Fall 2012 to Spring 2017

"The final was a really great way to help me pack everything together and understand everything all the topics we learned so far. I was able to see certain things I didn't know before (like absolute positioning used for other things other than images or paragraphs). I really enjoyed the self-quizzes from each topic too they were fun. A suggestion I would make is to make a longer/harder self-quiz that tests people how well they understand the topic."

"Thank you for the great course. i've learned so much at my home convenience. all the lectures and resources were great! it's amazing how i started the course with not much understanding of css and got so comfortable with it by the end of the semester. i've designed and developed one web-site and can't wait to polish that up and get stated on two more. i'm hooked. css is a basic of web-development. and i feel like i got a great base after taking the course."

"You can tell that rubin did a lot of planning. the course materials were complete and the structure of the course made sense. i have never been in a class where it is so clear that the instructor wants you to learn and gives u a lotta chances to learn."

"Yes - I find his notes very well organized and complete. Online courses are hard because some teachers' notes use too many technical words. I finf Rubin's notes a perfect balance between technical wording and regular easy ti understand words."

"I really enjoyed this html course and this course made me begin to like html course. I think the text was a bit text-heavy but that could have been because i'm reading it online and I can't highlight stuff. I usually like to read a hard copy instead. So if there was a hard copy version that be great. Overall, it was a good class, and I think rubin is a good teacher and responds really fast when we email him for help unlike some other teachers who don't respond. I;m glad that he tells us what we done wrong and how to fix it because it really teaches us how to fix our mistake."

Spring 2012

Your course was laid out really well and I feel I learned TONS of stuff. I took 131 beginning html and was disappointed. This class had some meat on the bones."

TA is helpful and responds quickly to my questions. Homework assignments got good variety."

Spring 2011

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed the class. The assignments became increasingly more complex, which allowed us to build our skills as we progressed through each topic. Mr. Rubin allowed us enough freedom to design and build our websites based on our interests, offered us assistance through html and coding examples when he introduced each new topic and was more than fair in his grading. Based on what I learned, I won't be dependent on software products that build HTML and CSS based on WYSIWUG, such as Dreamweaver. I will be able to use these products more as a support tool rather than as a primary tool. I consider that a plus."

Just gotta say that this has been a great class. I really appreciate the freedom you give us and all the resources and freebies you provided. A lot of things are finally demystified. But there's still a magical nature to the craft of Web Design. But I now realize that building websites can be sheer hard work!"

Fall 2010

"I liked this class. I feel I learned a lot. The final was harder than I thought it would be. A lot of questions and they were sometimes difficult to see the right answer. All in all the course Steve and the TAs were very helpful and easy to reach. I am glad I took it."

"This course really surprised me on how organized it is and how active the staffs are. I had a bad perception about the online course since I hate reading the notes. I'd rather go to the class and take the lecture. However, the books in this class is really easy to understand and follow. The instructor really simplifies many complicate topics i.e. object-oriented programming etc. I found that I don't have to take too much effort to force myself to read the book at all. The staffs in this course, referring to the instructor and the TA, are also very professional and friendly at the same time. All of the email has been replied within a day or so with the precise answer(s). I also like the way that all of the section in this course is opened since the day one so it's easy for me to schedule my reading hours. When I know I won't have time in the next 2 weeks, I can read through 2 chapters within a week and finish the assignments on time. the ACR is also a very good idea.I learn a lot from just reading through it and sometime, I even found the answer for my problem after reading the ACR. I'm so happy that I decided to take this course with this instructor. Throughout the course, I've met all the cool people and awesome instructor & TA. I've learn a lot from this course and I've been introduced to many new things. I'll be taking the CNIT133 next semester, I hope to see some of you guys in that class."

Spring 2010

"I enjoyed this class very much. I learned a lot and got the desire to learn more. I think it was due to the following factors:
- Availability at the beginning of the semester of the whole material and homework, that allows to manage your work load.
- Quality of the material, exercises and teaching assistance.
I found Steve and his team's methodology very proactive, ready to answer and help, totally oriented to the well learning of the students. This approach required certainly a good chuck of extra work from the teaching team. I thank you and your team for the extra work and time that you voluntarily gave for my well learning. So far I have taken nine CCSF online classes from the CNIT and CS departments. Steve's classes are definitively the ones I enjoyed the most and learned the most from. I personally think Steve's methodology should be taken as model for on line teaching for at least these two departments."

"I am really glad that I have taken the class, particularly this session, which is full of useful materials, references and helpful TAs. I have learned a lot about coding web pages. With my programming background, and current work with databases and database applications, and GIS, I am interested in learning more about DHTML and javascripts."

"I've found the teaching methods of this online class very USEFUL and much easier to understand than books or self-taught online site tutorials. You've nailed it on the method and order of which subjects should be learned first."

