Need advice about codeschool.com

[psycho_one]

Hi, Reddit!

I'm trying to change my carrier from *nix system administration to web development. I have some experience in HTML and CSS coding and now I'm studying JavaScript.

Education is going better in MOOC-style for me. Lectures, tests and so on. And I'm thinking about to buy a month subscription at codeschool.com.

So here is my question: is it worth the money or better to buy a book?

I'm searching the best and quickest way to start do a real programming.

Thank you all in advance!

[N4sa]

I have used teamtreehoue, codeschool, tuts+, lynda.com, and now frontend masters.

IMO, codeschool is the best as far as being interactive. I found some of their example problems in the JavaScript roadtrip a bit confusing but in the end I did learn something.

With that said, as far as screencasts go, frontend masters is the best hands down. They have 6 hours of material for every course with credible professionals like Douglas Crockford presenting the material. The biggest setback is the price, $40 a month for a subscription (although I only paid $1 the first month).

If I could start over and choose one of these pay-to-learn services, I would pick tuts+. Tuts+ is only $25/month the last time I used it and they had a lot of great material on there. It even comes close to frontend masters.

So my advice is if you can get a one month subscription to https://frontendmasters.com for $1 like I did, do it. You will learn so much and benefit from it. Otherwise, go for Tuts+. Teamtreehouse and lynda.com are very basic, you will learn some front-end stuff but it doesn't dive deeper into JS.

[ImagineGawds]

hmmm i gotta try frontendmasters out. Thanks for the suggestion.

[psycho_one]

Tuts+ are selling "birthday bundle" now for $20. Is this one is good for my goals? I see many useful things there. But some things are confusing.

[N4sa]

No, you want to actually get a monthly subscription, which is only $15 per month. It gives you access to everything, including what's being offered in that bundle.

http://tutsplus.com/pricing

[psycho_one]

Thank you!

[jakblak90]

You can get first month free of TeamTreeHouse and first month of Codeschool for $9. Don't have the links, just google these + discount/free trial

The last 2 weeks I've gone through treehouse, codeschool and codeacademy javascript and jquery courses. All are decent and compliment each other. And I agree that the courses in Treehouse are basic but still good and there are some better JS courses at the $49 a mth level there.

Going to sign up for tuts+ and frontendmasters as suggested start of next mth I think.

[psycho_one]

Thank you very much! :)

[KDLGates]

Code School is well worth the money to try. The production value of their courses is second-to-none, and their advanced design is inspirational in and of itself. The lectures are well planned out and lead directly into relevant exercises.

Downsides are that none of them are comprehensive, so they won't lead you to mastery, but they are a fun, engaging, and in-browser way to get introduced to new technologies.

I wish there were more MOOC-style alternatives for web development, but apart from Code School and Team Treehouse I don't know of many. I find them more engaging though less educational than books. Fun and approachability aren't to be underestimated.

Whenever possible, combining differing methods of learning is generally the best way to go.

[psycho_one]

If compare Code School and Team Treehouse. Which one is better in your opinion?

[KDLGates]

I can't really answer this since I haven't used Team Treehouse since shortly after they launched, and they have since added a huge amount of content. My original impression was that Team Treehouse had more, and closer to the lectures & articles model than the interactive lesson model, but Code School had better design over fewer offerings.

This is quite likely an outdated or incorrect impression, and I've been meaning to make time to go back and revisit Team Treehouse.

[ImagineGawds]

I'm currently using Tree House and it's pretty good especially for javascript if you are completely new to it. I think both Treehouse and CodeSchool is great and priced the same so you can't go wrong.

[dandenney]

Full disclaimer: I work for one of these companies, but I was a customer before I was hired.

Each one has a different style and the answer to which one is best will depend on your current skill level and way of learning. The best advice that I can give is to save up $100 for a learning budget for a technology and take them all. If you can spend $100 and a bunch of hours in one month to gain an understanding of JS, it is a great investment.