W3school Projects

[chibineku]

Hi there. I have read through the tutorials for several subjects, and done the quizzes. I generally get 19 or 20/20. I have spent maybe half an hour reading through the PHP tutorial without trying anything out, and only got a few pages in, and I decided to try the quiz. I got 18/20. The thing is, that while the tutorials are an excellent jumping off point, the quizzes are too easy. It would be nice if there were perhaps different grades of quiz. If they are preparation for the exams, then I could have my diplomas earned in about 5 minutes.I am not complaining, except as a lead in to my suggestion - I heartily appreciate the free tutorials and references, and this here excellent forum. But, what would be nice would be a real challenge. Something that, once completed, could even form a folio piece.For example, a project set at the end of each topic tutorial, or in convenient groupings. Specify the layout and content of a small website to test skill with HTML and CSS, and then perhaps add some complexity to it after the JavaScript tutorial, and then some server side scripting, until, at the end, the user who has truly grasped these disciplines has a top class website to show for it. I am not suggesting that someone grade these sites or combs through them line by line for errors. It would be obvious when each task has been completed, and there are numerous debugging plug-ins, programs, and helpful people on the forum. These projects should demand a lot of the student, forcing them to use every common and lesser-used but important feature of the applicable disciplines. I reckon, given the complexity involved, that a forum would be an excellent and lofty goal for anyone to aspire to. It has fairly complex and nested HTML structure, a host of (sometimes user-defined) styles associated with it, client-side automation, server-side interaction, database retrieval and writing, security issues... An e-commerce site would be equally good. Imagine if every student graduated with the skills necessary to go away and create their own Amazon.com. That, surely, is the pedagogal (is that a word?) ambition.It sounds like I would be as well setting myself this goal and working towards it, but the step-by-step approach as a student completes each tutorial would drive home what each discipline should be used for and can accomplish, and it would break it down into manageable chunks and show the best approach for each problem.I think the structure would be very helpful, and even if this isn't an idea that anyone wants to take forward, I certainly would appreciate it if anyone felt they had the time and compunction set me a project like this and perhaps macro-manage it. -Jonathon