"I learned A LOT from this course -- my first real online course. After this experience, I've found that online courses can be *way* more educational and enjoyable than I imagined."

"I would like to extent a heartfelt thank you to you. As a non-programmer and somebody who has been slightly computer illiterate I have taken great pleasure in immersing myself in these rather technical lectures and homework assignments. I think what kept me going was your sense of humor, I thoroughly enjoyed your commentary in the weekly books and the way it was presented just to show us: it's all a language you can learn."

"The class has really been fun...lots of work but the immediate gratification when something goes right is wonderful. You explain things really well. I achieved things in the class I could never have done prior. Really like working with you.

"Thank you so much. The class was informative and definitely did what I was hoping it would do. Take away some of the 'how does that work' issue for me. It gave me back that immediate gratification I love about programming. The material is well presented and the scope of the assignments is appropriate."

Fall and Spring 2009

"I've learned so many valuable concepts and tools to build complex, functional, and practical websites. It's very satisfying!"

"Overall in this course, I had a really good experience to learn the basis of XHTML, Style Sheets, and CGI scripts. Hopefully, I can use this experience to achieve my goals effectively in the future. I really appreciate that I had such a good experience with excellent teacher."

"This is a great course. I learned a lot and had fun doing the assignments even though I had to stay up way past my normal bed time. The parts that I like the most are CSS and javascript. I wish they were introduced earlier in the course. The notes with the examples are very helpful."

"Thank you so much for an excellent learning experience, Prof. Rubin. The assignments succinctly covered important topics of the textbook, therefore, I don't have to randomly test out code examples from the book. To put it metaphorically, if the book can be squeezed like an orange, then the nine assignments would be the juice/essence of the orange."

"Other great ideas you have are the ACR discussion postings and the Homework Home Page with Due Dates that we did in HW2. This is my second semester of online classes - this semester I'm taking 5 online classes total - these things that you do are what I'd call a 'Best Practice' that I'd recommend to other online course instructors."

"I want to take this time to thank you for teaching this class in the manner that you did - the extensive notes and examples, the homework assignments, the posting of the ACRs all proved to be powerful learning tools without the help of a textbook or quizzes and tests (except for the final, of course). I learned a lot from this class and really enjoyed it!"

Fall 2008

"This class taught me so much and it is such fun! It's given me so many ideas for improvements to my own web page. It's a basic starting point which gives an endless opportunity for creativity."

"I took another online class (which shall remain nameless) and, no offense to the other instructor, but it really really really makes me appreciate how much time and detail Steve has put into the homework content modules and homework assignment instructions for this course."

Spring 2008

"The documentation is great, it is very well organize. and you cover a lot of material for a semester. I believe you cover more than what I thought and from your experience, you know the industry very well, the in and out. I am glad a school like CCSF hire you to teach here. 6 months ago and today, a big different. I knew some HTML but not much and once I took the class, start reading the material and especially doing homeworks, I understood a great deal. You also show us PHP/Javascript, and now I am hook that I am going to take PHP/Javascript next semester. I don't know how much positive I am going to say but you are the best, very well orgarnize, know the in and out, great documentation, etc, and I could go on on."

"Because of the heavy load in my job, I didn't have enough time to study and just went straight taking the test. However, I am so glad I took this course and really learned a lot from it. With the help of Prof. Rubin and TA Strader who were so much there to help me with the problems I encountered with my Perl script, I am so glad I was a part of this course."

"I am so glad I took this class. I learned a lot and now I am looking forward to learning more about the various web programming languages. I was intimidated by perl and php and now I think it is manageable, whereas Javascript seemed straightforward I now think it is the most difficult language I've encountered. I hope to gain a better grasp of it in the javascript course.

The modules were well-organized and easy to follow, except for the last one. I think there is a step missing but I'm not sure what that is. It was easy to understand how Javascript worked, but when it came to the application, the step that makes the coding work with the tags were difficult to understand for the more complex functions. It might just be my brain and the nature of the language because I had to look at 5 different textbooks to get the coding for the assignment to work.

The most frustrating assignment was the multimedia because it was erratic. Because the multimedia files and programs reacted differently to the browsers it took a lot of time with trial and error to make the page work. In the end I couldn't use the media I originally wanted and had to settle with what worked. It was a great learning exercise and nothing can be done about it here except expose us to it. So I liked it in that respect, but I was disappointed that the hours spent on that exercise produced a mediocre result.

My favorite exercises were the CSS and form assignments. There were the elements and tags and I just used them to organize the page and the code worked. CSS is so flexible and it allows for creativity so I had fun with it. I wish I had more time to play with it some more, but I will do that over the summer, along with trying to get a better grasp of Javascript. The form assignments weren't as easy because of perl and php, but it is interactive with the user and that's why I took this class. I wanted to learn how to use webpages to be interactive and it was a good introduction to it.

