How Web Professionals Global Is Helping States Run SkillsUSA Competitions

by Steve Waddell | May 23, 2023 | Web Competitions

Web Professionals Global is proud to support state SkillUSA web design and development competitions for a second year in 2023 ahead of the national competition in June in Atlanta, GA. Before continuing on, check out our article from last year outlining the new and streamlined model we created so states could more easily run their own competitions. 

Competitions can be run in person or entirely online, making it easy for more students to join and participate in each state. Not only does the new approach make it easier for any state to run their own web design and development competition, but it also ensures that every state is conducting their own competition to prepare students for the national competition. This model gives all states the same turnkey resources to ensure a successful competition that engages students.

This is the second year for Web Professionals Global supplying turn-key competitions to the state SkillsUSA event teams. Each year we double the number of states who take advantage of our competition package. We are also seeing the results. For states that used our materials in 2022 and again this year, we could see improvements in competitors building their skills to help them better compete at the national competition. 

What does the Web Professionals Global Competition pack include?  

Competitor Support

• Online web design exam similar to what the competitors might see at nationals 
• Competition project with client assets and judging rubrics 
• Handouts for competitors with overview and links to resources
• Online development environment “IDE” for each competitive team

State Event Team and Judge Support

With easy access to competitor IDEs, judges can quickly judge the websites. Judge training videos aligned to the state level competition help them understand how to use the scoring rubric to judge similar to how the national event is judged. There is also a competition scoring rubric tied to the unique competition problem “The Work Order.” And national event team mentors access allows state-level event coordinators to get extra help running their state events. 

“The Web Professionals Global Organization wants to thank all of the Web Design National Event team members who helped us build this year’s state competition package and support the state competition event teams. I would like to give a special thanks to Jonathan for his fantastic problem design.” – Mark DuBois, Executive Director of WebProfessionalsGlobal.org and Tech Chair for National SkillsUSA Web Design and Development competition.

Shout out to the coordinators and their event teams in MD, LA, TX, IN, KY, NV, OK and IL, which all had the chance to experience a competitive event that best prepares them for the national competition.

The states we worked with had great things to say about this model and working with Web Professionals Global. Here are several testimonials:

Mark, your platform and contest is very well-designed and easy to use. The students truly loved competing in this contest! I can’t wait to see what you all have for nationals as well. It’s going to be wonderful! We thoroughly enjoyed the integration into this year’s contest and look forward to working with you again on next year’s contest!” – Renee Blackshear, Instructor, Statewide Faculty Senate, SkillsUSA Texas

“The supplied client assets and coding environment were easy to use, and the collaborative piece between team members was invaluable for them to see real-time results. Mark and his team were invaluable in not only providing a real-time environment for students to code a website, but their attention to detail is impeccable. They are readily available to answer any questions and offered tips in advance to help the competition run as smoothly as possible. They made me feel much more comfortable knowing they were a phone call or email away. I would highly recommend using their product for any web design competition.” – Matt MacKay, WCSD Signature Academies & CTE Department, Nevada

Below is the full completed schedule for the 2023 state competitions:

Maryland: March 25

Louisiana: March 30

Texas: March 31 and April 14

Indiana: April 15

Kentucky: April 20

Nevada: April 20

Oklahoma: April 24

Illinois: April 28

If you are interested in working with Web Professionals Global to run your own state web design and development competition, contact us today.

2023 State Web Competitions

by Mark | Mar 21, 2023 | Web Competitions

We are working closely with a number of states this year to help them better align their state SkillsUSA web design and development competitions with our national SkillsUSA competition to be held in Atlanta. Although our calendar is rather full, we are still willing to help additional states (if they request). Just contact us as soon as possible.

Contest overview

We provide the overall environment, assets, detailed scoring rubric, and online testing environment. We do ask that each state provide a contest supervisor (physically present the day(s) of the competition and judges who have knowledge of web design and development. We offer this overview of the contest:

• You will do all of the coding in an online editor environment.
• All teams will be given the same wireframe to implement.
• You will decide the colors, fonts, spacing and other aesthetics for the client and implement the aesthetics into the provided layout.
• The ‘client’ has provided images and content.
  • As is often the case in the real world with assets provided by clients, they may not be completely appropriate for the web.
  • You should rename and optimize images. You may adjust and add effects to fit your aesthetic vision.
• You are not allowed to use frameworks such as Bootstrap or jQuery or React. You must be able to demonstrate competency with the foundational technologies, HTML, CSS, and JS in this competition.
• Judges will use any or all of the latest versions of the following browsers
  • Desktop: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
  • Android: Chrome
  • iOS: Safari on iPhone and or iPad
  • Accessibility: JAWS screen reader or Apple VoiceOver

Coding Environment

We create the virtual coding environments for use by each team. We encourage competitors and judges to familiarize yourself with the coding environment prior to the competition: https://webprofessionals.site/IDEoverview (this link will open in a new browser tab). Obviously, it takes us a bit of time to spin up the individual environments for teams (which is why we ask for as much advance notice as possible).

External Resources

We are often asked if competitors can use external resources. Of course, but there are limits as we want as consistent an environment as possible (so judges can better evaluate similar work).

You will be allowed to use Google Fonts to find a font that is appropriate for the client. (https://fonts.google.com/) (this link will open in a new browser tab).

If you need textures or other design assets, you may find resources from the internet during the competition. They must have appropriate copyright licensing and sources will need to be documented. It is up to the competitor to confirm appropriate copyrights are followed (judges may likely check – disqualifying teams who do not follow copyrights).

You will need to find or create iconography for the client. We recommend https://thenounproject.com/ (this link will open in a new browser tab).

For those who would like to distribute a copy of this information, we provide a PDF version of this document.