Curriculum Resources for Educators: Expression Web and Expression Design

The Expression Studio suite of software provides easy-to-use professional Web design tools that allow users to create dynamic, interactive Web sites.

These educational materials provide a variety of resources for learning Web design with the tools provided in Microsoft Expression Studio software.  Students, educators and hobbyists of all ages will find quick tutorials, short learning units and extensive course content to fit their individual teaching and learning styles. The range of difficulty goes from easy - with the quick start tutorials that require no previous Web design experience- to a more advanced level for people who are already skillful at using Web technologies and employing design strategies.  The one semester web design course is appropriate for high school and introductory post-secondary technology courses.

Advanced Expression Studio Units

5 -10 Class Hours each
Software version: Version 4

This collection of next-step learning and teaching units extends the basic Expression Studio techniques learned in the collections of resources available below. The units include lesson plans, project ideas, and tutorials for Expression Web and Expression Design. Topics include Dynamic Web Templates, Cascading Style Sheets, inserting media including Deep Zoom and Photosynth, and editing images in Expression Web and in Design.

Expression Web Quick Start Tutorial: Beaches Around the World

3 Class Hours (2-3 hours of out-of-class learning)
Software version: Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4

Author: Aseem Badshah
A fast paced lesson that helps beginners create HTML pages with layers, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), interactive buttons, and Dynamic Web Templates. Build a cool Web site about the trip of your dreams to beautiful beaches around the world with this quick and easy Expression Web tutorial. (This Expression Web tutorial is included in Module 5 of the semester-long curriculum unit, Introduction to Web Design Using Microsoft Expression Studio.)

Expression Web Tutorial (Advanced): Beaches Around the World

2 Class Hours
Software version: Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4

Author: Aseem Badshah
This tutorial guides students to modify the Web site they created in Expression Web Quick Start Tutorial: Beaches Around the World by adding custom interactive buttons, interactive content areas, centered web pages, and new backgrounds. (This tutorial is also included in Module 7 in the semester-long curriculum unit, Introduction to Web Design Using Microsoft Expression Studio.)

Expression Design Tutorial: Creating Images with Expression Design (Beaches Around the World)

2 Class Hours
Software version: Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4

Author: Aseem Badshah
A tutorial to create and edit designs with Expression Design’s vector-based drawing tools, produce graphical effects, and change settings for optimization . The tutorial provides details to export images and files for use on the Web. The images created can be used in the Expression Web Quick Start Tutorial: Beaches Around the World. (This Expression Design tutorial is also included in Module 4 in the semester-long curriculum, Introduction to Web Design Using Microsoft Expression Studio.)

Expression Web Quick Start Tutorial: Heavy Metal Show Car

2 Class Hours
Software version: Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4

Author: Aseem Badshah
This fast paced beginner lesson introduces basic Expression Web techniques for creating HTML pages with layers, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), interactive buttons, and Dynamic Web Templates plus several fun and cool extras. The topic of this project is Richard Tapia’s amazing, award-winning 1970 Chevelle show car – Heavy Metal. Dr. Tapia is a professor in the Computational and Applied Mathematics Department at Rice University whose moveable work of art has taken first prize at national car shows!

Introduction to Web Design Using Microsoft Expression Studio

90 class Hours (one semester course – ready to teach)
Software version: Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4

Project Directors:  Carla Faini & Patricia Phillips
Editors:  Debbie Carter, Myra Deister,  David Jacobus
A complete standards-based, 8-module, one-semester course on Web Design. This teacher-created and student-tested curriculum is an extensive collection of creative teaching and learning materials that thoroughly spans Web Design knowledge and skills and promotes meaningful, real-world learning experiences.  Feedback from more than 70 teachers has been incorporated in this curriculum unit.