Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding (Interactively) Online

Gone are the days when programming languages could only be mastered programmers like Bill Gates, who later got to dominate the world by storm. Now everyone holds the same potential, and the chance to learn and even master programming language easily. Today, we will show you 10 interactive websites that will help you do that.

That’s right, forget about complicated setups and black, cold command prompts that make you want to quit before you start, and say hi to 10 educational websites with instant and interactive lessons that teach you programming languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby and even iOS. Pick up tips, screencasts and even best practices from industry professionals.

RECOMMENDED READING:Getting A College Degree Or Self-Learning?

Kickstart the beginning of your new path into programming today!

Codecademy

Codecademy is indisputably the most famous website to teach you to code interactively, thanks to its helpful interface and well-structured courses. Upon visiting the main page, you can already start tasting the programming right away, with its motivating on-screen console. Pick a course that Codecademy offers from Web Fundamentals, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Python, Ruby and APIs.

Inside each lesson is a panel that explains necessary code and instruction. Another panel allows you to get your hands dirty by writing acceptable code, then checking if you are doing the right thing. Don’t worry about making mistakes, as both instruction and code panels will warn you of errors, and provide hints. It is as if there’s a kind teacher right beside you.

Code Avengers

Code Avengers is designed to make you love programming. Though it only offers HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript course for now, each of the courses iscarefully designed to truly entertain you while leveling your programming skills painlessly. At the end of each lesson you also get to play a mini game to release your cumulated stress, and keep you going for longer.

Code Avengers has a gradual approach to interactive learning. It does not explain too much knowledge that isn’t essential for beginners, just a bit of code and playful instruction, making things very easy to digest. You also get to play with the code, then see the impact of the changes immediately. It is carefully crafted with the beginner’s comfort in mind.

Code School

After you finished courses in Codecademy or Code Avengers, and you are ready to further expand your capabilities, Code School is the next quality website you should land on. Unlike most interactive learning sites, Code School offers morein-depth courses to train and turn you into an expert with the industry’s best practices.

Overall, the courses are categorized into 4 main paths, and they are

• Ruby
• JavaScript
• HTML/CSS
• iOS

Almost all courses are aggressively polished with impressive design and informative screencasts, though the challenges after the screencast might bit a bit hard for amateurs. Luckily, there are hints and answers to refer to. While most of the offered courses are free, certain ones will require you to spend $25/month to access the entire course including all screencasts and challenges, and also all other courses in Code School.

Treehouse

Treehouse courses are more project-oriented than language-oriented, so they are perfect for novice programmer with a planned purpose, such as building a website, or an application. For example, the Websites course is all about building a responsive website, interactive website or even WordPress theme – a very practical and efficient way to master related languages. Nonetheless, they have released a plethora of foundation courses with a video-then-quiz approach.

For Treehouse, every course is divided into different stages or modules, and beyond every first stage the learner will be invited to pay a monthly subscription fee of $25 to access all courses with 650+ videos, and an exclusive Treehouse Members Forum as a bonus. If you are serious about your programming future, you could subscribe the $49 monthly plan to obtain in-depth interviews with leading industry pros and cutting-edge workshops.

LearnStreet

If you are that kind of personnel who do not fancy playful design and prefer to deal with cold hard codes, LearnStreet is probably your thing. It currently offers JavaScript, Python and Ruby courses at beginner level. With a click on the ‘Start Course’ button you will start the lesson with an exercise, a code interpreter and a glossary panel (for new programming terms).

LearnStreet adopts command prompt-styled code interpreters with human language to explain function and encourage you whenever possible, the kind of command prompt you want for your own local machine. However, the code interpreter could be as rude as standard command prompt, as most of the times it requires you to type in the absolute same code and content it asks for.

Other than that, it’s truly friendly and enjoyable, and most importantly, free.

Udacity

Udacity is the unification of insightful video lectures and improved quizzes to achieve the interactive feel for students, so it’s ideal for those who don’t like to read but rather get explanations from industry professionals such as Googleemployees.

You will be given a screencast from pros discussing the topics and instructions, then you will take either logic or programming quizzes to strengthen your understanding or forge it into a skill. The good thing about Udacity is it provides more videos than any other site, and the instructors are either real-life professors or industry veterans.

