Why You Should Take STEPS Classes

davidroyer October 3, 2007 5

So, I finished my 2nd STEPS class today. So, after 6 hours of illustrator training you can make something like this:

Pretty good, I know. I will sign autographs after class.

5 Comments

thismarty
16 years ago Permalink

Qu’es-ce que c’est these “STEPS” classes of which you speak?

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jeffreybardzell
16 years ago Permalink

Odd coincidence, but I actually helped write the first version of the Illustrator STEPS class. I also wrote two of the Flash classes, three Fireworks classes, and coauthored some of the Dreamweaver classes. That was when I was a grad student writing my dissertation.

@Marty: STEPS classes are offered by UITS IT Training & Education group for free to students and for very cheap to everyone else. It’s a great resource for quick, hands-on skills training. Here is the URL:

http://ittraining.iu.edu/

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thismarty
16 years ago Permalink

Thanks for the heads-up on this, David! And thanks for the info, Jeff!

Pretty cool stuff and at just the right price too! 😉

For anyone who’s interested, I just found this list of STEPS courses, by application: http://ittraining.iu.edu/workshops/workshop_groups.aspx .

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houssian
16 years ago Permalink

Yen-ning and I have both been taking a whole bunch of STEPS classes this semester, they are GREAT! I really wish I had taken them last year. Next week it’s Dreamweaver and the advanced CSS class I think.

all you have to do is shoehorn them into your schedule, no prep needed, and no homework, just a 2-3 hour session.

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datrushurtz
16 years ago Permalink

That picture is hilarious! I assume you drew that robot by hand, it looks pretty good.

I think this post serves as a great reminder of the resources available to us @ IU and to take advantage of them. The last few weeks I’ve been looking at lots of job postings, and it seems that most design positions come with the expectations that you not only understand user-centered design, good usability practices, and HCI theory, but that you have solid hard skills as a complement, the types of things offered by these UITS steps classes. If we can take a simple STEPS class for free to make us that much more attractive to employers, theres no reason not to take advantage.

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