Hazel Williams Bursary Winner - Report

Alison Bogle

Netskills Internet Training Workshops
“Creating Web Pages from Scratch” and “Enhancing your Web Pages”
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1st and 2nd July 2003

I was very pleased to be awarded the Hazel Williamson Bursary for 2003 and in early July I attended two Internet training workshops run by Netskills at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The first workshop was entitled “Web Pages from Scratch” and the second “Enhancing your Web Pages”. Both are run regularly by Netskills in various locations across the country.

The workshop on day one provided an introduction to creating web pages. It was attended by over 20 delegates from around the UK and led by two trainers. Having previously used html to write web pages, I found that much of the day was an extremely useful refresher course. I find that html is one of those things that if you are not using it constantly, you will soon forget it!

By the end of the workshop, we had created our own web pages, used html to add graphics and hyperlinks, incorporated lists and tables into our pages, created and used frames, and converted MS Office documents into html.

I found that one of the most useful and interesting parts of the day was the explanation of metadata and xhtml, and the discussion of html standards and validation of web documents, about which I had known very little previously.

The workshop on day two was a follow-up from the previous day although it was also a stand-alone workshop in its own right. There were only 10 delegates, but the day had a similar format with presentations and hands-on exercises. The morning session covered the use of cascading style sheets in website design and the development of forms and form processing on websites to capture user input.

In the afternoon, there was consideration of accessibility issues and how to make web pages accessible to the widest possible audience. I found this session particularly useful. Finally, we had some discussion of further web technologies and the opportunity to write some Java script. There was also an introduction to interactive and multimedia elements, such as Macromedia Flash.

Both workshops were an excellent mix of presentations, demonstrations and hands-on sessions. They were each supported with a workbook containing copies of the presentations, the workshop exercises and further resources. I suspect that my workbooks will be well thumbed over the next few months!

The IT training suite at the University has a lecture room, a computer suite and a coffee room. Both days were fairly intensive with a great deal of content, but there still seemed to be plenty of opportunity to move between the rooms, to ask questions and to meet other delegates. We were provided with a beautifully presented buffet lunch on both days and tea and coffee were available all day.

Netskills run these and several other workshops regularly, in Newcastle, Glasgow and elsewhere in the UK. For anyone interested in web design, I would thoroughly recommend them. To see their forthcoming workshop programme and for full details of the content of workshops, have a look at their website:

Alison Bogle
Health Management Library
SHSC
Edinburgh