A stable online presence is a key ingredient in the success of any small business in today’s world, yet the high costs associated with designing, developing and maintaining a website can be a significant barrier for many small business owners. A new micro-credential program at Vancouver Island University aims to bridge that gap by giving small business owners and their staff members basic website design skills.
Over four weeks, you will design and launch your own website, learn how to maintain it, and ensure it is visible and searchable by others. Lab hours take place on evenings, and the course includes online lessons to review on your own time.
Registration
Register for Web Design for Small Business Owners. Once you have added the course to your cart, proceed to checkout. Select “I have never taken a course at Vancouver Island University” if you do not have a student account to create one, then the payment window will pop up.
For more information, review the frequently asked questions below or email Luis.Meneses@viu.ca.
The program runs from September 14 to October 5, 2023.
Frequently Asked Questions
A micro-credential is a short program or course that can help you develop new skills that can help advance you in the workplace or in your job search. With micro-credentials, you can stack smaller courses to build larger ones, while only committing to bite-size pieces. Micro-credentials are competency-based, meaning they’ll guide you through developing and demonstrating important skills, rather than being focused on tests and exams. They’re designed to include hands-on learning with lots of feedback.
In this course you will create and launch a basic website. It is tailored for a small business or a non-profit that doesn’t have any presence on the web and may not have the resources to hire someone to create and maintain a website.
This course is designed to eventually ladder into two different VIU credit courses: CSCI 115 and ITAS 191, which in turn ladder into the Computer Science Diploma as well as two different Information Technology and Applied Systems diplomas: Web and Mobile Development and Systems Administration and Networking.
Gain basic competency in core web technologies:
- HTML: learn to structure and add images to your pages
- CSS: learn to create a consistent style that reflects your company
- SFTP: learn how to make your site visible on the web
Over four weeks, you will learn the different elements of a website, including:
- basic structure and content
- images and styles
- upload your website to a server
- Watch and learn using videos on your own time.
- Use current tools and technologies to build your site
- Apply what you learn each week in one of VIU’s computer labs
- Get weekly feedback from your instructor
Each week in the hands-on lab, you will build a stage of your website. During the lab your instructor will:
- Review your work and provide helpful feedback
- Link what was covered in the tutorial videos with skills you’re practicing
- Help you troubleshoot common problems
- Provide tips and suggestions
By the end of this micro-credential, you will have created a simple website that can be accessed by customers or clients. We will provide recommendations of hosting plans that you can use to deploy your website after the course.
This course will run over four weeks. Each week will include video lessons you can watch (and rewatch) to prepare the lab, and to review afterwards if you wish. Each week will have about 30-60 minutes of videos. On Tuesday evenings, you’ll have two (2) hours of hands-on time to put what you’ve learned into practice and get feedback from your instructor.