Digital Media and Programming certificate programs provide opportunities to complete career training certificates that create pathways to entry-level employment in digital media, web development, software development or transition to college. Students engage in hands-on learning and receive instruction from top-rated instructors.
Student Success
“My mother was the first of her family to attend college, and she ingrained in me from an early age that I had to work hard and go to college too. I saw it as an opportunity for a fresh start, to go back to school, and finally study something I was passionate about. SDCCE opened my eyes to the world of digital design.“
- Isaac Masicampo
Explore Your Creative Side
875 Hours 
36 Weeks (25 Hours Per Week) 
North City
The Digital Design Certificate Program is a series of certificates that prepare students for the graphics, motion, video, and web design industries. Through a hands-on approach, students will gain working knowledge of these creative fields by planning, designing, and creating documents for the development of a portfolio as a final project.
Using Adobe Photoshop (Visual Design), Illustrator (Vector Design), InDesign (Page Layout Design), After Effects (Motion Graphics), Premiere Pro (Video Production) and Audition (sound editing and creation), and Adobe Firefly generative AI features, student spend 2 semesters developing their creative skills for the workplace. Students learned to create and maintain websites using HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and WordPress.
The Adobe Creative Cloud software is discounted for our enrolled students.
Digital Media consists of 4 Certificate Programs.
Complete one certificate or earn all four certificates to be as competitive as possible in the industry.
Intro to Digital Design Careers
The Intro to Digital Design Careers program is designed to provide students with an overview of the graphic design industry and the qualifications necessary to match career opportunities. The program focuses on the knowledge and essential skills required to execute the basic design principles and best industry practices. The courses provide a hands-on approach to planning, designing, and creating raster and vector-based documents for the development of a portfolio. Students who successfully complete the program can use the skills acquired in a variety of introductory digital design positions. This program also serves as a foundation for further instruction in digital design.
Complete two courses:
- COMM 550 Intro to Digital Design
- COMM 660 Visual Design
Visual and Vector Design
This program provides a hands-on approach by planning, designing and creating raster and vector-based documents using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for the development of a portfolio. It provides students with the knowledge and foundational skills needed to evaluate and apply appropriate basic design principles and best practices employed in the print design industry.
Complete two courses:
- COMM 660 Visual Design
- COMM 661 Vector Design
Digital Design
Using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, students will learn the technical skills needed to be prepared for entry-level employment in the print, digital media and design industry by planning, designing and creating computer-based digital media using a selection of industry-standard software.
Complete four courses:
- COMM 660 Visual Design
- COMM 661 Vector Design
- COMM 662 Page Layout Design
- COMM 663 Portfolio Design
Motion and Video Production
This program explores Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, teaching students the technical skills needed for the motion graphics and video production industry. Students will plan, design and create computer-based animation, motion graphics, and videos to prepare for entry-level positions in this industry.
Complete two courses:
- COMM 667 Motion Graphics
- COMM 668 Video Production
Web Design and Content Management
This program is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to assess and learn basic design principles employed in the web design content management industry. Using a hands-on approach with WordPress, HTML, CSS, Photoshop, and Illustrator apps, students will gain a working knowledge and technical skills to be ready for an introductory position in web design and content management systems.
Complete two courses:
- COMM 666 Workflow for Modern Web Design
- COMM 669 Web Design and Content Management
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Digital Design Class Schedule
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College Credit
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72 Hours North City
Complete three courses:
- COMM 650 Digital Photography
- COMM 651 Photo Editing
- COMM 652 Advanced Photo Processing
The Digital Photography program provides basic knowledge and skills required for a career as a photographer. The focus is to provide the fundamentals of digital photography and covers how to use the features of a digital camera. Students will learn the basic concepts of photography and the operation of a digital camera (no phone cameras). This program also covers establishing a photo management system and editing workflow used by professional photographers to accelerate the photo editing process and make organizing, editing, and sharing of digital photographs quick and easy. Advanced photo editing software tools will also be used for non-destructive mass image editing, printing, and publishing. Upon successful completion of this program, students will be prepared for an introductory career in photography which includes but is not limited to photographer/editor, school photographer, real estate photographer, and/or freelance photographer.
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Develop Websites and Mobile Applications
360 Hours 18 Weeks (20 Hours Per Week) North City
Provides students with the basic knowledge and skills needed for developing and designing websites. Front End Web Developers design the user interface and are responsible for visual design, user interaction and browser compatibilities. Students who successfully complete the program can use the skills learned in a variety of industries including graphic design and prototyping, website design, web marketing and consulting services.
Front End Web Developer I
The Front End Web Developer I program is designed to provide students with an introduction to the Web Development Industry. Front End Web Developers design the user interface and are responsible for visual design, user interaction, and browser compatibilities, and the courses offer the student a look into the ecosystem. The program courses include basic web programming, components of a website, pre-planning tools and strategies of preliminary web development utilizing user an overview of the internet, file management in relation to web development, components of a website, basic web authoring techniques using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and basic styling and structuring techniques using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Additionally, the program courses provide the student with important soft skills that are critical in this industry, including communication, honesty, teamwork, punctuality, integrity, accountability, and organization.
