Learning to speak a new language
Just as you would enroll yourself in a French class before travelling to the South of France for vacation, enrolling in an online coding class is now also a viable option! The only difference is that you may not be doing this prior to travel because coding is a universally spoken language!
In recent times, coding/programming has become an essential skill for many, especially those who work or intend to interact with companies that operate in the tech space. You might not be the lead developer/engineer in a technical project but if your goal to understand the project in detail, then you will need to have some basic understanding of coding.
I’ll be the first to admit that from the outside looking in, learning how to code often seems like a daunting task. Most people assume that learning how to code involves signing up for a high-speed boot camp that will exhaust you without preparing you for real work! All this information might seem a little overwhelming for newbies, all you need is the hunger to learn and consistent effort that will push you to practice everyday.
The coding space is vast and the rate at which it is growing will not slow down anytime soon. So one of the most important things to do is to determine why you want to learn how to code. Most responses fall under these:
- You have some time on your hands so you are picking up a valuable hobby.
- Coding sometimes overlaps with your work so you’d like to understand the basic concepts
- You are beginning or changing the course of your career into coding.
If options 1 & 2 sound like you, this is only the beginning! There are many languages to choose from but the most important thing is to understand the fundamentals of coding. n order to have a better understanding of what coding entails, beginners should consider the following factors before they start coding.
It is important to understand the basic concept of coding and fundamentals of how computers work, choose an appropriate coding language that suits your interest and understanding, learn about tools used for coding and finally know the language you want to learn.
The following websites will teach you how to code online, either for free or at a fee depending on how far you want to go.
This is an attractive and free website with coding lessons for both beginners and experts. The website also has discussion forums for learners to raise their questions.
2. Code.org
Code.org is a non profit website which provides learners with easy tutorials that make coding a fun experience.
3. Udemy
In Udemy learners are taught by professionals. The platform helps in improving coding skills however, programming courses at this website are offered at a fee.
4. Pluralsight
The website provides a platform to learn coding and in addition learners are given tasks which they are to complete on their own.
Is an interactive and free website that provides coding lessons and projects. You can learn HTML, Javascript, CSS, databases, and Angular for free at Free Code Camp.
