Tips on How to Effectively Learn How to Code Online

It’s awesome that a lot of sites are offering discounts on their programming lessons. If you’re learning to code for the first time, here are some tips on how to stay focused and not get overwhelmed.

Text-Based vs Video-Based Learning

Online learning can fall into two main categories: text based and video based. It’s best to figure out which method works for you early on and stick with it. Both have their pros and cons, but it’s up to you to decide what works for you. I learned too late that video-based learning doesn’t work for me. I would often day dream, lose focus, and have to rewind over and over. Switching over to text-based forced me focus and actually take in the information before moving on. Either way, don’t just be a passenger. Simply watching someone code on your screen or reading about how someone built an app won’t magically program your brain with all of the coding knowledge in the world. Working on your own projects is the best way to make the learning stick.

Learning by Doing

My advice is to pick a capstone project and some smaller projects so that you can stay motivated and focused.

Learning full stack?

1. Single resume page (HTML, CSS)
2. Multi-page Personal website (front end and mobile optimization)
3. API to CRUD daily affirmations (API & data)
4. Twitter clone (capstone)

How about data science?

1. Find a random dataset on Kaggle, clean it up, and explore (data wrangling, EDA)
2. Graphs of taxi ride hotspots in different neighborhoods (data visualization)
3. Stock price predictor (machine learning)
4. Twitter bot finder (capstone)

To be honest, I learned more by working on personal projects than by completing online courses. That isn’t to say that online programs aren’t helpful, but they can’t be 100% of your strategy. Also, you aren’t chained to using one online platform. Mix it up if you have to. Sometimes platform A teaches one topic really well while platform B teaches another topic really well. Why not get the best of both worlds.

You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall. — Will Smith

Pace Yourself

There will always be a million things to learn. So don’t set out to learn every JS framework, memorize every Python package, or master every AWS service. Just focus on one topic at a time. Once you’ve gotten it down to where your comfortable, then focus on the next. Don’t burn yourself out. Take it easy and be consistent. You would be better off coding for 15 minutes a day every day instead of doing 15 hour learn-a-thons over the weekend that take up so much energy that you don’t want to touch a terminal for the next week.

Also, there’s a global pandemic going on, so yeah… don’t be too hard on yourself.

Oh and for those of y’all learning Python, make sure whatever tutorial you’re using is on Python 3.0.0+. Going from print “” to print(“”) is a major headache.

If anyone has any specific questions or wants help creating their online learning strategy, I’m just one DM away!