The only pitfall here is most courses are not much related to each other, so Udacity is probably not your starting point, but a virtual university to further your study.

CodeHS

At this point all websites you read here are mainly dedicated to web development and computer science, but CodeHS is one with simple and fun game programming lessons that involve problem solving, JavaScript, animation, data structures, game design and puzzle challenges.

The advantage of CodeHS is it teaches you to think, and solve a problem like a programmer with its first course, Programming with Karel. The lessons are fun as you will learn how to use the code to move the dog, Karel to complete given tasks and puzzles like picking up ball and building a towel. It plants a solid concept of programming and the way it solves the problem systematically in your mind.

Other than the course mentioned above, you must sign up first with $25 per month to continue your learning journey, but it’s a perfect site to learn basic game programming effectively.

Khan Academy

Although Khan Academy’s courses are not as structured as CodeHS, it serves as an open playground for both novice and amateurs particularly interested in learning drawing, animation and user interaction with code. It does not preach any specific programming language, but the code pattern it adopts can be applied anywhere, as a majority of languages share the similar programming pattern.

You can first join the Programming Basics course to watch and learn basic concepts, then explore the given code after the video tutorial to validate your doubts. With Khan Academy, you can save your modification as a Spin-Off for everyone to enjoy and customize. There have been hundreds of spin-offs just from one lesson in one course, so imagine the community size, and the lesson’s effectiveness.

Scratch 2.0

Think CodeHS and Khan Academy are still too hardcore for your child, who has no comprehension beyond basic English? No worries, there is something even easier for your aspiring next-gen programmer, and it’s called Scratch. Previously an offline software that allow kids to create, upload and share their projects proudly, Scratch is now fully online with its 2.0 successor.

It’s not about programming though, but a combination of visual blocks of commands that tell assigned objects how to behave, such as telling the cat to move 10 steps, or yell ‘meow’ when it touches the owner’s leg. By using this visual programming method, the young programmers will form a habit of breaking a problem into smaller blocks, and solve them one by one logically.

SQLZOO

Structured Query Language (SQL) is just a language purely designed to store and retrieve data from a database, so imagine the boredom you will experience when programming a warehouse. Yet SQLZOO wants you to learn SQL happily with its interactive interface and smileys.

Since there is really nothing too deep to explain for a straightforward language like SQL, the site will only ask you to replace the variables like city names or population number, and raise the difficulty from that level. One huge let-down will be the shortage of hints, answers and forum, so you are probably doomed if you fail to solve any one of the quizzes, just like old times.

Comparison Chart

Here’s a comparison chart for you to get a bird’s eye view of all these awesome places to learn how to code.

Website	Course	Feature	Pricing	Difficulty
Codecademy	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Ruby, Python, API	Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Forum	Free	Easy – Intermediate
Code Avengers	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript	Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Note	Free	Easy
Code School	HTML5, CSS, CSS3, jQuery, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, iOS	Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Forum	Free, $25/month	Intermediate – Hard
Treehouse	HTML, CSS, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, iOS, Android, UX, Database	Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Project, Forum	Free, $25/month, $49/month	Easy – Hard
LearnStreet	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby	Code Interpreter, Progress Saver, Project, Forum	Free	Easy
Udacity	Web Development, HTML5, Python, Java, Computer Science, Algorithm, AI	Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Forum	Free	Intermediate – Nightmare
CodeHS	Problem Solving, JavaScript, Animation, Game Programming	Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver	Free, $25/month, $75/month	Easy – Intermediate
Khan Academy	Programming Basics, Canvas Drawing, Animation, User Interaction	Code Interpreter, Screencast, Progress Saver, Project, Discussion	Free	Easy – Intermediate
Scratch 2.0	Visual Programming	Visual Editor, Project, Forum	Free	Easy
SQLZOO	SQL	Code Interpreter	Free	Easy – Hard

Have you studied at any website we showcased above? How’s the experience? Or have we missed certain interactive learning sites with rich assets for budding programmers? Let us share our experiences and resources to help and inspire each other then!

                             Free E-Learning Sites

                                      

                 

These are 20 of the best free online learning sites I have come across on the net. The listing is in no particular order.

