Evaluating jQuery Learning Material

There's a lot of great educational content on jQuery out there - some would say enough to get lost in. To help evaluate the good from the bad, I've put together what (in my opinion) are the important factors to consider when selecting your learning material in this talk.

Transcript

2. Who is this for? • Beginners • Intermediate developers unsure of how to evaluate ‘stale’ learning material • Lecturers unsure of how to identify up-to- date resources for students
3. Factors to consider • Date • jQuery version • Accuracy • Popularity • Medium • Credibility
4. Date
5. Date Developers in 2011 are still sharing learning resources from 2007 (bad)
6. Date Majority of blogs no longer update content a few months after the publish date
7. Date (Old) Fundamentals stay the same, but best practices change over time
8. Date • Keep an eye out for author notes pointing to newer versions of material • Focus on learning resources that are recent • Avoid posts/screencasts older than 3 years • Favour resources that keep their content up-to-date
9. Version
10. Version Number jQuery has significantly changed since 1.3.x
11. Version Number Resources using older versions may not cite newer (potentially) better ways of accomplishing same tasks
12. Version Number • Try sticking to resources using jQuery 1.4.2 • 1.3.2 resources are fine for basic selection related reference • Ideally use resources citing 1.5.x - this came with a major rewrite of $.ajax() including support for Deferreds
13. Accuracy
14. Accuracy Writers/content creators aren’t perfect (we all make the occasional mistake)
15. Accuracy Be sure to check the comments for obvious errors or omissions
16. Accuracy Favour resources willing to admit issues, make corrections or apply code fixes
17. Popularity
18. Popularity Anyone can create a top 30 list with a gazillion re-tweets. This doesn’t mean a resource is high in quality.
19. Popularity Base decisions to use on content quality rather than popularity
20. Popularity Use resources for inspiration, the Official API documentation for reference.
21. Credibility
22. Credibility Is the author of the resource considered trustworthy and knowledgable?
23. Credibility Is the resource a ‘content-farm’ or there for educational purposes? Unique, well-researched content can be favourable.
24. Credibility Does the author practice what they preach in their projects or material?
25. Credibility • Evaluate content on its merits rather than the author’s popularity or name • Be wary of resources that write a lot but say very little • Make sure the authors you rely on for educational content know what they’re talking about
26. Medium
27. Medium Screencasts, talks and blogs are excellent but can have a finite shelf-life if not updated
28. Medium Regularly updated content (eg. The jQuery Fundamentals book) can be preferable
29. Medium Live training (eg. Bocoup) can offer comprehensive, up-to- date learning if an option.
30. Conclusions Use due diligence when selecting your jQuery learning material. Have fun learning!
31. More from me: • @addyosmani • http://addyosmani.com • http://github.com/addyosmani