Gone are the days when learning coding or programming was reserved for the geeks or nerds. The case is exactly different nowadays. The latest buzz of “How to code” is here to stay. Making sure that you have little coding knowledge under your belt is proving to be an incredible skill no matter whether you are a marketer or an entrepreneur or a member of any of business team. Talk to any entrepreneur, marketer or freelancer, you will get an idea about learning coding will help you get through. The reasons are more than one! Half of the 2016 is gone, so if you haven’t included this incredible skill in your 2017’s new year resolution, you need to reconsider. Here is why!
Why?
With softwares ruling the digital world, the demand of learning coding is becoming must for every professionals in every field whether it is marketing, technology, commerce, finance and what not. As the digital age is making us more and more dependant on computer softwares for business, learning to code has become helpful here. Learn to code is already in the must have technical skills list of 21st century and this demand of technical skills is growing like never before.
Coding is problem solving. Coding is no different than the way you can fuel up your car, check the oil and get it serviced by reading the manual you are provided with. But coding takes you a long way ahead. It is beyond these simple things. It teaches you to repaint your car, customize the engine to make it work in the way you want. Hope you got an idea why coding is important and why you should also learn it.
You are convinced! Now what?
- Did you know Bill Gates, got into programming at a very early age? The reason being his prep school used to provide students access to GE Mainframe Computer.
- Similarly the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, hired a private programming tutor to learn the same while growing up.
Yeah, yeah, I know this coding thing is not the only factor behind their success (or should I say making them billionaire), but it didn’t hurt either.
But unlike them, most of us were not gifted with this kind of exposure to the digital world and most of us are still naive to how the world of programming works. Many of the people around are still wondering how to write and combine the long string of code to create a beautiful website, app and more! And trust me you are not alone!
But don’t worry because with so many information available online, you can also master the same. No need to spend a lot of money or put yourself in debt in coding learning, as these resources are definitely going to help you to get through this.
10 handful resources to make the process of learning coding easier!
1. Codecademy :
Price - Free but pro-version also available at $19.99/moPro for $19.99/moPro for $19.99/mo
Codecademy - Teaching the world how to code, definitely tops my list while talking about the top resources for how to learn programming. Currently owning around 25 million users, one can start learning as soon as he registers himself on the website. They can learn to design websites with HTML, CSS and also customize it with Javascript.
The courses provided are not lecture style but the students actually get to do hands on coding and witness changes real time. Sims, the owner of Codecademy says that the website allows students to learn the coding by providing preview for every line they write immediately instead of watching an instructor. Apart from that, Codecademy also provides students access to QnA forums and groups to learn on topics like Python, Ruby on Rails, Etsy, etc.
2. W3schools :
Price : Free
W3schools - the largest web developer site, as they define it, provides free tutorials on JavaScript, HTML, CSS, jQuery and what not along with lot of references. So if you want to know what means, it will quickly show up that “ defines a division or section in HTML document.”
3. Tuts+ :
Price : $15/mo and pro version at $360/year
The website provides tiered subscription plan that allows users to download multiple ebooks too along with the course. The ebook comprises of a huge catalog that comes with different code specifics like Jekyll, Sass, SVG, etc. I should definitely not forget to mention that even professionals can take the ongoing education courses to brush up their programming skills. The website provides learner tutorials in the form of write-ups about various topics.
Price : Free but pro version available at $29/mo
The famous e-learning course provider offers a wide range of courses in several types of programming languages, web tools and designing. The website offers both free as well as paid versions. With free version users can get access to the 10 introductory courses that include topics like SQL, Objective C, jQuery which are great for getting started. While with the paid version, users can get access to 200 videos and 50+ interesting courses. The website basically works on learn, practice, win and track model which means first the users can learn via watching videos and then challenges are placed in front of them to track their learning experience.
5. Khan Academy :
Price : Free
The academy is best for those who prefer short videos to learn things. Started in 2006, by Salman Khan, the idea of this website was generated after creating and sharing video tutorials on Youtube. One of the original e-courses providers, the Khan Academy has become widely popular over the years and offers courses in numerous programming languages, both for beginners as well as experts. Relying heavily on videos, users can learn to code animations, games, drawings and a lot more. For those who are planning to start their coding career, or are beginners at coding, the Khan Academy is the best place.
6. Treehouse :
Price : Free trial for 2 weeks, Basic version at $25/mo and pro version at $50/mo
The online technology courses provider, Treehouse provides programming courses for both beginners as well as experts. The website works on learn, practice and earn model. With 222+ courses, videos, challenges, the website makes sure that the learners are kept busy. Apart from that, it also helps you learn new business strategies to make the best out of your knowledge. But unlike above mentioned options, for this one, you need to spend some cash before you go ahead. The basic version comes at $25/mo with which you get access to around 1000+ videos and can take interesting challenges. While if you go for the pro version at around $50/mo users can unlock the bonus content and download videos to watch offline too.
7. Code.org :
Price : Free
Another player in the field of online coding courses, the website’s mission is to provide more and more people opportunity to learn programming. The website works more like games with drag & drop tiles. Learners can see the code both during challenge as well as when it is completed.
The next three in the list are massive open online courses provider ie MOOC. These websites provide courses related to not only coding but other fields too like life science, engineering, health habits, etc.
8. Coursera :
Price : Both free and paid
Despite of being founded just 4 years ago, Coursera has become a major Major Open Online Courses provider that offers around 1990 courses from 119 well known institutions. Though there are certain programs that require you to spend money to get certified, there are hundred of other free introductory courses that provide specializations from well known universities like University of Toronto and Vanderbilt, etc. One of the widely popular MOOCs provided by Coursera is “Programming for everybody (Getting started with Python)
9. Udemy :
Price : Free to hundreds of dollars
Another MOOC provider, Udemy is one place you can find resources for just anything. It is a great place to develop your coding skills with courses like Complete Java Developer Course. Though the courses fee varies from free to hundreds of dollars, Udemy has created its own position when it comes to learning programming**.** Another feature that it brings along is to allow user to sign up as an instructor and create his/her own course.
10. edX :
Price : Free
Similar to above, this one is also a MOOC provider, serving millions of students around the globe. But this one is a non profit and open source which means anyone can build his own tools and contribute to the edX platform. Some of the most popular edX course is “Fundamentals of Computer Science” by IIT Bombay. Most of the courses I found here were free, but to get a verified certificate you need to spend some cash which differs between the type of courses you are enrolled with.
Though there are hundreds of other websites that help you to enhance your coding skills, these are the top ten sites I found to be the best. Have you tried any of these? How was your experience? I would love to know about it in the comments below.
