You’ve heard the handful of reasons you should learn to code: programmers are in high demand, coding makes you smarter by teaching you to “problem solve”, coding helps you work more efficiently (shortcuts you learn), it’s fun, and you learn to create something all by yourself. This video does a better job at doing the explaining.
After you’ve watched the video, check out our map of the different sites and platforms for learning code for free. There are a handful of other sites that offer a range of free and paid classes/tutorials, but we’ve chosen to share only those that are 100% free.
Codecademy is the most popular site to learn coding, thanks in large part to the giant success of their promotion “Code Year” and their participation in Y Combinator. Today, one can learn HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and PHP.
Code.org also gained traction by using their own promotion “Hour of Code” and today is working toward becoming the leading source of coding education for children. By finishing a tutorial or class here you won’t be ready to create your own app, but it does offer a unique and fun way to learn, with games like “CodeCombat” through which you defeat ogres to learn Python or Javascript.
Khan Academy is one of the pioneers of online education and also one of the more known go-to sites for learning to code. There is no going wrong with starting your coding journey on Khan, as you can learn anything from the basics of computer science, Javascripst, and HTML.
Udacity is a terrific and innovative site that offers you everything you need to learn web development, Android, ios, and the ins and outs of software engineering. One of the added bonuses is that you can choose to take courses built by some of the leading technological companies in the world: Facebook, Google, Salesforce, and Nvidia among others.
EdX offers online classes from the leading universities: MITx, HarvardX, BerkleyX, and UTx among others. Unlike some of the other platforms, here you are taking classes from leading universities, but just like the rest you can learn at your own pace. Of course, they also offer video games to help you learn and the added value of being able to meet others along the way. Learn anything from Java, HTML 5, and a whole lot computer science (great for CS).
CoderDojo is the Meetup of coding. Instead of sitting at home and saying to yourself that you will begin coding – and then never getting to it, CoderDojo brings together youth to learn to code from mentors in groups.
MIT Open Courseware is obviously of the highest standard with its relation to the MIT. Some of the general courses you can start with and then move on include Intro. to Computer Science and Programming, Intro. to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Introduction to Computers and Engineering Problem Solving. Only want to code? Check out the introduction classes to Python, Java, C, and C++.
We are all going to start learning to code. We’ve said it, but we are going to turn it into a reality by using a bit of each and every one of these platforms. Join us! Which site will you be using?
Feature image: Michael Himbeault
