| | Aldrin M | I tried to learn using free online courses and books, and I used to just code by examples from different parts of the web like how to do lightboxes using javascript -- But, without knowing elements, properties, variables etc, it was frankly hard to try to build a website.
I took the sample free trial from teamtreehouse.com and was able to create proper structure and syntax in programming HTML and CSS. It was almost the end of my free trial but I wanted more so I went and got their monthly thing ... I mean its $25 a month and you can only gain knowledge, right? It took me about 2 months, doing part time hours, to finish their Front End Development Track. Some tutorials were just a refresher to me and others were completely new. This was back in 2013-2014 so glad I did it. The pace was perfect, whether you're a pro at a subject or a beginner. And I could simply speed up a track if I knew what the topic was. And they have sample codes at the end of each track and quizzes to test you.
At the end you get points, badges and achievements which really helped me want to learn more. Finally, they have leaderboards, daily, weekly, monthly and all time for the competitive souls - I, for one, was able to get to the top 10's of daily and weekly but not monthly because I have another full time day job so I cannot commit all hours taking the class - so it was fulfilling to see yourself in the leaderboards.
At the height of my achievements, I devoted myself to creating a project that took so much of my time and effort. But then I got busy at work (and we are expecting a child), so I cancelled my monthly subscription ... (clear throat) Ehem, they did not really cancel my account, they simply froze/pause it to continue at a later time. So fast forward to today's time, its the new year, January 8, 2017 to be exact. My new years resolution is to continue at the pace I left and get myself active again and learn more language - this time, I'm eyeing a full stack of Mean and Phyton. I had an issue with billing, I updated my old free trial account and didn't see my previous 8K+ achievements so I contacted teamtreehouse on a Sunday afternoon if they can fix it. Guess what! I was emailed several hours later and it was solved. Holy Guacamole on the service. I love these guys! I can only say excellent things about them ... in terms of the quality of the courses, I'm sure some people will say its great others will say its blah --- its all personal perspective. I know that it caters to learning, and I find it really friendly and detailed. They have a trial ... take advantage of it!!! |
