Programming the latest technologies in web development- Learning it efficiently through online courses.

Shadman Mahmood
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

As web developers we always want to stay up to date with the technology. To learn about the new web programming languages I believe every one has a difficult time finding the right book and especially for novice programmers to go over the documentation which I also find quite difficult to understand. Hence the way I learnt these latest web technologies for example NodeJS, ReactJs, etc. , was over the internet through free online courses.So in this blog, I will discuss the ways that worked the best for me to learn about these languages. The following techniques that I will discuss below not only helped me to understand these complex topics, but also made best use of my time. Before I start, I want to inform you guys I am no way related to these video content producers, but just found them very helpful. Saying that, I will leave all the links that I found useful in learning Node and ReactJs.

  1. Getting the basics- Say you want to learn NodeJS. Now you go to YouTube, you enter the search and get the results. Now what video to choose? Most of these videos is usually an hour long and will go over deploying a medium scale web application. I suggest to pick a playlist that goes over the basic concepts. The playlist will be long but they will teach you every step that you will need, to get an idea of the basics.
  2. Seeking help- Of course, it would not be possible to understand every technical terms these youtuber’s discuss. For this I suggest, any time you are stuck just go to google and type the topic and add stack overflow. However you can replace stack overflow with documentation etc; but frankly speaking I did not find that too useful for me. The stack overflow post will discuss about the basic term and give a simple example, something if you sit down and analyze further will help you comprehend .Furthermore, you can always ask a question there, and get an answer( You might get flagged for it it the question exists, however they will provide the link to the question you want your answer to).
  3. Analyze- Copy the code to a separate file for each videos you see in the playlist. Since the playlist will teach you the basics , each video will cover a short tutorial on one concept. For example if the playlist consists of three videos(v1, v2, v3) and v1 covers variables, v2 covers functions, v3 covers functions, it is highly likely the youtuber will start coding from scratch as he progresses across the playlist. Hence by saving the code to a new file you can look at the code again and analyze it. I also suggest adding some notes to it, so you can revise the concepts as you progress along.
  4. Test yourself- Now with the basic concepts grasped, you will want to try your skill in NodeJs and ReactJs. Try with basic examples like Hello World, simple counter etc. See how the various components interact with each other. Making mistakes is the best way to learn, and I found debugging these basic applications the best way to grasp the concept.
  5. Putting it altogether- Now with the basic learnt, you want to try out how to actually apply this in the real world. Now I suggest to go over those long single youtube videos where they build a medium sized application. With the basics already grasped, you can now easily understand what is going on these videos and gear up to deploy your own website using these latest web technologies.

These are the ways that worked the best for me. I believe it took me around a week to grasp these concepts fully. If you have any suggestions on anything that you found useful do let me know. I am always trying new things to be improve my learning my learning and would love to hear any techniques that helped you learn the latest in web development.

As promised these are the links I found most useful to learn

NodeJs.

Basics:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4cUxeGkcC9gcy9lrvMJ75z9maRw4byYp

Putting it altogether.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKd0Rpw7O48

ReactJs

Basics:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55RiY5tL51oyA8euSROLjMFZbXaV7skS

Putting it all together:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke90Tje7VS0
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