Danny Laurence (Q19)
Danny Laurence (Q19), a QUEST alumnus who was awarded one of the Outstanding Service Awards at this year’s QUEST Gala, will be offering a new QUEST elective for students interested in Web Development, beginning in Spring 2018. I was able to sit down and ask Danny about the inspiration behind the course and how it will help QUEST students in the future.
What new QUEST elective will you be offering, and what will the class focus on?
BMGT408C – Quality Web Development in Business. The class will focus on giving students the tools by which web development is achieved, without necessarily focusing on the coding itself. This class is designed to give students an understanding of what’s called the “full stack” – everything from database design to agile will be covered. Students will walk away with a solid understanding of how the internet works.
What inspired you to come up with the new elective?
A previous version of this course was offered by Dr. Bailey, Dr. Purtilo, Josh Kohn (Q18), and myself in Spring 2013 (I can’t believe it’s been 4 years). The inspiration for the course was a clamoring by business students for more technical content and a strong desire by me to get experience teaching a course. The students who took that course, to this day, will tell you how useful it was to their career searches. They were able to talk to parts of technology that their peers had never even heard of, let alone interacted with.
How does this new course fit the QUEST curriculum (cross-functional teams, hands-on learning, community of learning, etc.)?
Well, certainly everything you listed is represented in the course. Students are organized into teams, and class is largely about working through examples and hands-on learning. The community of learning aspect is relatively apparent – I’m an alumnus teaching this course. The class set up will likely have non-majors, so peer instruction on writing code is very important.
How will this class help students in the real world?
I’d postulate that most jobs now require you to understand technology, no matter what you are doing. Everyone has to deal with email, with web systems, and this class will give you the tools to understand what is going on. Simply demystifying the computer a bit is a very useful skill set, even if it seems like it wouldn’t be.
What is one message you have for any QUEST students who are interested in your class?
Do it. Not only are you going to have fun in class, you’re going to gain skills that will help you in your future endeavors.