Hello everyone,

I'm currently in my final year studying computer science and I've been asked to develop a website based on the concept for which www.coursera.org was designed, which basically is to provide online learning solutions on a broad scale. Besides basic html and perhaps a little something on wordpress, I'm embarrassed to admit my web development experience leaves much to be desired.

I would really appreciate if someone could take a look at the website www.coursera.org and help point me in the right direction as to how to go about developing a website similar to that. I don't even know what tools or languages to use. I'm a pretty fast learner, and I'll appreciate your suggestions to help get me started.

Thanks.

if(you were asked to make it dynamic and you know html, css and a bit of php)
{
Then use wordpress to do it.
}

elseif(you were asked to just design it whether dynamic or static and you know html and css)
{
Then just use ordinary html and css to do it.
}

else
{
Ask someone to help you do it.
}

Cheers.

In addition, if you want exactly the same functionality of the website, like the way it loads and stuff like that, then be rest assured that the website was written entirely on Backbone.js with Python/Django and MysQl.

GraphicsPlus: if(you were asked to make it dynamic and you know html, css and a bit of php)
{
Then use wordpress to do it.
}

elseif(you were asked to just design it whether dynamic or static and you know html and css)
{
Then just use ordinary html and css to do it.
}

else
{
Ask someone to help you do it.
}

Cheers.

Many thanks for your suggestions. It has to be dynamic, and yes I would love it to be as close to the original as possible. But does it have to be the whole backbone thing?

Well there's lots to learn in order to accomplish a site like coursera.

However, given your task at hand you need to learn/ use the following:
1. Html5 and Javascript use a toolkit like Twitter Bootstrap to.make things easier.

2. Databases - simplest to comprehend mysql.

3. Video tutorials - upload them on YouTube and embed them in your site.

4. Web scripting language - PHP or python. These are the easiest and you'd be able to get tons of free turoriald.

5. Frameworks/ CMS - joomla, danjo, drupal , cakephp, code igniter. This is optional but it would make your job faster but you'd have to learn them and understand their underlying programming language .

6.W3schools is a good place to start

GraphicsPlus: In addition, if you want exactly the same functionality of the website, like the way it loads and stuff like that, then be rest assured that the website was written entirely on Backbone.js with Python/Django and MysQl.

I keep on getting scared with some of these names.

adewaleafolabi: Well there's lots to learn in order to accomplish a site like coursera.

However, given your task at hand you need to learn/ use the following:
1. Html5 and Javascript use a toolkit like Twitter Bootstrap to.make things easier.

2. Databases - simplest to comprehend mysql.

3. Video tutorials - upload them on YouTube and embed them in your site.

4. Web scripting language - PHP or python. These are the easiest and you'd be able to get tons of free turoriald.

5. Frameworks/ CMS - joomla, danjo, drupal , cakephp, code igniter. This is optional but it would make your job faster but you'd have to learn them and understand their underlying programming language .

6.W3schools is a good place to start

I doubt if he'll learn and master all those now. He's already in final year.

Djtm:
I doubt if he'll learn and master all those now. He's already in final year.

You're right, this involves a lot of work. Can you please suggest what you would consider the shortest path, you know, one that requires the smallest learning curve in order to pull this off. As it is, I have about 6-8 months to work with. Thanks.

Then use jquery and php (wordpress) to do it. That website is pretty simple if it's just to develop it and you will be able to add contents to it from a cms. It's just header, content and footer. The header has nav links and a header image. The content has the thumbnail images of courses and the footer has few other links. You can confidently do it with php. That website was build initially with PHP. But they later migrated to Python/Django.

GraphicsPlus: Then use jquery and php (wordpress) to do it. That website is pretty simple if it's just to develop it and you will be able to add contents to it from a cms. It's just header, content and footer. The header has nav links and a header image. The content has the thumbnail images of courses and the footer has few other links. You can confidently do it with php. That website was build initially with PHP. But they later migrated to Python/Django.

Thanks again. I should get started then. God bless.

You guys are forgetting something. This is a final year project and not a job for a client.

Would a normal thinking supervisor accept WordPress as a final year project . But then I could be wrong since education here is in shambles.

Make your life easy use plain php ,mysql and you could pickup twitter bootstrap in less than 2hours.

^What ar u suggesting? Is wordpress not php and mysql? Do you expect him to write custom cms for the project? What is twitter bootstrap? Why ar u suggesting he use a framework when WP makes no sense to u?