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

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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
   

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3. Factors to consider
   • Date
   • jQuery version
   • Accuracy
   • Popularity
   • Medium
   • Credibility
   

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4. Date
   

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5. Date
   Developers in 2011 are still
   sharing learning resources
   from 2007 (bad)
   

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6. Date
   Majority of blogs no longer
   update content a few months
   after the publish date
   

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7. Date
   (Old) Fundamentals stay the
   same, but best practices
   change over time
   

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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
   

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9. Version
   

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10. Version Number
    jQuery has significantly
    changed since 1.3.x
    

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11. Version Number
    Resources using older versions may
    not cite newer (potentially) better
    ways of accomplishing same tasks
    

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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
    

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13. Accuracy
    

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14. Accuracy
    Writers/content creators
    aren’t perfect
    (we all make the occasional mistake)
    

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15. Accuracy
    Be sure to check the
    comments for obvious errors
    or omissions
    

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16. Accuracy
    Favour resources willing to
    admit issues, make corrections
    or apply code fixes
    

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17. Popularity
    

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18. Popularity
    Anyone can create a top 30 list
    with a gazillion re-tweets. This
    doesn’t mean a resource is high
    in quality.
    

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19. Popularity
    Base decisions to use on
    content quality rather than
    popularity
    

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20. Popularity
    Use resources for inspiration,
    the Official API documentation
    for reference.
    

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21. Credibility
    

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22. Credibility
    Is the author of the resource
    considered trustworthy and
    knowledgable?
    

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23. Credibility
    Is the resource a ‘content-farm’
    or there for educational
    purposes?
    Unique, well-researched content can be favourable.
    

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24. Credibility
    Does the author practice what
    they preach in their projects or
    material?
    

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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
    

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26. Medium
    

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27. Medium
    Screencasts, talks and blogs are
    excellent but can have a finite
    shelf-life if not updated
    

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28. Medium
    Regularly updated content
    (eg. The jQuery Fundamentals
    book) can be preferable
    

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29. Medium
    Live training (eg. Bocoup) can
    offer comprehensive, up-to-
    date learning if an option.
    

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30. Conclusions
    Use due diligence when
    selecting your jQuery learning
    material.
    Have fun learning!
    

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31. More from me:
    • @addyosmani
    • http://addyosmani.com
    • http://github.com/addyosmani
    

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