Advanced Certificate in Software Development

In the Front-End Development module, learners will acquire a deep understanding of web design principles, HTML, CSS, and a responsive design using Bootstrap, JavaScript, jQuery, and single-page application development and testing. The instructional units equip them with the knowledge necessary to create captivating user interfaces and deliver seamless experiences. By engaging in practical exercises and hands-on activities, learners develop a high level of proficiency in creating visually appealing websites that adhere to the best UI design principles, leveraging front-end tools, techniques, frameworks, and libraries.

Through the module project, learners demonstrate their ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills in building websites with exceptional user experiences. It allows them to showcase their ability to analyse user requirements and translate them into visually captivating website designs. Proficiency in front-end development tools and techniques, and responsive design enables learners to implement the best UI design principles and create responsive websites with interactive features and enhancing user engagement. Furthermore, graduates exhibit their ability to optimize website performance, ensuring swift loading times and smooth navigation. In summary, learners gain the ability to create responsive websites with optimal performance and enhanced user experience to stay competitive in the field of front-end development.

The Programming Foundations module provides learners with the necessary knowledge and skills to embark on their coding journey. Whether they are beginners or aspiring developers, this module offers a solid understanding of programming concepts and techniques. It covers fundamental principles such as programming languages, paradigms, and program execution, establishing a strong foundation in programming concepts and terminology that enhances learners" ability to comprehend and test code. By engaging in practical exercises and hands-on activities, learners develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities, improving their coding proficiency and enabling them to write efficient and well-structured code.

During the module project, learners demonstrate their ability to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired by building software components. This project serves as a platform for showcasing their competence in analysing technical requirements and translating them into robust designs. With their proficiency in programming paradigms and languages, learners can implement software components based on the technical design. Furthermore, they develop the capability to ensure software quality by employing various testing methods. In summary, learners gain the ability to write well-structured code, apply object-oriented programming principles, conduct thorough testing, and effectively document their code, establishing a strong foundation for their future programming endeavours.

The UI Frameworks module equips learners with the essential knowledge and skills to design an enhanced user experience using popular prototyping tools and UI frameworks. The instructional units help them to gain a comprehensive understanding of design thinking methodologies, UI heuristics, visual design principles, user experience design metrics, prototyping tools, techniques, publishing prototypes, usability testing and documentation. By engaging in practical exercises and hands-on activities, learners develop proficiency in UX research techniques, such as conducting user interviews, surveys, and usability testing, is essential for gathering insights and validating design decisions. Also, accessibility standards and guidelines are also important to ensure inclusive design practices.

During the module project, learners demonstrate their ability to produce high-fidelity prototyping to attain a competitive edge in the realm of UI/UX design and development. The project serves as a platform for showcasing their competence in conducting user research and creating personas to wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing, UX designers work diligently to understand user needs, organize information, define interactions, and enhance the visual aesthetics of interfaces. They prioritize accessibility and inclusive design, iterate on designs based on user feedback, and collaborate effectively with stakeholders and development teams. In summary, learners gain the ability to pursue UI/UX design and development roles and contribute to the creation of exceptional user experiences.

The Database Design and Implementation module equips learners with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in diverse aspects of managing databases. The instructional units help them to gain a comprehensive understanding of organizing data, database design concepts, entity-relationship modeling, normalization techniques, data definition, retrieval, maintenance, testing, and documentation. By engaging in practical exercises and hands-on activities, learners develop proficiency in planning database use groups, developing conceptual, logical, and physical designs, writing optimized queries and stored procedures, and conducting thorough testing, and documentation skills to communicate database schemas, entities, relationships, and data dictionaries for collaboration and maintenance purposes.

During the module project, learners demonstrate their ability to produce an optimal database design for a consumer-centric Rich Internet Application. The project serves as a platform for showcasing their competence in requirements analysis, entity relationships and constraints, conceptual, logical, and physical design development, database user group planning aligned with business processes, optimized query and stored procedure writing to meet the management requirements and comprehensive testing to ensure accuracy, reliability, and performance. In summary, learners gain the ability to create efficient and effective databases for client-centric products, meeting the industry demands of design optimization, query performance, and system reliability to stay competitive in the realm of data modelling and design.

The Web Development Foundations module equips learners with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in the field of full-stack web development. The instructional units help them to gain a comprehensive understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), technical design principles, back-end development using frameworks, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, CRUD application development, testing, and documentation. By engaging in practical exercises and hands-on activities, learners develop proficiency in back-end development using frameworks, expertise in implementing the MVC pattern to create modular and scalable web applications, developing CRUD applications, testing methods, and effective documentation practices.

During the module project, learners demonstrate their ability to produce consumer-web applications, including server-side logic and database interaction. The project serves as a platform for showcasing their competence in technical design suitable for the business process, architect the solution to address the business problem, application development using suitable design patterns with authentication and authorization, unit testing and user acceptance testing to verify and validate the business requirements to ensure the quality of the application. In summary, learners gain the ability to pursue web developer roles and contribute to the creation of scalable and reliable client-centric web applications, meeting the industry demands.

The Capstone Project – Web Development module is the culmination of learners" journey in mastering full-stack web development in the course Advanced Certificate in Software Development. In this module, learners undertake a comprehensive project, applying their knowledge and skills to design, develop, and deploy a real-world web application. They begin by gathering requirements and conducting thorough analysis, collaborating with stakeholders to define project goals. With a strong foundation in system architecture and design principles, learners implement front-end components using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks, ensuring an intuitive user interface. Simultaneously, they build back-end components, developing server-side logic, database integration, and API endpoints. Rigorous testing, including unit testing, usability testing, load testing, cross browser testing, and user acceptance testing, ensures a robust and reliable application. Learners focus on deployment, considering scalability, security, and performance optimization. Collaboration and effective documentation play vital roles throughout the module, fostering teamwork and providing documentation for future reference.

In conclusion, learners acquire the skills necessary to pursue careers as full-stack web developers and make valuable contributions to the development of scalable and reliable web applications that prioritize the needs of clients.