benefit, you'll need to run the lessons in Skilling. Contact Kieran (kieran at skilling.us) if you're interested.

OK, let's get going.