Code School – Learn By Doing

There’s only so much a person can learn about coding from textbooks and online tutorials. Code School is an innovative platform that encourages people to learn by doing – providing interactive exercises and informative videos designed to improve anyone’s programming and coding skills in just a matter of hours.

Stop reading about how to code and actually get to work practicing your skills by visiting the Code School website and starting your first course. Code School courses are organized into levels, with each level containing a certain number of interactive exercises that you must complete before moving on. As you go through Code School’s educational screencasts and complete various challenges, you’ll earn special points, rewards, and virtual badges. You’ll also accumulate a wealth of knowledge about everything from working with jQuery and CSS, to Ruby on Rails, Node.js, and more.

If you’ve got a group of people you’d like to educate – such as students or employees – then you can enroll your whole team by signing up for a Code School group plan. Require your employees to improve their programming skills by completing certain Code School courses, and keep track of the progress that each person in your group has made. Group accounts come with visual development statistics and oversight features that employers can use to make sure each of their employees is staying on track and gaining the latest skills necessary for professional development.

Practical Uses:

• Improve your programming skills
• Take an online course on CSS or Git
• Improve your resume by learning how to program and code
• Make sure your employees all understand Ruby on Rails

Insider Tips:

• Users can earn badges for completing certain challenges
• Members have access to Code School’s educational screencasts
• Each Code School courses is broken up into at least five levels
• Members can vote on which courses Code School should offer

What we liked:

• People can actually practice programming with Code School, rather than just reading how to do it
• Members can earn virtual badges for completing certain courses
• Code School offers real world prizes when members reach certain points thresholds
• Employers can track of how their employees are doing in Code School’s courses

What we didn’t like:

• Individual plans are more expensive than what some competing programming platforms charge

Alternatives:

• Codeacademy – http://www.codecademy.com
• Code Avengers – http://www.codeavengers.com
• Programr – http://www.programr.com

Company Info:

• Launched: February 2011 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Orlando, Florida
• Founded by: Envy Labs
• Web site: http://www.codeschool.com

Costs:

• Individual plan is $25/month