Cert in Computer Software and Media Applications

Web development at MassBay is taught as a certificate that spans the two sides of a website: what runs in the visitor's browser and what runs on the server. Students learn to write scripts for each environment and combine them into sites that respond to users and draw on stored data. A large share of the work concerns databases. Learners plan how information should be organized, then build websites that read from it, so pages can change depending on what is requested. They also practice with database utilities and purpose-built applications that prepare a site to serve changing content to its audience. By the end, a graduate should be able to lay out the structure of a site and add interactive behavior to it. The certificate suits people who want practical, applied skills for entry into web work rather than a long academic sequence.