Theoretical Foundations for Website Design Courses

Theoretical foundations in website design courses can facilitate students learning the genres of Internet communication. Genre theory and activity theory provide opportunities for emphasizing the social context of websites in ways that emphasize for students the identity-laden nature of sites that can often appear to be anonymous and addressed to multiple audiences. After proposing ways that these theories can be integrated into website design courses, the article focuses on two students' website portfolios and ways they utilize theories discussed in class to produce websites in two different fields.