Following up on my curriculum post, Grady graphics guru Kristen Smith asks me what students should know about HTML. I know several recent grads have told me they wished they knew a little HTML, but I don't know exactly what would be most useful.
So, Grady alums, students and faculty at other schools, PR pros who hire new grads, and anyone else who wants to comment: what exactly should students be learning about HTML?
I think the basics are pretty much essential. I'm self-taught when it comes to HTML, and these are the things I find myself using most often:
- Formatting text (font size, color, style, etc.)
- Creating a hyperlink
- Creating a hyperlink that opens in a new window
- Posting a photo
- Posting a photo that doubles as a hyperlink
- Posting a photo that doubles as a hyperlink that opens in a new window
- Creating a hyperlink to send an e-mail
- Embedding audio or video
And here's the "cheat sheet" site that I use most often when I forget a piece of code or need to do something more sophisticated: http://www.pageresource.com/
Posted by: Lindsay M. Allen | July 28, 2009 at 08:41 AM
Dr. Russell, I think that PR students should know basic HTML especially if they are going into the social media/ online world. Just basic html like adding a video to a blog post or playing around with a blog post formatting would have been helpful to know in my job. Most things are automated now but every once in awhile things crash and knowing html as a backup is helpful. I have taught myself/learned from others VERY basic html and wish I knew more! It's almost a hurdle not knowing it in my current internship!
What Lindsay says is basically what would be most helpful to learn :)
Posted by: Erin Gentry | July 28, 2009 at 08:50 AM
Lindsay has some great suggestions. I also think learning the basics of a web design software like Dreamweaver would be beneficial. To me, the Graphics class is a natural fit for this kind of thing, especially considering how prevalent newsletters, ads, etc. are nowadays in electronic form.
Posted by: Sheridan Watson | July 28, 2009 at 09:33 AM
Karen, My name is Chris and I'm the art director for the Terry College of Business. Aside from the mechanics of HTML, PR students can benefit by understanding that the web and HTML are not magic fixes for problems, nor is it as easy to manage and change as people seem to think. Not all PR issues can be solved by just "posting something online." As much thought that goes into press releases and speeches should go into what info gets posted online and managed. Also, due to the shear volume if information web designers and directors deal with, simple changes to a document, story or headline, can cause a ripple effect of work down the line. At Terry, we have 1000's of individual pages that are managed by my department. If we are to post a story for example, here's the work flow: work order to web team to post story. Story is then sent to web team. Web team codes text. Web team comes to me for photos. I find photos and send back. Story is put into staging where as many as 4 people may have to check off on it. Changes? Process stops while changes are made. Photo no good? Have to find another. Finanlly, once the page is approved, it goes live ASAP. This process can take up to 6 different people working on it. Beyond that, we may post it on Twitter or Facebook, it's checked for keywords for Google and all of this is backed up by software that tracks user-hits based on a number of criteria. All of this managed by yet another person. So coming into a staff meeting and just saying, "can't we just post this?" can cause a number of headaches. Learning HTML can help future PR managers to reflect more thoughtfully on a PR plan and how the web can help. Just my $.02.
Posted by: Chris Taylor | July 28, 2009 at 11:36 AM
I agree with Erin: not knowing even basic HTML is frequently becoming a hurdle in my internship as a social media/marketing intern. As an English/History grad making the transition into PR, I never had to use HTML in my undergrad and certainly wish I had! Even something so basic as embedding a video from YouTube onto a Facebook fan page is a challenge for me and makes doing basic tasks like writing a note with links and photos take forever! I'm enrolled in a post-graduate PR program in January and I hope they have a course on using HTML because I think it is extremely beneficial to have that knowledge.
Posted by: Jenna | July 28, 2009 at 12:28 PM
I like Lindsay's list above. Basic text formatting is an absolute must. While I haven't ever needed to out-and-out code a site in HTML, I find I need to know it more in terms of being able to look at source code when something is amiss and figure out how to fix it.
Posted by: amymengel | July 28, 2009 at 01:27 PM
As a current adjunct professor (Mass Comms Research, Univ of North Texas) and PR research pro, I have hired many, many entry level PR professionals. We never asked nor cared if they knew HTML. Most of what we want people to know how to do (embed videos, upload photos and videos, etc.) can be done with widgets and apps - no HTML required. If we were hiring a digital or social media expert, a little HTML might be necessary but not too much for entry level. I think it might be worth one lecture, but I believe much more may not be necessary.
-Don B @donbart
Posted by: Don Bartholomew | July 28, 2009 at 01:42 PM
I think the basic list posted by Lindsay Allen would be helpful. I suppose it comes down to PR students knowing that html exists - what it is and when knowing it could be useful. Then they need to know where to go to find a basic list - committing it all to memory when you only use it now and then it not that helpful. I was fortunate that I picked up electronic publishing as a subject in my masters program in the mid 1990s - the WYSIWYG webpage editors were pretty basic and clunky so it was essential that I knew how to tweak pages etc. These days, I think it's less important. However, in more senior PR positions, you're very likely to commissioning websites and other digital media to support PR programs and campaigns it helps when you're evaluating costings, contracts, scope of works etc to know what it is your suppliers are talking about and quoting on - my experience is that unscrupulous suppliers will try and overcharge you if they think they can hoodwink you by using jargon and making jobs sound more complicated than they are - I think PR people should have basic understanding of html, SEO, web security etc but I think this knowledge needs to be sought out on as as required basis - let students know all this is out there but doing much in class on the actual skills and knowledge development is pretty useless in my opinion when by the time they need it, or even get out into the workplace, things will have moved on.
Posted by: Melanie James | July 28, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Thanks for all the great feedback, everyone. I'll be sure Kristen gets a look!
Posted by: Karen Russell | July 29, 2009 at 05:45 AM
I'll be adjunct PR instructor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this fall. I found this great list at prsarahevans.com.
Sarah Evans writes:
"If I was graduating from college today as a public relations or communications major, the five skills below are ones I must have. These are NEW skills for PR professionals, meaning in addition to traditional skills. These are skills I currently use in my every day life and ARE NOT skills I was taught in college, nor in my first years after school. Whether you’re new school or old school PR, these are skills we all must learn (and use).
#1 - Basic HTML code
I’m not saying you must be a HTML code wiz, just learn the basic commands like:
Creating a title: To create the title above I simply added before and after the words. Not too hard, right? I even keep a cheat sheet on my home and work computers.
Adding and embedding hyperlinks: You’d be surprised how many places you must enter HTML code when embedding hyperlinks.
Inserting images: Everyone loves a good picture, especially in blog posts.
Copying and pasting HTML code: I consider this a basic. Many times people will create ready-to-use HTML for widgets and badges. It then becomes a matter of copying the code and knowing where/how to paste it.
.I use basic HTML code EVERY DAY. From Facebook notes to blog posts to social media news releases–basic code is essential.
To get started, here a few sites to bookmark and visit when you need it:
HTML Code Tutorial
w3schools.com: HTML Basics
WebSource: Basic HTML Tags/Codes/Web Page Design
IBD Host: Basic HTML "
Look for Sarah's additional three basic PR skills. You'll enjoy them AND the interesting and helpful comments from PR pros who responded to Sarah's posting.
http://prsarahevans.com/2009/03/top-4-skills-all-new-pr-professionals-must-have/
Posted by: Kadi Wills | July 29, 2009 at 07:42 AM