Can I Learn IT On My Own?

You can learn IT in a variety of ways, and it is certainly possible to teach yourself the basics. Especially in today’s online world, there are endless resources available right at your fingertips. This article will explore how you can self-teach, what the advantages and disadvantages are, and what tools you can use to educate yourself. With the right resources and mindset, you can master the basics of IT on your own, but it’s important to keep in mind the drawbacks so you can decide if self-taught or enrolling in a course is right for you.

Advantages to Self-Teaching IT

The biggest advantage to self-teaching is cost savings. Classes, certificates, and degrees cost varying amounts and that price tag can often be a burden for students. Self teaching allows you to leverage free resources - whether that’s video tutorials, blog posts, discussion forums, or books - for your education, saving you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. 

Self-teaching also offers more flexibility. In-person or live online training programs will have set schedules and assignment due dates, requiring you to fit your work and life around your learning. Self-teaching allows for the opposite by letting you fit your learning in around your life and work. You can learn at your own pace and take as much (or as little) time as you need to master certain subjects. 

IT Self-Teaching Tools

Self-teaching tools are available for learning IT. YouTube boasts a wide range of tutorials and informative videos on all kinds of coding subjects: from short five-minute episodes on the fundamentals to more in-depth breakdowns of advanced topics. YouTube is a great way to explore your initial interest or get answers to specific questions on IT. Other websites like Google and LinkedIn offer short free tutorials and trainings designed to help you grasp the history and basic principles of IT. 

Self-paced courses are another available option. These won’t be free, like YouTube, but they will allow you to use previously developed curriculum and recorded content to master IT at your own speed. Coursera, Codefinity, and Ed2Go all offer on-demand IT classes that cover everything from the fundamentals to more advanced techniques and practices. 

As obvious as it may sound, books can also be a very helpful self-teaching tool. IT are the building blocks to most coding and web development and have existed for nearly twenty years, so there are ample books available that cover the history, relevancy, and techniques of these tools. The caveat with printed resources is that you’ll need to be mindful that they are up to date. Web and app development is a constantly changing field, so you’ll want your educational texts and resources to contain fresh techniques and current tools that are a part of the current web development landscape.

Drawbacks to Learning IT on Your Own

It’s important to remember that there are drawbacks to learning IT on your own. For one thing, with more freedom comes less accountability. Self-teaching can work for independent learners who can keep themselves on task and motivated, but may not be the best fit for those who find motivation through accountability. You won’t have set class times to hold you accountable to consistently setting aside time, and you also won’t have due dates to help keep you on track either. Without the right level of motivation, you can easily fall behind or lose interest in completing the training altogether. 

Self-teaching, while more cost-effective up front, could end up costing you more money in the long run. Think of it this way: self-learning often takes substantially longer than attending a structured course, meaning it takes longer to start or advance your career. Waiting longer for this professional shift can affect your earnings, as your ability to access those higher salaries remains out of reach until you’ve mastered IT. 

Finally, self-teaching also drastically limits your chances of networking. Most structured classes are led by an industry expert and offer some combination of mentoring, office hours, and networking events for enrolled students. More than 80% of professionals say networking is essential to their career success, so forming connections within the field of web development can help you land better, high paying roles in a shorter amount of time. 

Alternatives to Learning IT on Your Own

If you’re looking for alternatives to self-teaching, there’s good news. For both of the below options, there’s no need to figure out what you should learn and when; structured courses provide that for you. These options do have their differences, though, so it’s important that you understand each of them. 

Live Online Classes

Live virtual courses are considered the middle ground between on-demand and in-person classes. You’ll attend scheduled class times from the comfort of your own home (or wherever you choose) to learn from an expert instructor. Live online classes offer instant feedback from your teacher and interactions with other students, creating the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the coursework. These classes are ideal for students that thrive in a structured learning environment but perhaps don’t live near any in-person offerings. Or, if you simply prefer online learning, then a live virtual class could be for you. 

In-Person Classes

In-person classes are considered the best way to master IT as quickly and efficiently as possible. Held on location at scheduled times, these classes offer face-to-face interaction with your fellow students and your expert instructor. If you encounter any challenging material, you can ask questions in real time instead of spending unnecessary time figuring it out on your own. This collaborative environment is available for both full-time and part-time classes and provides structure and accountability, two things that can help you succeed. 

As you can see, there are several options available if you don’t choose the self-taught route. On-demand, live online, and in-person classes are all great ways to study IT, so the choice will come down to which learning method is best for your schedule and lifestyle. 

Learn IT at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop’s Data Science Certificate prepares you for entry-level data science and Python engineering roles. You’ll learn how to manipulate databases and perform data analysis, read and write complex database queries, prepare and clean data for analysis, and use Python to automate everyday tasks such as aggregating, updating, and formatting data. This course also covers how to clean and balance your data with Pandas, apply machine learning algorithms with the scikit-learn library to solve real-world problems, and analyze the results to detect areas for improvement. Finally, you’ll build and present dynamic dashboards and other data visualizations and deploy your projects online with GitHub to demonstrate your analytical abilities to employers.

Their Software Engineering Certificate is another option for aspiring IT students. Divided into front end development, React Development, and Django (Python) Development, you will learn HTML to mark up web pages and CSS for styling; the fundamentals of JavaScript and Git; and how to use Flexbox and Grid to layout, align, reorder, and adapt web page content to different size screens. You’ll then move on to the fundamental JavaScript programming concepts, including variables, data types, loops, and DOM. Plus, you’ll cover topics like React, a powerful JavaScript library for web development, and master Node.js, MongoDB, and Express.js to round out your JavaScript development skills.

By creating a portfolio of projects, preparing for common interview questions, and polishing your resume and LinkedIn profile, this course will have you ready to pursue a new job in software engineering in as little as 20 weeks (on a full-time schedule). One-on-one mentoring and a free one-year retake are included in the cost of this course. Payment plans and tuition assistance are available, and this training requires no previous experience, making it great for beginners.

Or, you could try your hand at Noble’s Python Developer Bootcamp. This three-week online course teaches Python for software development with Django, Django REST, and other developer tools like Git and SQL. You’ll start by learning the basics of Python, including its lexical syntax, then move to more advanced topics like dictionaries, custom functions, and sorting algorithms. In week two, you'll learn object-oriented programming, how to work with APIs, and get an introduction to web databases using SQL. By creating projects that can be added to your portfolio, you’ll master URL dispatchers, querying models, and automating tasks with Django, as well as how to work with images, authentication, and use API endpoints with Django REST. 

It’s recommended that you are comfortable coding HTML and basic CSS. You should possess equivalent knowledge of Noble Desktop’s Web Development with HTML & CSS class, and mastery of another programming language is helpful, but not required. Payment plans and financing are available, in addition to extra perks like one-on-one mentoring, a free one-year retake, and a verified digital certificate are included with your purchase.