News

New Free JavaScript & Web Development Bootcamps (Start Sep 5)

Following the success of our previous WebDev bootcamp 2021 (nearly 8,000 enrollments) and JavaScript & Web Development Jan 2022 (over 16,000 enrollments) we are now launching our third edition of our free bootcamp.

The bootcamps will run on Class Central Cohorts, a social learning platform for open courses. They’ll be 6 weeks long and intense. You’ll attend weekly live streams covering the course material. You’ll build a portfolio of coding projects. You’ll listen to guest speakers talk about the reality of being a developer. And by mid October, you’ll earn a verified certificate of completion from freeCodeCamp, like the ones below.

The certificates you’ll earn: JS bootcamp (left) & webdev bootcamp (right — example from @rui)

Note that the bootcamps don’t have any formal prerequisites. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and the desire to learn. While the JavaScript bootcamp makes for a great follow-up to the webdev bootcamp, you can start with the JavaScript bootcamp if you want.

The bootcamp curricula are built around the JavaScript Certification and the Responsive Web Design Certification offered by the nonprofit freeCodeCamp.

Live Streams

Each bootcamp is led by a subject matter expert, who’ll support you through your learning, chiefly by holding weekly live streams covering the course material and practical projects.

Your bootcamp instructors: Ramón & Jess

• Lesson Days: On Mondays and Tuesdays, your instructor will walk you through the lesson’s concepts and challenges. And at the end of the stream, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, all live streams will be recorded and you can also take your questions to the discussion forum.
• Project Wednesday: On Wednesdays, when the week’s curriculum is theory-heavy, you’ll continue working on lessons. But most weeks, you’ll instead tackle a practical project with your instructor. This will be an opportunity to actually apply the concepts you’ve been learning and to build a portfolio of coding projects.
• Guest session: Once a week, you’ll take a break from the course material to attend a live stream where a guest speaker will talk about the realities of being a developer and concepts and tools relevant to a programmer’s day-to-day. For example, during our first bootcamp, Prof. Barbara Oakley and software engineer Zach Caceres explained how to become better programmers by understanding the neuroscience that underpins the learning process. You can find the video below, and you can find all the guest talks from our previous bootcamp here.

The Discussion Forum

Every live stream will end with a Q&A session. But your main avenue for support will be the bootcamp discussion forum. There, you’ll have the opportunity to discuss the course material, ask for feedback on your projects, share resources, and naturally, ask questions to peers, instructors, and mentors.

A question posted with images and an answer with a code snippet

We use Discourse Forums, a modern software solution well suited for online learning. You’ll be able to write code snippets, copy/paste images, mention specific learners, and more.

Our Discord Channel

As a more dynamic alternative to the Discussion Forum, we also have our exclusive Discord channel for the bootcamps where you can ask questions, get feedback, or just chill.

The three main channels for each bootcamp is general (for chilling and sharing resources), projects (get feedback), and help (if you’re stuck with a problem)

Learner’s Portal

After enrolling, you’ll have access to your bootcamp platform. The platform is the heart of the bootcamp experience. There, you’ll find links to all the bootcamp components, chiefly the course, discussion forum, and live streams.

Your bootcamp platform

Why we’re doing this

Many people want to learn programming. But coding bootcamps typically cost upward of $10k, making them inaccessible to the vast majority of people. We wanted to try to fix this.

We realized that by using open educational resources, by relying on the help of passionate instructors, by focusing on what matters most — the learning — and by building a bespoke platform to tie it all together, we could offer a valuable bootcamp experience, entirely free.

Study Group for A Life of Happiness & Fulfillment (ALOHAF): first Zoom session

But learning online can be lonely. We know. At Class Central, we’re all online learners. So for the past year, we’ve been running an experiment: we’ve been trying to add a social layer atop free online courses. Initially, we called these “Study Groups”. Now, we call them “Cohorts”. Our bootcamps are simply a special type of cohort, built for scale.

And scaling, it has. Our Mountains 101 study group (May ‘21) had 200 enrollments. Our ALOHAF study group (Jun ‘21) had 700 enrollments. Our webdev bootcamp (Aug ‘21) had 8000 enrollments. And in January 2022, we had webdev and javascript bootcamps with over 16,000 enrollments. We’re excited to see this community growing!