Online Resources to Help You Learn All The Things

The web industry is always changing. Just when you get settled into a routine, the flow of technological innovations force you start a new one. Can you keep up? It never hurts to set aside some time for learning new skills and sharpening your current ones.

In this post, I’ll outline a few online resources that can help you continue your education in web design and development (or to get started, if you’re just joining us).

Code Academy

code-academy If you like hands-on learning, then you might want to give Code Academy a try. It’s free, and the courses consist of a series of interactive exercises that have you typing code in an in-browser console as you read through lessons. You earn badges as you complete courses. The courses offered that are most relevant to WordPress themes include PHP, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript.

Code School

code-school Code School is another fun way to learn to code. It uses screencasts and in-browser coding exercises to provide an interactive experience. Like Code Academy, you earn badges and points as you complete courses. Code School does charge a fee, but some courses are free. There are several courses that are relevant to creating WordPress themes: HTML 5 and CSS3, and JavaScript (with a focus on jQuery). The “tryjQuery” course is free.

There are also free courses in Git and Chrome Dev Tools, which can be great tools to add to your development arsenal.

Lynda.com

lynda Lynda.com has been around for a long time, and it’s got a large library of courses that are relevant to web design and development. Since the courses are all video-based, you can learn at your own pace. There is a monthly fee for full access, but most of the courses let you view a few videos for free.

Skillshare

skill-share Skillshare offers relatively inexpensive courses in a variety of subjects. It’s community-based, with peers sharing their skills with other peers. The course selections change regularly, so it’s worth checking periodically for something that interests you. Please note that these courses are instructor-led and follow a specific timeline, with due-dates for projects and discussions.

Coursera and Udacity

Screen-Shot-2013-05-01-at-9.32.24-AM-580x309 If you’re up for some university-style learning, you might be interested in Coursera and Udacity. Both allow you to take college courses online for free. In general, these courses are broader in scope than Code Academy and Code School, but sometimes it’s nice to take a step back and enhance your current knowledge with a “big picture” view. Not to mention, to try something different!

udacity Coursera has a number of upcoming courses in Information Technology and Design. Udacity’s course catalog includes a Computer Science section with classes that might interest you.

Like Skillshare, the courses on Coursera and Udacity are all instructor-led, with specific timelines and due dates.

CodePen

codepen CodePen is a community-based environment to learn and practice HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other languages through a browser-based interface — a coding playground. Check out this cool animation my teammate Michael Fields created. CodePen even featured it recently!

Have you found other cool resources for learning all the things? Share them in the comments!

Author: Michelle

Automattic Theme Wrangler. Dragon boat paddler. Runner. Kitty Mommy. Loves warm, sunny days.

2 thoughts on “Online Resources to Help You Learn All The Things”

  1. Great article! I just started looking into taking classes online and this is a much better list of sites than I was able to find. I am especially excited about the Skillshare site since it has such a great selection of web design classes. Thanks for posting!

Comments are closed.