I occasionally get asked to write articles for other blogs and journals. Given what I do for a living, the requests sometimes revolve around the subject of web design education.

This is a double-edged sword for me. The quality of web design education isn’t held in high regard by a plethora of web commentators, and there are numerous published articles that testify to this. Ordinarily, the chance to challenge some of the nonsense written would be welcome, but I believe the positive experiences of my students – past and present – should speak for themselves.

The regularity with which these articles are beginning to appear is tiresome, and believe me, after a day of overseeing proper web design education ‘in action’, I don’t yearn to rebut yet another wave of ill-informed comments from Mr or Mrs Semi-Celebrity Web Design Blogger at night.

However, if I ever decided to accept one of the invitations above, I might make two or three points.

The first is the obvious, clichéd response. If web design education is so broken, what are the critics doing to help fix it?

I suspect the answer to that one is ‘not a lot’. It's far easier to be a keyboard warrior than to put your money where your mouth is – and as one Semi-Celebrity Web Design Blogger told me when they were asked to come and speak to my students – that amounts to about £50 an hour.

The second is an observation of the continued approach to such articles. Where is the balance in them? It’s easy to sit down and spew your own thoughts onto the screen. It’s harder to pre-expose those thoughts to counterargument, and then construct something meaningful that adds to the debate. At the moment, the only balance comes from the ‘comments’ section, and that’s not adequate enough.

The last point is subtler, more philosophical, but no less relevant. Education is increasingly a results business. An examination of that point is better left for another entry, but I wonder if we’re losing sight of what a ‘result’ actually is?

Mr or Mrs Semi-Celebrity Web Design Blogger want graduates to have relevant skills that allow them to get jobs. For an employer it’s a straightforward calculation: “Does the job candidate in front on me demonstrate sufficient expertise to make a valuable contribution to my business – yes or no?”

That judgement is usually based on a graduate’s finishing point on their course. And in potential employment situations, so it should be. But if education becomes exclusively about finishing points, we really will be become broken.

That’s because education is about starting points too.

Some of the most successful graduates are not the ones with the highest grades, or the best portfolios, or who get the top jobs. Some of the most successful graduates are those who leave education with a modest level of achievement, but who have had to strive the hardest to earn it. Perhaps there was personal adversity to overcome, or such a lack of initial confidence that failure was presumed, rather than success. Perhaps a transformative experience or realisation occurred that was nothing to do with final grades or employability.

To me, that's the real value of education, and something that Mr or Mrs Semi-Celebrity Web Design Blogger will never see, nor appreciate.

FdA Web Design student Emily Young became so frustrated with the misrepresentation of web design education in industry blogs that she decided to respond in kind – by writing her own article.

Not content with the idea of posting the rebuttal on her blog, Emily got in touch with internationally renowned web strategist Paul Boag and asked him to publish it on his instead – Boagworld.

Inspiration for the piece came from one of the course’s innovative PPD [Personal & Professional Development] assignments, where students were asked to consider the problems of course marketing and propose some solutions. Emily concluded that a negative perception of web design education, fostered by some industry professionals, was an issue.

“I’m passionate about how the industry perceives web design education and wanted to offer my thoughts. Many people think web design courses don’t do a good enough job. I wanted to get across that FdA Web Design at Wakefield College is different to other courses and that I, and many others, think this course is getting it right,” Emily explained.

She continued: “I targeted Boagworld because it’s so well known; it’s read around the world. I’ve listened to Paul’s podcasts for a number of years and have a lot of respect for him.”

Paul Boag obviously agreed with the sentiments shown in Emily’s article.

“When I emailed Paul I never expected he would publish it, but I got a positive response the same day and it was on Boagworld the next. I chose the right person to get in touch with.”

Since the article was published, Emily has received plenty of feedback: “It’s something I didn’t expect. People have asked me about the course and are surprised by how much we are taught, and how well the subject area is being covered.”

Course Leader Steve Smith reported email enquires from as far away as the USA: “We’ve been asked for advice about sourcing similar courses in America, and even it’s even been suggested we roll-out our own course online. Emily can be very proud of the article’s impact.”

Read Web Design Education from the Student’s Perspective on Boagworld.

Read Emily’s Blog.

It’s been around five years since I first used a blogging assignment on my students. The sacrificial lambs were the group of Brown, Haynes, Robinson et al.

I seem to remember we were one of the first to use blogs in an academic context – I was even paid to publish a paper about it. Perhaps time dims the memory, but I also seem to remember we were first at a few other things too.

There were sneers from students: “Where’s your blog Steve?”

I played along: “It’s out there somewhere. You’ll have to look hard to find it though.”

Of course there wasn’t one. Perhaps this is karma then?

Times have changed and there is a more immediate need to spread the good word. Twitter and Facebook get the news out fast, but there are often stories to be told.

The mechanics of education marketing are complex too, and some of the inspirational tales – frustratingly – get lost in the grind of the corporate machine.