Findtutorials.com
One of the best tutorial / learning resources I have come across. FindTutorials.com is a Web index and search engine that searches for tutorials and online courses on the web. It Features a huge categorized database ( 700 categories, about 4000 tutorials) FindTutorials.com allows you to search for free tutorials on practically any subject, ranging from photography to gardening to psychology. The site claims to guide you directly to written, certified tutorials carefully selected from all over the Web.
Beginners.co.uk
Beginners.co.uk provides a mixture of free and paid services. As the name suggests, a lot of the tutorials are focussed on newcomers in the IT field. The site features more than 300 free online tutorials on various topics like HTML, JAVA, .NET, Javascript, Flash, PHP, SQL, C++, C#, VB, ASP and many more categories. The site also features links to various other free tech tutorials sites. The paid section of the site includes more than 250 online training courses for an annual membership fee.
Devcentral
This site is for hard-core techies and IT professionals. The recently revamped site contains a number of free articles, tutorials and downloads. Much of the stuff here is in PDF format. So you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view it. Some of the sections of the site need you to register (registration is free). Some of the categories covered in the site include C, C++,C# Win32, Java, VB, DCOM, Networking, Perl, XML,etc.
Ehow.com
Ehow is meant to help people to do a variety of real-world activities. It claims to be the most comprehensive source of information on how to do things, offering thousands of specific project instructions. With 14 categories featuring 120 subcategories, eHow offers staff-written, reviewed and edited solutions. Sample a few categories: Automotive, Careers/Education, Computers, Relationships, Dating, (Yes, that's right! A tutorial on dating!) marriage, Finance/Business, Health, Hobbies/Games ,Crafts, Fashion, Pets, Travel and more
Lifelonglearning
This is an award winning website in its category. A number of study guides in information technology are featuredFOR FREE online viewing. The site claims that over 10 million people have accessed these guides in the past 5 years and over 350 leading universities and colleges around the world have used these guides. Hmmnn... tall claims...Find out for yourself if the site lives up to them.
Techtutorials.com
As the name suggests, another site for tech geeks. Its yet another directory of free computer tutorials and whitepapers. The directory currently contains around 1700 free tutorials on subjects like computer hardware, databases, networking, UNIX, Linux,PROGRAMMING, etc. This site comes from the makers of mcmcse.com which features resources to help people preparing for Microsoft's MCSE examination.
Wannalearn.com
Gives a directory listing of free tutorials available on various topics (tech as well as non-tech related). Yeah, so what's new? Well..., this one only brings you content that is entirely free, and does not require any form of user registration. It features sites with predominantly or exclusively original content. Definitely worth a look.
Worldwidelearn.com
Provides e-learning opportunities for a variety of careers. It acts as a gateway to courses, tutorials, classes, degrees and workshops from around the world that are offered entirely online and available to adult learners worldwide. Not all are free though.)
This site offersONLINE COURSES in as many as 40 varied subject topics from copy writing, e-commerce, accounting to Linux training, personal development, photography and more. The site also offers online MBA programs, degree programs and college courses.
Howstuffworks.com
HowStuffWorks.com is an amazing, award-winning online destination for anyone who wants to know how anything works. If you have an inquisitive mind and are always looking for answers on how anything works the way it does, then this is the site for you. Categories includeCOMPUTERS & Internet, Engines & Automotive, Electronics & Telecom, Science & Technology, Aviation & Transport, Body & Health, Living & Entertainment, Around the House, Machines,etc. Aimless clicking around the site brought me to a page on how Lockpicking works! Well, I guess that could come in use someday...
Free-ed.net
Free-Ed is all about freeEDUCATION on the Internet. It's a simple as that--no tuition payments and no hidden charges. They have assembled links to the best course notes, outlines, tutorials, courses and e-texts on the net. Free-Ed provides an online, virtual university where users from around the world can study, take courses, and participate in community activities at no cost. Complete courses and tutorials are available for more than 120 different vocational and academic disciplines. The course catalog here is divided into the General course catalog and the Information Technology (IT) course catalog. You don't even have to sign up or register for a Free-Ed course.
Intelinfo.com
