Is web development something you’ve always wanted to learn, but you keep putting it off? It makes sense. The internet is a core part of modern life – if you think about it, almost everyone you know spends a lot of time in their day staring at websites.
Becoming a web developer is a great option for people who are genuinely interested in how the web interface is designed. It’s also great for people who want to gain skills in an area that is only becoming more relevant and essential. It’s incredibly viable as a career and as a hobby.
And although it can seem daunting, there are so many ways to learn. So stop procrastinating! Because we’re about to give you a number of different resources you can use to learn the basics of web development and where to go to further your skills.
Online Courses
There are many MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) you can enroll in to take legitimate online courses. They are often supervised and reviewed by experts in their field. There are many different MOOCs you can register for that offer top quality web development courses. Though the majority of online courses require payment, some will offer free trial periods so you can see if their teaching methods are a good fit for you.
- Coursera – Coursera is the biggest MOOC provider on the internet and is even affiliated with top Ivy League colleges such as Yale and Princeton.
- Codeacademy – Hugely popular as a beginners’ course, CodeAcademy will introduce you to the basics of CSS and HTML. They also assign you projects to work on so you can put your new skills into practice.
- Treehouse – Like Codeacademy, Treehouse is one of the most popular online courses for beginners. Treehouse is also similar in its execution as well as providing an archive of thousands of tutorial videos.
Video Tutorials
Youtube is home to more than just Drake covers and videos of cats. It also has countless video tutorials to kick-start your career as a web developer. Video tutorials can be a great resource for people who prefer simply to watch and absorb without necessarily needing the practical aspect that online courses offer.
- The New Boston: Originally a Youtube channel, The New Boston now hosts an online community with access to over 4,000 video tutorials. They include web development as well as computer programming, game development, graphic design, and more.
- Codecourse: Codecourse is a series of free video tutorials. They range from absolute beginners’ introductions to various kinds of languages and applications.
- Derek Banas: Focused less on beginners’ introductions, Derek Bana provides video tutorials on many different programming languages. He has made video series on languages such as CSS and SASS, Ruby, JavaScript, Go, Swift, Visual C#, Dart, and more. These kinds of channels are helpful if you have an idea of the languages you want to learn.
Forums
If these websites and online courses aren’t enough, there all forums available like web dev forums at DaniWeb. These sites are where beginners all the way to experts ask any questions they have. These can range from the most basic to the most complex, case-specific questions only an expert can answer. Forums are of invaluable use to beginners because they can supplement the rest of the resources you use. Rather than trawling through different videos and courses to find the answers you need, you can simply place it in the search bar and find what you need. Whatever problem you have, other web devs have experienced it.
Remember these are only a few mediums you can explore and only a few examples. There are so many different ways to learn and different places to learn them. If you want to be on your way to becoming an experienced developer, the most important part is finding the best way that you learn and dedicating yourself to it. Good luck!