About this course: The web today is almost unrecognizable from the early days of white pages with lists of blue links. Now, sites are designed with complex layouts, unique fonts, and customized color schemes. This course will show you the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3). The emphasis will be on learning how to write CSS rules, how to test code, and how to establish good programming habits. When done correctly, the styling of a webpage can take enhance your page. When done incorrectly the result can be worse than no styling at all. To ensure that your sites do not put up barriers for people with cognitive and/or physical disabilities, you will learn how to evaluate pages using the standardized POUR accessibility guidelines. Upon completion of the course, learners will be able to sketch a design for a given HTML page. Using that design they will use CSS to implement the design by adding fonts, colors, and layouts. This is the second course in the Web Design For Everybody specialization. Subsequent courses focus on adding interaction with JavaScript and enhancing the styling with responsive design. It will be difficult to complete this course if you do not have access to a laptop or desktop computer for the homework.

Created by: University of Michigan

Taught by: Colleen van Lent, Ph.D., Lecturer
School of Information

Basic Info	Course 2 of 5 in the Web Design for Everybody (Basics of Web Development and Coding) Specialization
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.8 stars Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Week One: Getting Started with Simple Styling

Welcome to Introduction to CSS3! In this course you will learn how to style your pages by taking advantage of the power of CSS3. We will focus on both proper syntax (how to write your styling rules) and the importance of accessibility design (making sure that your style enhances your site, not make it harder to navigate). It is so important that you jump in ready to make mistakes and typos in this course. The only way you will really understand the material is to practice typing it in on your own as often as possible.

8 videos, 8 readings

Reading: Syllabus
Video: 01.01 Course Welcome
Reading: Resources
Reading: Help us learn more about you!
Reading: Building Your First Web Page
Video: 01-02 Cascading Style Sheets
Video: 01-03 Colors
Video: 01-04 Styling Your Text
Reading: Early coding
Video: 01-05 Code Together
Video: 01-06a Display and Visibility - Part 1
Video: 01-06b Display and Visibility - Part 2
Reading: Code Placement
Reading: Homework One Description
Reading: Peer Review
Video: 01-07 Optional -- Homework Description

Graded: Styling Syntax and Theory

Graded: Your First Styled Site

WEEK 2

Week Two: Advanced Styling

Colors and fonts are just the start to styling your page. The nice thing about starting with these properties is that they are usually very straightforward to implement. You pick a color and boom - instant, expected results. This week we move on to new properties that tend to require a little bit of tweaking to get the desired results. In particular we will talk about the Box Model, background images, opacity, float, columns, visibility, and designing for different browsers.

8 videos, 9 readings, 1 practice quiz

Reading: Resources
Video: 02-01 Box Model
Reading: Coding Together
Video: 02-02 Code Together
Video: 02-03 Styling Links and Lists
Video: 02-04 Advanced Selectors
Reading: Supplemental reading on complex selectors
Practice Quiz: Optional Practice Quiz: Review
Reading: Shorthand rules
Video: 02-05 Browser Capabilites
Reading: Browsers
Reading: Code Together
Video: 02-06 Code Together
Reading: Background Images and Opacity
Video: 02-07 Designing For Accessibility
Reading: Optional - The importance of headings
Reading: Homework Two Description
Video: 02-08 Optional - Homework Description

Graded: Advanced Selectors Quiz

Graded: Advanced Style

WEEK 3

Week Three: Psuedo-classes, Pseudo-elements, Transitions, and Positioning

Have you ever noticed on a web page that some links are blue and others are purple, depending upon if you have clicked on the links? How is it possible to style some anchor tags and not others? This week you will learn how to style pseudo-classes (e.g. a link that has been visiting, an element that has the mouse hovering over it) and pseudo-elements (e.g. the first-letter of a heading, the first line of a paragraph). These elements are not difficult to style, but do require careful coding. It is also the first step to adding simple animation to your site. We end this week with the subject of positioning -- how to get elements to stick to a certain part of your page. Think about annoying pop-up ads. How do the programmers get them to stay RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN despite the fact that you keep trying to scroll them away.

5 videos, 5 readings

Reading: Resources
Video: 03-01 Pseudo Classes and Elements
Video: 03-02 Transitions
Video: 03-03 Transforms
Reading: OPTIONAL READINGS - Transitions, Transforms, and Animation
Video: 03-04 Code together - Transitions
Reading: Positioning
Video: 03-05 Positioning
Reading: Why not a Peer Assignment this week?
Reading: Some Fun Links

Graded: Final Quiz

WEEK 4

Week Four: Putting It All Together

This week I am going to do some code review. I will show you how I used pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements to style a table. Then I give you a demonstration of three different navigation bars that utilize different styling options. We will want to step back and talk about how these different options may affect the accessibility of our site. The final step to completing this course is the completion of the peer-graded project. You will have the chance to demonstrate the ability to follow styling guidelines while still putting your own personal touch on the project. Just remember, you need to validate your work for proper syntax and accessibility.

7 videos, 3 readings

Reading: Resources
Video: 04-01 Styling Tables
Video: 04-02 Creating Navigation Menus
Video: 04-03 Accessible Navigation
Reading: OPTIONAL: A Change to the Accessibility of Headings
Video: 04-04 Creating Navigation Menus 2
Video: 04-05 Creating Navigation Menus 3
Reading: Final Project Description
Video: 04-06 Optional - Homework Description
Video: 04-07 Conclusion

Graded: Styling A Table

Where To Go From Here?

If you would like to do more now that you have finished this course, I have a few recommendations. The most important thing is that you continue to practice your skills and always have "something" that you are working on.

4 readings

Reading: Coursera Options
Reading: CodeAcademy - other badge tutorials
Reading: Meetups
Reading: Post-course Survey

FAQs

How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

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Creators

University of Michigan

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Pricing

	Audit	Purchase Course
Access to course materials	Available	Available
Access to graded materials	Not available	Available
Receive a final grade	Not available	Available
Earn a shareable Course Certificate	Not available	Available

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.8 out of 5 of 2,202 ratings

Very informative and structured course. The instructor rocks! Thank You!

A great course to start working with CSS3. The teacher is excellent and provides very good examples and a great theoretical base.

Great Course

Very good.