You can easily spend hours exploring Intelinfo, which claims to be One of the very best ComputerEDUCATION AND TRAINING Gateways on the Web Today. Whether you're going for technical certification or teaching yourself programming, web design, or networking, here you will find plenty of web resources. Get Free Knowledge, Information, References, and Resources about computers by visiting the many Free Computer, Programming and IT Training Courses, Tutorials, Books, Training Guides, Tips, Articles, and How-Tos. If you're a student learning computer programming or an IT professional, this site is for you. If you do visit the site, I recommend you subscribe to their monthly newsletter, which gives a lot of info on new free computer training and education sites which they find and make available on the website. Its real quality stuff.
Learn2.com
Offers e-learning solutions for individuals as well as corporates. The site offers free as well as subscription based courses that you can have streamed onto your computer for use at your own convenience.. The courses offered include Office 2000, certification courses for Linux and Microsoft certified courses. Nothing great about this site except that it offers a few free tutorials.
TheTutorial.com
Yet another tech related site featuring free tutorials on C, PHP, Delphi, Flash, DHTML, Javascript, Pascal, Perl. It also offers animations and cliparts if you are planning to build your own site. There is also a tips and tricks section on Javacript and HTML.
FindTutorials.com
This Australian site provides hundreds of tutorials on a wide variety of topics. The site showcases a mixture of IT-related and general tutorials. From Accounting, American football, Chemistry, Dental Health and the like to Dreamveaver, ASP, .NET, CGI, this site claims to have it all. Registration is free and members can even request a tutorial any topic if they don't find it on the site.
Webmonkey
This site comes from the stable of the well-known search engine Lycos. Webmonkey is a boon for web developers. Whether you are just starting out to build your own site or are a professional webmaster, you just cannot give this site a miss. With hundreds of articles across categories like Web Authoring, Design, Multimedia, E-business, Programming, etc, Webmonkey makes other sites in this category look like chiken shit, oops!, I mean monkey poop. Bottom line- Even if you are only remotely interested in IT or the internet, you won't be disappointed if you visit this site.
Autodidact
Autodidact is a free laering portal. It offers a category-wise listing of the best of the Web for e-learning courses and studies in education, employee training, development, performance improvement and fun. Autodidact brings you resources in online education, email training, Web Based Training, online learning, teleclass training, chat room training, and more. Last I checked, they had more than 4000 free tutorials. I even tried to access a couple of courses on Astronomy from the listing on its main page, but was greeted with a 'Page not found' message. Maybe you'll have better luck.
Learnfree.com
This site is unique in the sense that it offers free video-enhanced instructions on various topics ranging from pets to parenting, golf to gardening, health and medicine to beauty and fashion. They have a catalog of more than 250 instructional and educational websites on most of the topics under the sun and each contains several to dozens of pages of text and pictures - to which are added streaming video clips. If you have a broadband internet connection, you may enjoy the site better. My 56kbps modem just choked with one video clip.
Online Sapiens
This link takes you to a page quite similar to the present page. The site offers a listing of many free online courses available on the net. You can even subscribe to their Online Courses newsletter which features other free online education sites and other sources of university, college and continuing education courses.
Goodwill Global Learning
GCF Global Learning is administered by Goodwill Industries, a not-for-profit organization. They provide free, web-based career and computer training for beginning computer users. The curriculum is web accessible and features basic language, screen-shots, and interactive exercises. When you become a member of the GCF Global Learning community (membership is free), you can take free self-paced classes or free instructor-led classes. Current classes include How to be a Distance Learner, Introduction to the Internet, Introduction to Computers, Introduction to Microsoft Office, Introduction to Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, and Applied Skills (Career Development). 

The Creativity Portal
The Creativity Portal helps you to explore various activities related to arts, crafts, music, and writing. The CP is a specialty directory of sites that have free instructional information (tips, tutorials, articles, projects, how-to's, etc) to help you learn about the topic that interests you the most. If you have the desire toLEARN PHOTOGRAPHY, writing, fine arts, graphic design, music making, origami, balloon twisting, and a whole lot of other things, then this is the place for you to begin your learning adventure. I was particularly impressed by the section on music featuring lessons on guitar, flutes. drums, banjo,etc.