Posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015 by Will Hagle
FreeCodeCamp helps you learn how to program as you build projects for nonprofit organizations.
At first glance, FreeCodeCamp sounds like just another of the many sites that offers programming instruction to beginners or inexperienced coders. That’s partially true, but the site also goes above and beyond to build a community of learners, all contributing to the greater good of helping each other while helping nonprofit organizations with real-life projects. The site teaches you skills like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Node.js, Angular.js, Agile and much more. It promises to turn complete beginners into full stack engineers, ready for the job market by the end of the course. The best part is that FreeCodeCamp — unlike programming bootcamps or other websites — is completely free (and open-source).
FreeCodeCamp has a variety of features that make it worth joining the community. There’s a chat room (via Slack) in which any FreeCodeCamp member can ask questions or interact with the rest of the group. There’s also a news section in which people can post links to interesting, relative articles from around the web. There’s also a small jobs section with a few offers for those who have obtained skills through the site. As far as the actual course goes, FreeCodeCamp is structured in a way that helps you best learn how to program. The site doesn’t host many of its own courses, however. It simply links to the many free courses available online, bringing you back to FreeCodeCamp only when you need help and support. It’s an innovative approach to learning programming, and if you’re wanting to improve your skills you should definitely join the FreeCodeCamp community.
