Evaluating jQuery Learning Material

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

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Date

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

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

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

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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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Version

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Version Number jQuery has signiﬁcantly changed since 1.3.x

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

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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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Accuracy

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

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

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

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Popularity

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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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Popularity Base decisions to use on content quality rather than popularity

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

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Credibility

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

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

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

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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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Medium

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

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

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

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

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