We stay at the top of the game with coding and web development using Treehouse as a training tool — it's great for experienced programmers who want to learn more, and anyone new to coding, or anyone who wants to get started, can use it too.
Web development is an interesting field. The career has kept pace with the growth of the Internet in such a way that academia hasn’t been able to keep up with it. Most major universities don’t even offer degrees purely in Web Development, but package it as part of a larger Computer Science or Programming degree. This is like requiring English majors to also take two semesters of Spanish — sure, they’re both languages, but odds are students of either discipline have very different career paths in mind. A poll of the degrees of the developers at our office will result in incredibly varied answers like “English” and “Building Science.”
The good news is, there are plenty of channels outside formal academics for learning and honing development skills. Blogs, podcasts, and online courses all offer opportunities to constantly get better, and because they aren’t bound to the semester model, they can stay up-to-date with current trends and best practices (like mobile responsiveness and social media).
At Infomedia, we try to take full advantage of these resources. One resource we’re particularly fond of is Team Treehouse. We’ve had a company account for about two months now, and all of our developers have been hard at work seeing what new things we can learn (a practically never-ending list). Instead of report cards (which, let’s face it, most of us would rather never see again), Treehouse gives you badges when you complete a course. We have to admit, we’re a little addicted to racking up those badges.
Badges … like scouts get? Well, yeah. In the Infomedia Treehouse, badges are earned by passing quizzes, completing coding challenges, and finishing courses. Basically they make the learning experience feel like a game, and while they’re particularly appealing to lead programmer — and Eagle Scout — Michael Stuckey (cool kids like me dropped out after Wolf), the rest of us like them, too.
So, what are we studying? Our top track, not surprisingly, is WordPress Development. That helps us stay ahead of changes in the industry and make sure we’re offering the very latest to every client. But we also study some specific different specialties, like MailChimp API — that’s the plugin you use for sending newsletters to clients. We’re learning how to make better use of that plugin to be able to offer new ideas to clients who use MailChimp.
A few other stats from our first month with the site:
- Video Views: 1,716
- Quizzes Passed: 228
- Average Content Consumed Per User: 1,306 minutes
- Badges Earned: 110 (13 per person)
We use Treehouse to stay on top of our field to make the best websites for clients, and if you’re interested at all in brushing up on your experience or learning about coding, it’s a fantastic resource. Click here to check out Treehouse … and let us know if you win any badges.