Free Online JavaScript Courses

Learn Javascript Online

Javascript is a light-weight programming language that was created to make it easy for website developers to add interactive elements to their pages. It can enable things like popup windows, checking the validity of data in forms, calculators, calendars, and other useful functions. Some people confuse it with the Java programming languare, which is entirely different. To learn more about Java and Javascript, see my article Is Javascript the Same As Java?

If you want to learn the JavaScript scripting language, you have several options. You can buy a book on JavaScript, or check one out of your local library. There are videos that teach JavaScript programming. You could take a JavaScript class at a community college. Or you can try a one of many free online JavaScript courses.

JavaScript was introduced to Web browsers in 1996 by Netscape, the forerunner of the Mozilla Foundation. So it is no surprised that the canonical JavaScript tutorial is hosted and maintained at the Mozilla Developers Network JavaScript Guide.

Another leading JavaScript tutorial is at the W3schools collection of programming tutorials. This one is very well organized, with clearly labeled chapters to help you find exactly the information you need quickly. As you step through each lesson chapter, you will find hundreds of JavaScript code examples. You can also create your own JavaScript code in the interactive editor, and see the results in a separate window as you tweak your script.

JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer is part learning and part entertainment. Each chapter starts with an interactive demo of what you are about to learn, such as changing the page's background color at the click of a button. Then the author walks you through the JavaScript concepts and code that enable the effect. You can even download a ZIP file containing all of the lessons to study offline on your local computer.

Tizag's JavaScript Tutorial is written in down-to-earth language for beginners. It assumes you have basic knowledge of HTML, but it carefully explains what JavaScript is and exactly what each line of sample JavaScript code does.

JavaScript Garden is not a beginner's guide to JavaScript. Instead, its tutorials focus on "the more quirky" parts of the JavaScript programming language. It gives advices on avoiding common mistakes, subtle bugs in JavaScript, tweaking performance of scripts, and bad coding practices that can make scripts perform erratically or slowly.

The About.com JavaScript Classes include 25 text-based lessons and a final quiz. It will help you learn about variables, operators, functions, and other JavaScript topics.

There are many other free online JavaScript courses. Some are all-text; others incorporate video. Which one is "better" depends on your individual learning style and level of programming expertise. The examples given above run the gamut from "total non-programmer" to intermediate JavaScript expert.

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