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A timeless, living curriculum

A diverse, passionate, international group of educators and industry professionals worked together to develop the WaSP InterACT curriculum framework to be an open and living curriculum that serve as a guide to the best practices and skills/technologies utilized by professional web designers in their work.

We have provided this because we know how difficult it is — as a full-time educator — to remain current in this rapidly-changing field. We want to assist those who are educating the next generation of web professionals.

Expect the curriculum framework to change over time to keep up with the fast paced Web industry while maintaining a strong grounding in the core principles of our craft. As well as doing updates ourselves, we consider your future contributions important as well. If you have written activities, assignments, modules, rubrics, etc., let us know! We'd love to consider including them in our framework. With your participation and support the WaSP InterACT curriculum framework will truly b.come an open, living, curriculum.

Intended to Inspire You

There is no single "right" curriculum or "correct" way to teach any aspect of web design and development — feel free to adopt and adapt the materials in this framework to suit your students and your program's learning objectives. The WaSP InterACT curriculum framework is not intended to be prescriptive. Rather, it’s intended to be inspiring and provide a reference point from which to develop and maintain your courses and programs, as well as saving you a lot of time by providing ready-to-use rubrics, assignment, etc. As you review the framework, keep an open mind and have fun exploring all the resources provided.

Working with Prerequisites

Some courses list one or more prerequisite courses. You may feel that you do not have space in your program for multiple new courses, but be creative — you might decide to include selected topics from the prerequisite courses in your new course and/or rework one or more of your current courses to include prerequisite topics needed.

Framework Organization and Resources

The courses in the WaSP InterACT curriculum framework are.organized according to specialization tracks:

Each track contains one to five levels (100, 200, 300, 400, and 500) — these should help you identify courses that are most applicable to your student's needs. The 100 and 200 level course materials should be useful for two-year community/technical college and undergraduate study. Those teaching at the university or graduate level may also want to dig deeper into the 300, 400, and 500 level course materials.

Note: we certainly don't expect every single course to be adopted for use in a single program — the framework is intended to inspire rather than prescribe, and you can choose to use as much or as little as you like. While you may choose to adopt an entire course in the framework, it’s more likely that you’ll be adapting framework materials for inclusion into your existing courses. You are probably already offering either web design courses or a web design degree program. If so, note which of your current courses seem similar to those in the framework. Consider comparing the course learning outcomes (or learning objectives) to the course competencies listed in the WaSP InterACT curriculum framework. This may serve as a workable starting point for updating a single course in your program.

Other provided resources are as follows:

  • Assignment Topics and Learning Competencies
    As you review included courses similar to your institution’s courses, determine if there are topics or competencies that may be useful for your program. You’ll find assignments with rubrics related to each competency. Review these for potential use in your courses.

  • Learning Modules
    Some courses also include learning modules that can be used either online or in the classroom. Consider adapting these materials to best meet the needs of your students.

  • Reference Sections
    Most courses include book, article, and/or web site recommendations that you may find useful either as required or supplemental resources.