Complete two courses:
- COMM 670 Web Development Fundamentals
- COMM 671 Soft Skills in Web Development
Front End Web Developer II
The Front End Web Developer II program is designed to leverage the skills the student learns in the Front End Web Developer I program by pushing the student beyond the basics and into more intermediate and advanced level techniques. In this program, the student learns intermediate to advanced-level skills in HTML and CSS. Additionally, the student is introduced to User Interface Design, specifically learning about user and task analysis, field research methods, usability testing and the UX process, creating sitemaps, wireframes, mood boards, style guides, and more. This course also introduces the student to the promotion of a website through search engine optimization (SEO), which includes basic optimization strategies through keyword research, building inbound links, and optimizing pages and content. Finally, students will learn about accessibility strategies, how to maintain site health, and how to build and maintain a portfolio for success beyond the classroom.
Complete four courses:
- COMM 672 Web Programming: HTML and CSS
- COMM 673 User Interface Design
- COMM 674 Modern Web Development Tools
- COMM 675 Web Development Special Topics
Become a Student Enroll in Classes
Front End Web Developer Class Schedule
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360 Hours Each 18 Weeks (20 Hours Per Week) North City
Complete three courses:
- COMM 681 Content Management Systems I
- COMM 682 Content Management Systems II
- COMM 683 WordPress Theme Development
Provides basic knowledge and skills needed to develop, customize, and manage websites using a CMS (Content Management System). The focus of this program is to provide the fundamentals of working with a CMS, including set-up, terminology, role management, functionality enhancement using plugins, and methods of customization by using child themes and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Content management driven websites require the use of databases and topics covered will include an overview of how to work with a database and its relationship to the CMS. In addition, this program teaches custom theme development using Pre-Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and other front-end web languages. Upon successful completion of this program, students will be prepared to work as a WordPress developer, consultant, and/or content creator.
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Content Management Systems Class Schedule
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360 Hours Each 18 Weeks (20 Hours Per Week) North City
Complete four courses:
- COMP 690 Web Programming: JavaScript
- COMP 691 NoSQL Document Databases
- COMP 692 Building Restful Web APIs
- COMP 693 JavaScript Frameworks
MongoDB, Express, React and Node, also known as the MERN stack, are a popular combination for building modern full-stack web applications. Companies such as Uber, Lyft, Coinbase, Accenture, Netflix, Pinterest, and more leverage these technologies to build fast, efficient, and scalable solutions that can handle the massive amounts of transactions on their platforms every day. In this program, the student will be introduced to full-stack web development with the MERN stack. The student will learn the JavaScript programming language and how to use it to build data-driven web applications using React and Node, work with data using MongoDB and Express, and learn to test, secure, and deploy applications. This program also covers many other complementary tools and technologies.
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Full Stack Web Developer Class Schedule
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84 Hours 12 Weeks (7 Hours Per Week) North City
Complete three courses:
- COMP 645 Mobile App HTML Development
- COMP 646 Mobile Software Development Platform
- COMP 647 Mobile App Publication
Provides students with the knowledge and skills to develop, publish, and market cross-platform mobile applications. Students will use open source tools to build mobile apps that are compatible with Android, IOS, and Windows Mobile.
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Mobile Application Development Class Schedule
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Learn a New Programming Language
72 - 90 Hours North City
- COMP 666 Introduction to Software Development I
- COMP 667 Introduction to Software Development II
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252 Hours North City
The Programming with Python certificate program provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to program software using the Python programming language. The two courses provide instruction in fundamental Python topics, ranging from the essentials of the language, including control statements, functions, and data types, to object-oriented programming concepts.
Students who successfully complete the program can use the skills learned in a variety of industries and jobs including, network and system administration, cyber security, automation, embedded programming, and general software development. This program also serves as a foundation for additional training in web and game development.
Complete two courses:
- COMP 660 Programming with Python I
- COMP 661 Programming with Python II
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Programming with Python Class Schedule
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252 Hours North City
In the Data Management with Python certificate program, students are introduced to programming databases using Python. Students will learn to program against relational and document-oriented databases such as SQLite, MySQL, and SQL Server. It teaches the basic concepts of relational data, databases, tables, SQL, and walks the student through the code expected to connect to these databases and perform CRUD (create, retrieve, update, and delete) operations.
Additionally, this program introduces the student to Python for Data Science. In this course, students will have the opportunity to make sense of the data by using Python's wide variety of data analytics and graphical modeling packages to perform exploratory data analysis, apply visualization and inferential techniques and data mining algorithms and develop the ability to recognize and uncover patterns in the data to solve complex business problems.
Students who finish the program can use the skills learned in various industries and jobs, including data science, embedded programming, game development, general software development, automation, cybersecurity, web development, and more used at companies such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, and Dropbox. This program also serves as a foundation for additional training in information technology.
Complete two courses:
- COMP 662 Programming Databases-Python
- COMP 663 Python for Data Science
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Data Management with Python Class Schedule
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100 - 120 Hours North City
- COMP 648 Programming with JavaScript I
- COMP 649 Programming with JavaScript II
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Programming with JavaScript Class Schedule
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