Course Description: This course provides an in-depth exploration of CSS programming, covering essential concepts, advanced techniques, and practical applications for creating visually appealing and responsive web pages. Students will learn how to effectively style HTML elements and manage layouts, animations, and responsive design.

Course Objectives:

• Understand the fundamentals of CSS and its syntax.
• Develop skills in styling HTML elements.
• Learn advanced CSS techniques for layout, animations, and responsiveness.
• Gain experience with CSS frameworks and preprocessors.
• Build and style complex web pages and web applications.

Week 1: Introduction to CSS

• Overview of CSS and its role in web development
• Basic syntax of CSS: selectors, properties, and values
• Linking CSS to HTML: inline, internal, and external stylesheets
• Understanding the cascade, specificity, and inheritance
• Practical exercises in applying basic styles

Week 2: Styling Text and Fonts

• Text properties: color, font-family, font-size, font-weight, and font-style
• Text alignment, line height, letter spacing, and text decoration
• Using Google Fonts and custom fonts
• Practical exercises in text styling

Week 3: The CSS Box Model

• Understanding the box model: content, padding, border, and margin
• Using the box-sizing property
• Adding and styling borders, margins, and padding
• Practical exercises in box model manipulation

Week 4: CSS Layouts

• Introduction to display properties: block, inline, inline-block
• Positioning elements: static, relative, absolute, fixed, and sticky
• Floating elements and clearing floats
• Practical exercises in positioning and floating elements

Week 5: Flexbox Layout

• Understanding the flexbox model
• Creating flexible layouts with flex containers and flex items
• Aligning and distributing space within a flex container
• Practical exercises in building flexbox layouts

Week 6: Grid Layout

• Introduction to CSS Grid Layout
• Defining grid containers and grid items
• Creating grid templates with rows and columns
• Aligning and positioning items within the grid
• Practical exercises in building grid layouts

Week 7: Responsive Design

• Understanding responsive design and media queries
• Creating breakpoints for different screen sizes
• Responsive typography and fluid grids
• Using viewport units and flexible images
• Practical exercises in creating responsive web pages

Week 8: Advanced CSS Techniques

• CSS transitions and animations
• Creating keyframe animations with @keyframes
• Using transforms: translate, rotate, scale, and skew
• Practical exercises in adding animations and transitions

Week 9: CSS Preprocessors

• Introduction to CSS preprocessors: Sass and LESS
• Setting up and using a preprocessor
• Variables, nesting, and mixins in Sass/LESS
• Practical exercises in writing and compiling Sass/LESS

Week 10: CSS Frameworks

• Introduction to CSS frameworks: Bootstrap, Foundation
• Setting up and using a CSS framework
• Customizing framework components
• Practical exercises in building web pages with a CSS framework

Week 11: Advanced Styling and Best Practices

• CSS custom properties (variables)
• Using CSS functions: calc(), var()
• Best practices for writing maintainable and scalable CSS
• Practical exercises in advanced styling techniques

Week 12: Final Project and Review

• Comprehensive project integrating all CSS concepts
• Applying techniques learned throughout the course
• Peer review and feedback sessions
• Final project presentations and critique
• Course review and Q&A

Assessment:

• Weekly assignments and quizzes (40%)
• Midterm project (20%)
• Final project (30%)
• Class participation and attendance (10%)