About ten months ago, I attended an excellent course on Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) with the good folks at Edgeofmyseat.com. So when I had the opportunity last month to attend their newest course on HTML, I was interested.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I have worked with Edgeofmyseat.com for years. They often provide the robust web development to compliment my web designs. As such, I am very familiar with the depth of their web development knowledge. I rely on it.

The official course title was HTML and Web Standards for Beginners. As an experienced communications designer, I have been building websites for years. Still, I appreciate that even those who know their stuff can benefit from a fresh look at the basics, especially when that look is being offered by highly qualified professionals.

When I took the CSS course last year, I knew I had a lot to learn. With HTML, I was pretty sure that I had the topic well covered. I went into this HTML course looking to confirm that what I believe to be true and accurate, is indeed so.

So, would Edgeofmyseat.com surprise me? Could they deliver value to an experienced web designer with a course aimed at beginners?

As the training day drew to a close and I reviewed my notes, I did admit to myself: the training was in fact well worth the price of admission. Drew McLellan, a director and senior developer at Edgeofmyseat.com, really did deliver. With his expert knowledge, Drew highlighted a number of points that I didn’t know, especially when covering what to expect with HTML 5. (Those W3C white papers are frightening to me as a designer.) Equally important, Drew’s presentation confirmed that my own grasp of HTML and web standards was solid.

Even though the course was clearly aimed at beginners – and I would have loved to attend this course about 10 years ago – there were still a few gems that an experienced guy like me could pick up. The course was value for money. Job well done by Edgeofmyseat.com.