Now, I hope I can retain all the great things I learned in this class. One thing is for certain, though, I'm a better proof reader now. Ah, the details required for precision can be tedious. This will be difficult to unlearn, I hope."

"The material was presented in such a fun, clear, concise, thorough, and easily comprehensible manner. I really enjoyed the reading, the humorous side comments were especially helpful in making the homework seem light-hearted. And while the java appelet section was the only part that I felt was not fully explained, the java script chapter has whetted my appetite for more. Thanks again for some great teaching, and for all of the student's interest and willingness to post responses!"

"I think it was a great class. At first I was a bit skeptic about an online 'programming' class, but it was constructed in a very convenient and easy-learning way. I wish there were more computer classes offered like that."

Fall 2007

"This was the best online course I've taken at CCSF. The course content was clear and complete, the assignments were challenging but not frustratingly difficult, and Professor Rubin and the TAs were available to answer our questions and solve our problems."

"If you really knew how ridiculous my knowledge about computers was a few months ago, you would understand why this class was so important to me. I have to confess I did not buy the book, and I didn't miss it either. The tutorials were clear, and if any doubt or question would come up, the entire class altogether would come up with helpful links. The Homeworks were challenging and sometimes I felt I needed more time than the one provided, but overall, the fun I had doing the HWs was much bigger than the difficulties. One last thing, that I cannot leave unmentioned: If I could grade Professor Rubin, I would give him an A+. Knowing how large this class is, I can only congratulate Mr. Rubin for being there ALL THE TIME, even in Thanksgiving!! It never took him more than a few hours to answer my questions. The online support given in every of his postings, the valuable help of the TAs, the comments left by the students, all of this and more make this class very worth taking."

Spring 2007

" I thought the course was great. The preparation of the materials was cohesive and clear. I'm really glad I took this class. I knew some HTML before and hoped to learn more and to learn how to write it better. I think I've achieved those goals."

"Yay for CNIT 132! This course was great--I learned so much more than in CNIT 131. The course grew harder, and I liked that. I hope to see some of my brilliant classmates in CNIT 133."

"I thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyones sites and their solutions to the projects as they arose. I took this course because I was so used to using Dreamweaver that I felt I had a very basic knowledge of HTML. I cannot express how grateful I am for taking this course. I learned so very much. Some stuff I knew already but the majority of it was an enjoyable learning experiece. Every project was done in notepad and that was very, at times frustrating, at times the feeling of how do I do this now, but when looking at the course as a whole it was very rewarding. The modules were very comprehensive and thorough. Especially the last module on Javascript which was the longest and as Steve said just touched the surface. He is an excellant teacher and very patient and understanding. I look forward to taking CNIT 133 in the fall. I feel like I really learned a lot. I don't think I did so well on the final exam but that doesn't mean I didn't learn an ENORMOUS amount of information. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about handcoding. I did everyone of my pages in notepad. To do that and see the results was rewarding and left me with a feeling of accomplishment. Oh yeah one more thing the modules were completely chock full of information and fantastic!"

" I took this class because I had used GoLive in the past only to have people in the know tell me it doesn't work well for professional sites because it writes "dirty code". "Dirty code?" I had no idea what they meant, but it sounded not so good. I decided that if I ever wanted to design and produce more websites, I'd better find out how to "clean my code". At first, the idea of peering behind the curtain was a bit intimidating. I wondered what an artist/graphic designer and old dog was doing trying to learn a new trick. When I finally dove in and switched to left brain mode, I found I really enjoyed it--in the same way I enjoy word problems and logic puzzles (which I actually do!). Also, call me crazy, but I really liked making tables--that was probably the most breakthrough trick I learned, along with CSS, for simple websites. The class was great. My only suggestion would be to go directly to XHTML and bypass (or only touch on lightly) HTML. I can see why one might need to recognize the old HTML in reworking old files, but I would think as we get further from the 90's, fewer of those files will be in existence. (X)HTML has been demystified, and I am so hooked on learning more about web programming that I will be looking for another class in the Fall."

Fall 2006

"I thought the class was excellent. I stopped reading the book after the second week. I thought it was really dry. Your modules were much more tothe point, clear, visual and just easier to absorb. I did feel like I was entering the danger zone when we hit Perl, PHP and JavaScript - not for lack of teaching, it was just hard for me to wrap my mind around. I will probably pick up the JS book you recommended though for reference. I think I might get into that further down the road. Crazy stuff. The assignments were challenging enough that I learned a lot, but not so difficult that I was scared off by them. I always looked forward to doing them. I thought we always had plenty of time to complete them and were well prepared for them by your modules. The online interaction among students and your rapid answers to my questions were very helpful."

"Since I don't live in the City most of the year, I have been taking many online classes. Of all those, I would say this has been the most rewarding class. The course provides a very comprehensive survey of web design. Where as before I could only make simple web pages, I now have the confidence to design web sites. Thanks Steve for making this course fun and interesting!"

