JavaScript for Web Designers now available on lynda.com

lynda.com - online training videos I'm delighted to announce that my new course, JavaScript for Web Designers, is now available in the lynda.com online training library.

If you're a web designer comfortable with HTML and CSS, and want to learn how to add interactivity to your projects, this course will help you do that. You're not going to master the entire language and everything it can do in three hours, but it will get you rolling in a hurry, developing your intuition and understanding of using JavaScript on the web. Using this course as a foundation, you can move further into the world of writing code for web browsers, and making all kinds of cool stuff on the web.

There are many free videos available, so you can listen to the melodious sound of my voice and get a feel for the examples and teaching style. Check it out!

This is my first course that was produced at lynda.com. My course Introducing the JavaScript Language is also available there, but was produced for video2brain (now part of the lynda.com family itself). The experience of producing this course was quite different. I worked with my editor (thanks, Shira!) during the development process, and then closely (literally, pretty much side-by-side in a studio) with my producer (thanks, Scott!) while shooting it, which was even more helpful than I thought it might be. I'm used to working on my own most of the time, but being able to check things throughout the recording process was interesting and useful. I also got technical feedback from other lynda.com authors (thanks Ray and James!) before we shot it, which helped make the course better.

Overall, I think it's a good one, and I hope you find it useful, maybe even enjoyable! Please give it a watch and let me know what you think!

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Comments

Dave Hitt

Good course, Joe... I'm working through it now. Believe it or not, despite all the courseware out there, I've found it 'not easy' to sink my teeth into JavaScript and Jquery. I started out reading just JavaScript books, found that most of them were good at explaining the language but I didn't come away with working knowledge. Then I just decided to learn Jquery but, really, I came to the conclusion that an underlying knowledge of Javascript is pretty essential to understanding what's going on in the Jquery tutorials. This new course of yours has some real working examples to take apart such that I'm actually learning how to write the code, as I take the class. That's a step up from some of the other introductory courseware. I appreciate your efforts.

Joe Chellman

You're most welcome, Dave.

Knowing at least some JavaScript is essential to use jQuery effectively, it's true. After you've finished the course, let me know what you think at that point as well.

Dave Hitt

Hey Joe:

I just made my way through the rest of your course. It really was a good one and I appreciate your efforts.

I think I alluded in my previous comment that the real thing I've found lacking in both online and written courseware is an appropriate balance between 'teaching and doing." In other words, I've found courses which completely explain Javascript (like Essential Javascript Training.) These tend to be great at providing an overview of the language but the progression of complexity in the courseware means I get lost in any working examples after the first couple of chapters. If one really knows nothing about Javascript, it's really hard to keep up with the courseware because there just aren't enough learning exercises provided to supplement what's being taught.

Then there's the other side of the coin... I've found a bunch of 'tutorials' on Lynda and elsewhere where the subject technology is used to create a 'real world' project. These can be great but they sometimes seem like I'm just jockeying around someone else's code, without achieving an underlying knowledge of the language or skillset being used.

That's why I liked your course and that's what I hope Lynda.com offers more of in the future. (I love Lynda.com, btw; not trying to bash it just making constructive criticism...) You provided a very nice balance of 'concepts vs. methodology.' And, just fyi, my learning process involved watching the first several chapters more than once and using that 'rewind ten second' feature repeatedly. In those chapters, you're focusing on concepts and syntax which are instrumental to actually learning JavaScript. By the time I got to the Google API part, I was able to follow along much more quickly.

Thanks again...

dave

Morris Thompson

Even I found the tutorials quite interesting as web designers it was really useful.I also agree that to understand the knowledge is a different thing and to implement it is a different thing.

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