Can I Learn Front-End Web Development On My Own?

Yes, you can learn front end web development on your own. You can scroll through YouTube coding tutorials, sign up for self-paced classes, and watch the videos at your leisure. But what if you have questions? Teaching yourself front end web development takes longer than signing up for an in-person or live online class, and it is difficult to know if you are getting the most up-to-date information. Also, many people find they need the structure of a class with a live instructor to hold them accountable for finishing their work.

Advantages to Self-Teaching Front End Web Development

One advantage to teaching yourself front end web development is convenience. You determine your own schedule. You can watch self-paced materials whenever and wherever you want. If you have a full-time job, you can watch videos at home after work and on the weekends. If you need to take a break for a few days, you can do that because you set your own schedule.

You can teach yourself front end web development for free. You can watch YouTube videos and find tutorials on learning to code with HTML and CSS without paying. If you need something more in-depth, self-paced classes are generally less expensive than courses that have a live instructor. While this may save you money, it will cost you in terms of time. An experienced instructor has been working in front end web development for a number of years and will steer you in the direction you need to go. They are familiar with web development best practices and how to avoid common rookie errors.

Front End Web Development Self-Teaching Tools

If you are interested in learning more about front end web development, video tutorials are a great way to get started. You can pull up a video on WordPress while you eat lunch or learn about JavaScript libraries in the evening after you get home. You can go at your own speed and watch the video as many times as you need to grasp the information. 

Noble Desktop offers many free front end web development videos on its website, including Intro to WordPress or Intro to Front End Web Development. The videos are each about an hour long and are presented by experienced web developers. 

The Odin Project offers free tutorials on web development, like Intermediate HTML and CSS, Advanced HTML and CSS, and JavaScript. These are prerecorded tutorials, blogs, and courses with projects and a community of developers to interact with.

On-demand classes are self-paced like free tutorials, but you have to pay for them.

You can watch these prerecorded video sessions anytime and anywhere. They are usually accessed through a subscription platform, some of which offer a limited free trial period. 

If you are highly motivated, you can learn this way, according to your own schedule. 

On-demand subscription courses tend to be less expensive than in-person and live online sessions. The business social media platform LinkedIn offers LinkedIn Learning with thousands of classes on many different topics for $29.99 a month or $239.88 a year for an individual. The subscription becomes active after a one-month free trial. Coursera costs $59 per month or $399 per year with a one-week free trial. Skillshare also offers a one-month free trial and a monthly membership for $32 or an annual membership for $168. 

Drawbacks to Learning Front End Web Development on Your Own

One drawback of attempting to learn front end web development by yourself is that you don't have a live instructor to answer questions, which can slow down the process. Also, it can be difficult to tell how up-to-date the information is. Tools and best practices change frequently, and old information can slow down your learning process. An experienced instructor will teach you the best way to develop websites and warn you of the common pitfalls.

Another possible issue with learning front end web development on your own is that you don't have anyone to hold you accountable. You are entirely responsible for watching the videos and completing the assignments. Some on-demand classes have asynchronous teaching assistants you can contact via email, but this takes more time than simply asking a question in class. Learning on your own can feel isolating.

Alternatives to Learning Front End Web Development on Your Own

When you want to launch a career as a Front End Web Developer, you don't have to do it on your own. You can choose a college degree or complete a certification course at a professional training center. Colleges and universities offer degrees in computer science and information technology. Some people also choose a minor in areas like graphic design and psychology. Some community colleges also offer web development certificates.

Professional training centers offer bootcamp and certificate-granting programs for people who want to build technical skills. Classes meet in person or live online, on a part-time or full-time schedule. These classes are geared toward people who want to build their own websites or want to start new careers as Front End Web Developers. Front end web development classes cover coding languages, version control, libraries and frameworks, testing and debugging, and design skills. 

You will also need to decide which learning environment works best for you. If you prefer in-person classes, you can usually find those in larger cities or at community colleges. These are traditional classroom sessions with an instructor and students in a classroom or computer lab. If you can't find a class that meets in person, you can choose a live online class. These courses run at the same time as an in-person session with some students logging on through a video conferencing platform. Online students can ask questions and talk to other students during breaks, work together on group assignments, and get help from the instructor if they need it. You can access a live online class from anywhere that has internet access.

The length of front end web development courses depends on the focus of the course. Bootcamps are intensive classes focused on one topic, like HTML and CSS or JavaScript. These classes usually last two to three days. Certificate courses include classes on several different topics and are designed to get you ready to change to a career in front end web development. These courses last several weeks to months.

The cost of in-person and live online classes from professional development or training programs, like Noble Desktop, vary widely from school to school. Noble's 108-hour Front End Web Development Certificate course costs $3,495, while a WordPress Bootcamp with 18 hours of instruction costs $995. NYC Career Centers also has a Front End Web Development Certificate for $3,495. These are either in-person or live online classes with a live instructor in the classroom or remote over a platform like Zoom. CareerFoundry offers a one-month Intro to Front End Development course for $690. This is an asynchronous class with a tutor. 

Learn Front End Web Development Skills with Noble Desktop

Learn front end web development skills with Noble Desktop's Front End Web Development Certificate. This beginner-friendly course will teach you the coding skills you need to change to a career as a Front End Web Developer. Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Git to create responsive websites optimized for any screen size. You will also learn to use WordPress, the world's number one content management system. The course also includes HTML Email Bootcamp and a portfolio bootcamp.

JavaScript is powerful and flexible. Developers have written a variety of tools on top of the core JavaScript language, unlocking a vast amount of functionality with minimum effort. In Noble's JavaScript Development Certificate, you will learn to build dynamic web applications with React and Node.js, create APIs with Express.js, and work with databases with MongoDB. You will also learn about Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that provide functionality such as dynamically creating HTML and setting CSS. APIs allow developers to incorporate functionality in websites from other content providers, such as Twitter or Facebook. The course also covers third-party frameworks and libraries you can apply to HTML to accelerate the work of building sites and applications. No previous coding experience is required.

If you prefer, you can take these Noble classes included in the certificates one at a time. Web Development with HTML & CSS covers building websites with HTML & CSS; creating multi-page websites with text, images, and graphics; styling with CSS; and uploading files using FTP. 

Advanced HTML & CSS includes important CSS concepts like positioning, advanced selectors, and relative type sizing. You will also learn to work with multiple background images, transparent color using RGBA, CSS gradients, and shadows. The course also covers creating animated effects with CSS transitions and transforms.

Flexbox, Grid, and Bootstrap covers laying out and aligning website content with CSS Flexbox. Learn CSS Grid to layout websites and Bootstrap to build layouts quickly.

JavaScript for Front End teaches you to make dynamic and engaging websites with JavaScript and GreenSock. Learn the basics of JavaScript and how to use free pre-made JavaScripts to add functionality. Create animated slideshows and build animated image enlargers.

WordPress enables you to create and maintain a website, even if you have no web design background or knowledge of the code that makes websites work. Noble's WordPress Bootcamp covers building websites and blogs with WordPress. Learn to install themes and plugins, test your code, and customize your website.

Learn how to code custom-designed emails that adapt to different screen sizes in HTML Email Bootcamp. Build and work with multiple layouts and gain a deeper understanding of email-friendly HTML/CSS and how to manage various email client issues. Create responsive emails that work across various devices, optimize images and graphics for mobile devices, and use media queries to fine-tune mobile styles.