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July 2, 2012

Codeacademy – Teaching Anyone to Code

Interested in learning how to build your own websites, games, and mobile applications? Codeacademy is an instructional web-app that makes the learning process both fun and interactive. Groups of friends can compete to see who’s the best coder, and who could use a few more online lessons.

Codeacademy makes the process of learning to code so much fun that you might not even realize when the first lesson has begun. Just follow the directions on the console located on the Codeacademy homepage, and type in your answers to questions like “What’s your name?” and “How long is your name?” as they appear on the screen. Codeacademy walks you through the right and wrong way to answer questions using proper coding terminology, and keeps track of your progress along the way. You’ll earn virtual badges for completing certain lessons and mastering important concepts, and you can see how far you’ve come by viewing your own progress completion chart at any time.

Everything’s more fun when you’re doing it with friends, which is why Codeacademy also offers a gaming element and encourages users to share the badges they earn on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Codeacademy also encourages users to connect with their friends through the web-app; making it possible for groups of competitors who’ve linked up their profiles to see each other’s progress and compare new skills.

Practical Uses:

  • Learn some coding basics
  • Compete with friends to see who can become the best coder
  • Create your own website or mobile app
  • Find out why your previous coding attempts failed

Insider Tips:

  • Users can share the badges they earn on Facebook
  • Experienced users can become teachers on the site
  • Each user gets a profile page with a list of badges and coding accomplishments
  • Users get walked through the basics of JavaScript

What we liked:

  • Codeacademy is designed in a way that makes sense for beginners
  • People can teach themselves how to program without paying for a class
  • Codeacademy’s lessons are straightforward and easy to follow
  • Users can earn points for completing lessons and learning new skills

What we didn’t like:

  • Codeacademy’s lessons are for coding novices only, which means the web-app isn’t suited for people who already understand basic coding principles

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: August 2011
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, California
  • Founded by: Ryan Bubinski and Zach Sims
  • Web site: http://www.codecademy.com

Costs:

  • Free

Comments

  1. Binoy Castellino

    In the alternatives section, you missed out Programr ( http://www.programr.com )

    They let you code in any language online.

    However they dont have tuts yet. Codecademy is hands-down the leader in tutorials and courses.

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