October 26, 2016

Take courses in Java for free! The world of edX and Moocs

Are you a manual tester trying to learn the Java Programming language, but you just can't get it?

Have you tried picking up the programming language from books such as:


You can also take a look at the free Java Tutorials that Oracle provides:

"The Java Tutorials are practical guides for programmers who want to use the Java programming language to create applications. They include hundreds of complete, working examples, and dozens of lessons. Groups of related lessons are organized into 'Learning trails'"
  • Getting Started—"An introduction to Java technology and lessons on installing Java development software and using it to create a simple program."
  • Learning the Java Language—"Lessons describing the essential concepts and features of the Java Programming Language."
  • Essential Java Classes—"Lessons on exceptions, basic input/output, concurrency, regular expressions, and the platform environment."
Need a bit more hand-holding? Have you ever heard of MOOC.org?

According to Wikipedia, "The term MOOC [Massive Open Online Course] was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island in response to a course called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (also known as CCK08). CCK08, which was led by George Siemens of Athabasca University and Stephen Downes of the National Research Council, consisted of 25 tuition-paying students in Extended Education at the University of Manitoba, as well as over 2200 online students from the general public who paid nothing [...]

"Other cMOOCs were then developed; for example, Jim Groom from The University of Mary Washington and Michael Branson Smith of York College, City University of New York hosted MOOCs through several universities starting with 2011's 'Digital Storytelling' (ds106) MOOC. These early MOOCs did not rely on posted resources, learning management systems and video lectures, instead using structures that mix the learning management system with more open web resources.[MOOCs from private, non-profit institutions emphasized prominent faculty members and expanded existing distance learning offerings (e.g., podcasts) into free and open online courses".

"Alongside the development of these open courses, other E-learning platforms emerged - such as Khan Academy, Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU), Udemy and ALISON - which are viewed as similar to MOOCs and work outside the university system or emphasize individual self-paced lessons".

I just received this email from edX, Harvard and MIT's Mooc. There are now three new Java Courses available:

Don't want to wait? There are on edX a lot of Self Paced Introductory courses on Java already!

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

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