(+) Best Online Courses #1

Learn JavaScript Syntax and Programming Principles on SitePoint by M. David Green

This SitePoint course is a fantastic introduction to JavaScript (ES5) for anyone who’s a relative newcomer to the language, whether they already have a background in programming or not. Here’s the re-post of the review that I wrote on SitePoint for the course:

This was a really great course that I enjoyed going all the way through! I already had a strong background in C/C++, Java, and Python, which made much of the course material a breeze to get through, but I ended up really glad I started with such a “basic” course on JS because M. David Green was very thorough in explaining all of the details and particulars associated with JS, by slowly going through tons of example code. So even if you do already know another programming language, I highly recommend going through all of the course videos in sequence, because it ends up really paying off—sure, some of the material might be rehashing something you already know, but M. David Green’s careful approach ensures that you will learn what makes JS different from other languages when it comes to the subtle syntactic and formatting details, along with the features that make it unique. I especially appreciated the Functions As Values and This videos, as they allowed me to visualize (and actually code) a “class” in JS when it doesn’t support the C++/Java way of writing classes that I’m used to. So although the course title implies that it may be targeted towards newbies, I found it invaluable myself and would recommend it to experienced programmers as well who are looking to branch out, like I was.

Conclusion: Highly recommended for anyone looking to learn JavaScript for the first time and from the ground up.

Rating: 5 out of 5 (for material, presentation, & thoroughness)