Code Babes is basically hot chicks teaching you how to program.
I’ll let them explain it …
I must say—interesting idea: using sexuality to motivate people to learn to how to code. Given how the women are highly sexualized, I assume it’s targeted towards men… But do these YouTube videos and associated quizzes actually teach you anything?
The Programming Virgin Course with Code Babes
So I decided to take the Code Babes Programming Virgin Course which teachings programming fundamentals with JavaScript.
As far as the website itself goes — it looks pretty good. It’s brightly colored and modern. AKA the people who put it together know what they’re doing.
This course, and the others I peered at, seem to follow a video and quiz pattern. That is, watch a video. Take a quiz. Move along to the next lesson.
The videos themselves are high quality. Clearly done by a professional, unlike a lot of the screencasts/webcam filmed tutorials I find on YouTube.
Thoughts On The Code Babes Programming Virgin Course
Immediately after beginning the first video, there was a serious issue: there was absolutely no preface given.
For instance, no mention to a code editor (although I see they’re using Sublime Text text editor). Maybe it is somewhere else on the site. Nonetheless, as the user, I shouldn’t have to go searching for a tidbit of information like that.
Especially given the fact they have such a nice website and video footage—they have a budget. They are experienced. Why is there no mention of code editors!?
Anyways, the videos themselves have some real-life lessons in coding. It’s not just entertainment.
I also like the examples they use, like how when teaching about variables in the conditional statements section they use “dude = Ryan Gosling”. And other funny instances.
Also, as you move along in the course a piece of clothing comes off. Pass a quiz, move to next section where an article of clothing comes off…
But Code Babes Does Not Tell You Answers You Got Wrong
You can’t get to next section without passing the quiz. Which is fine. But when you get an answer wrong, they don’t even tell you which question it was.
It’s kind of annoying. No, it’s really annoying.
There is also no guide or page that goes over the correct answers. So, basically, you have to play a guessing game as to which question you got wrong.
There are also no additional resources, unlike a lot of other tutorials I have been doing (notably Udacity) which always link to other helpful sites or mention books.
Overall Impressions
Pros:
- Video tutorials (my preferred format)
- Entertaining, without a doubt
- Free!
Cons:
- Objectifies women
- Information has some serious gaps
- No quiz answers provided—and you’re left unsure
- You really can’t learn a whole lot from their videos
My overall takeaway, though, is that it’s actually not that bad.
No, you won’t become a web developer after finishing the free Code Babes video tutorials.
But I’m not going to completely rag on a free resource that is promoting people to learn how to code. Because, obviously, I think everyone should learn. And if this is your preferred learning method, fabulous.
However… Some people found fault with the Code Babes approach. Like, Code Dicks.
But if you actually want to learn JavaScript… Click here.