I mentioned a while back that I wanted to learn more about how websites are built and how they work. And that I’d chosen Khan Academy as a place to start.
Well, I signed up. After spending an hour going through some beginner lessons, here are my impressions.
- It’s easy to sign up as an adult. They do ask for birth date. I’m assuming for younger ages there may be more restrictions or requirements for signing up.
- It’s free, although they do politely ask for donations.
- They have a lot for adult learners, but it’s clearly aimed at school and college students.
- Their lessons on website programming are under “Computer Programming,” not under anything with “web” or “internet” in the name. (Is this because they felt a good way to get kids interested in programming in general was through website construction?)
- Their Computer Programming course starts with Javascript. That surprised me. After going through some lessons, I can see why it would be a good introduction for kids and new learners. They focus on using Javascript to draw, with ellipses, rectangles, and arcs. And they use that as a way to introduce concepts such as syntax, parameters, checking documentation, and relying on documentation instead of personal memory.
- They regularly have exercises to use newly learned concepts. The exercises do have some hints for students who might not be sure how to start. (Memories of C/C++: a semicolon has to go at the end of every line. It’s nice to be told right away that a semicolon is missing, not after the entire thing is written out and compiling is attempted. That used to irritate me greatly with C/C++.)
Overall, I’m very favorably impressed.