Lesson One: Beginners need more time than you can imagine

After six years of Web work, when I'm asked to put a basic Web page together, I set aside a half hour (and that much only if I have to create some graphics). Especially in this age of great WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver, it's easy to create attractive pages in little time. But for someone who comes into the world of Web publishing without a clue as to how the process works, accomplishing the simplest task can take hours. Most newbies face not one but many new tasks, from mastering HTML, FTP, and image editing to becoming familiar with JavaScript, Flash, and other advanced technologies. Therefore, the initial challenge is great. Once a person gains confidence, though, he or she will be able to work much more rapidly. One mistake we made was requiring our students to tackle other projects at the same time they were working on the "Heartfield" site, a requirement that frazzled many of them. Building that confidence and familiarity is critical — and can't be rushed.

Lesson Two: Work within your limits

Early on, we realized that no matter how hard our students worked on the site, we had one problem: None of them was a designer. So all their hard work could end up looking pathetic if we asked them to actually design the look and feel of the site. With that in mind, we hired a designer (Anne Martens) to create a "shell" for the site so that students could simply drop their content into the pages without mucking around with too much code. Such a plan makes sense for many publishers, as well, who can save money and maintain more control of their work if they pay a designer to create a template, then have their staffs use it to create the publication.

Lesson Three: One of the best ways of learning is through teaching

As an educator, I know that there is often no better way to master a subject than by teaching it. My colleagues and I tried to push this model in the construction of the Heartfield project. As I mentioned before, several students in the class showed interest in various aspects of technology. They were given the opportunity to obtain more personalized instruction in their areas of interest. Those students then tutored members of other groups who were interested in using the same technology. For instance, one student focused on learning how to capture video and stream it for Web delivery. He then held structured training sessions for other students and met informally with individuals and groups for tutoring. Other students covered other areas: HTML, audio, graphics, etc. In each case, the students got to practice their newfound skills and learned more in the process as they sought answers for questions their charges came up with. In short, they learned much more by teaching others. It's not hard to imagine this scenario working for the staff of an online publication.

Lesson Four: It's impossible to overemphasize the importance of testing

Students and recent grads are accustomed to a work process in which all effort is focused on the creation of a product: term paper, presentation, etc. Because most students do virtually all their work at the last minute, that process typically ends with the creation of a first draft of the product. It's obviously important that they break out of that mindset if they are developing online content, since first drafts of Web pages often overflow with bad code, broken links, browser-dependent features, and so on. So rather than patting our students on the back when they shipped us the first wave of files, we turned around and said, "Good start — now go check them all." Not a single page out of the hundred or so they produced survived untouched for the final launch. While the students were not initially wild about testing their work, they ultimately came to realize that failing to do so could undermine all their hard work. Testing can take as much time as initial design and programming, and needs to be built into any schedule.

Two additional lessons apply not only to Web projects but also to a wide range of work situations:

Lesson Five: For many newbies, teamwork is a frightening prospect

In the world of online publishing, teamwork is a way of life. In fact, the teamwork aspect was what particularly interested me in this project, since I wanted my journalism students to have the experience of working in mixed teams — as they are likely to if they pursue careers in online publishing. That aspect was undoubtedly terrifying for many of our students, however, as it would be for many recent college graduates. That's because in college, "teamwork" is a word that carries memories of trying to coordinate a group of people with wildly different schedules, and then getting everyone to pull his or her weight. Making the teamwork issue more terrifying was the fact that we were also asking our students to work with students from two other disciplines. We had to educate our students to the necessity of teamwork to our project, letting them see how it was impossible to accomplish our goal without it. We had to provide a clear vision of why teamwork was necessary and what it would yield. We also did our best to create an interdependence among the students. For instance, once the first iteration of the site had gone live, each group created a testing plan for its part of the site — and then handed it off to another group for actual testing. As a result, the students generally found the experience to be positive. As one class member noted: "We all seemed to have a lot to offer to each other. That made the end product very strong."

Lesson Six: No single style of leadership is the best one

In order to help the teams accomplish their goals, we assigned a project manager for each of eight major sections of the site. Project managers were selected based on their stated preferences to hold the position and the faculty members' previous classroom experiences with those who had volunteered. What was interesting to watch was the different means with which the project managers got the job done. One set rigid tasks and deadlines for her staff, and was not hesitant to show up at their homes early on weekend mornings to collect materials. Others were less willing to delegate responsibility and kept the most important tasks for themselves. In one group, the official project manager realized he had a de facto co-project manager — a strong-willed individual who had her own ideas on how best to handle the job — and he made the best of it. As he wrote in an evaluation while we were wrapping up the project:

In each case, what was most important was a commitment to get the job done, which should be reassuring to those who have trouble identifying the traits of good leaders for Web projects.