"I wanted to thank you for a great online class! I learned a lot."

Spring, 2002 - Spring, 2006

"This class has been awesome! The modules were really well organized and the material was comprehensive while still being comprehensible and even humorous. I liked that the course content was broken down so that the reading would not be so overwhelming. The examples were very helpful, along with the tips and notes in the discussion boards. Despite being an online class, I found that the professor and TAs were very accessible and quick to respond with help and suggestions. I enjoyed being able to see everyone's work and the many talents of my classmates and instructor."

"I thought the coverage of material was excellent. the class was real flexible and allowed us to work around deadlines, understandably as the material was often very difficult."

"It's a great class. I learn a lot from this class. It's very well organized especially the online course content."

"I thought the class was very well organized and structured. The instructions on the site was thorough and covered pretty much everything I needed in order to do my assignments. It was also very interesting to see everyone else's work. I had a great experience with the class, and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in building web sites. The final exam was very thorough."

"I thought the content was great, especially all the compatibility tibits. I am new to writing web pages, but I recently inherited the responsibility of being webmaster of 3 web sites on different servers."

"I thought the content was great. I especially liked how you broke down CSS into easy to understand bits and pieces. That was the part I had been most interested in learning and it gave me a good start and foundation."

"I thought this class was great. I took 2 online courses this semester, this one was good and the other one was HORRIBLE! I can't believe both of the courses were offered by the same college; the difference in quality was night and day! I am a bit excited because I found a real life situation where I needed to use my ability to hand code HTML."

"I wanted to let you know I thoroughly enjoyed this course. I think the combination of your class modules along with the text book is great. I tend to be a slow learner and the fact that often what I read in the text book would be illuminated by your modules or vice versa made for a winning combo. Your module on JavaScript served as an excellent introduction to programming."

"I recommend this class to only someone who manages their time well."

"I thoroughly enjoyed the online experience, as well as getting immediate feedback on homework assignments."

"When I registered for this class, I thought I knew a lot already. But when I read the course content modules, I realized there is still a lot to learn. The modules are clear and well orgainized."

" Maybe I wasn't prepared for the class, or maybe the difference was not being able to work directly with others and the instructor. It's a new experience that I will evaluate. It has occurred to me, though, that every other class I've ever taken has been in a classroom, among other people. I'm a verbal person, I enjoy learning with others. I didn't want to lose my momentum, though, so the online class was a relief. There are many good things about it, but for me, the workload was more demanding than any other class I can recall. I think face-to-face interaction, and the emotional support that comes from being able to share stories and experiences in real time with others, who are tackling the same challenges, is a valuable part of the educational experience for me."

"I took this class to get a certificate in Unix from CCSF. This class turned out to be very informatiive and very easy to learn. The contents were very good. Quite honestly I did not touch the book at all, everything I learned was from WEBCT. This Online class was quite a success for me."

"I liked your great on-line instructions. It was easy to understand. (It's like someone took really good notes from a face to face class lecture). The one face to face class I attended showed me it's nice to have the personal contact. The online chat room is just not the same and after all we really are social creatures. Also to get some input and other ideas from class mates is easier in a face to face class. To comunicate is easier and faster person to person than in writing. The greatest advantage for the on-line class is that you could re-read a sentence if you did not understand it the first time. In a face to face class if you missed something it's gone. I liked that I did not have to spend a minute for commuting to the college. I also did not have to plan my life around the school schedule. Overall I really liked it a lot! The material covered is really a lot."

"Your online course is fantastic. The best course I've ever taken. Not only is the online content great, but the support from you and your assitants is great too. The combination makes the whole course, well, ... great."

"I thought that most of the instruction was clear and precise. In particular, I found the JavaScript tutorial to be exceptional, and the overall coverage of the modules was impressive and thoughtful."

"You seem to be on top of new Web-oriented languages. I was pleased to touch on some of those things. I thought I actually had a pretty good idea of what was out there, but you pointed me to things I had not yet come across."

"When I started this class in January, I thought it would be a cake-walk. Having worked in high-tech Marketing in the last six years and an active participant and unwitting victim of the Internet boom-bust, I thought I could handle the work load without breaking a sweat. Boy, was I wrong! This class was nothing short of a challenge! It forced me to create a Web site from scratch, working with WordPad, toiling over image maps and ActiveX controls, creating and validating forms. I spent many hours, even into the early morning, working on homework projects. And I loved every minute of it! Despite the non-trivial amount of time that I spent learning the material and completing the assignments in this class, the knowledge I take away have made (and continue to make) my real world job so much easier. I definitely will be taking more online classes in the coming semesters. Thank you for your patience and dedication to this class."

"This was a great class to take. I've taken on-line classes before, but none have been as informative and clear as this one."