learning runs a bit counter to the traditional four year university program. Until a few years ago, it was close to impossible to find a web development course in a traditional college setting. In recent years, this has gotten a bit better, but learning web development still requires a lot of self-motivation.
As a still emerging field, your skills as a web developer are often evaluated by the strength of your portfolio rather than your credentials. Building up samples of work is going to be your most valuable asset in the field, and experience is paramount. This isn’t to write-off entirely the value of a proper college education. Rather, it’s to tell you that if you cannot attend a regular university, or have chosen to study something else there, then you are far from lost. A good amount of the web community are self-learners, myself included. The best way to build websites for a living is to start building websites on your own. The strength of your skills, and your own motivation, will be the strongest factors in how far you are able to take it.
Fortunately, there are lots of online resources that can help you get started. We are lucky to be working in an industry that is growing exponentially, and the skills needed are out there for you to learn. But you also will be required to drive yourself and push to complete your skill set. For those hungry to acquire knowledge, and eager to get started, there are several places where you can learn web development right away.
One of the leading premium online learning resources is Treehouse. The program comes at a monthly cost with two pricing tiers. It works by guiding you along various “tracks” which are meant to teach you a specific skill or programming language from beginner to advanced. In each track, you will take several courses with videos from an instructor, accompanied by structured code walkthroughs and sample quizzes to keep you on pace. Treehouse has tracks that can help with all aspects of building websites and apps, from building the most basic website with no knowledge of HTML or CSS to back-end languages and iOS app development.
Treehouse comes closer than most at replicating an actual university structure, as its tracks are highly structured and assume no previous knowledge. But it will be up to you to make sure you keep up with a course, and engage with all of the examples provided. But Treehouse also gives you access to a lot of external resources related to learning, including small workshops, a library of books and audiovisual materials, and exclusive conferences. And as you gain more experience, Treehouse also offers help with job placement and internships, which is a pretty big bonus.
Lynda is a bit like Treehouse, in that it offers a range of video courses taught by online instructors for a monthly fee. However, rather than break things into tracks, Lynda simply gives you access to thousands of courses which range from beginner to intermediate to advanced. Lynda is not just focused on web development, and has courses on animation, photography, film, music, and even education. But Lynda’s core strength and most comprehensive course offerings are available in web design and development. To get started, you simply need to find the course you want and take it.
It will be up to you to structure your own path, but once you do, there will be a course on just about anything you can imagine. You might want to start learning a bit of basic Javascript, then dive into the fundamentals of a Javascript library like Backbone or Ember. Or maybe you want to learn some front-end development before moving to advanced WordPress theme development. Each course comes with a series of videos, and depending on the course, a few examples for you to walk through and some sample code. Instructors are vetted by Lynda, so you can be sure they are high quality.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to jump straight into things, and works best by example, then Lynda is probably the right choice for you. It will offer you a full range or learning opportunities, and you can work at whatever pace you feel comfortable with
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