But I don’t think that SE is unwelcoming to newcomers, and I really don’t believe that that the minimal requirements for newcomers to get help (e.g. ask a question in accordance with a site FAQ) are prohibitive. I don’t know how much more handholding would be actually helpful to the person. It’s completely reasonable to require people to put a little effort into the process — try something, look something up, look for existing Q&A on the SE site they plan to use. Those who don’t do that, and who instead approach SE as “do my (home)work for me”, aren’t going to be helped by more by being in a novices area (and in fact, there are plenty of folks who aren’t novices and are just lazy, who do that).

I am now doing an online jquery “class” but at least that language makes more sense to me because I can see how that dovetails with marking up a website and using jquery for effects.

This is basically my exact motivation for going through Code Year. I’m currently pursuing a BS degree in computer networking, and understand that at least a rudimentary profiency in “programming” and “code” is required to get anywhere beyond the help desk position in the work force, even though I’m not looking to get into the coding side of the industry.

Like Jay mentioned, they did slow the pace down after the first few weeks, and started to explain things much more clearly, I would imagine due to the scrutiny they have received for their teaching techniques. There have been a couple of instances where they’ve used more complex concepts within examples demonstrating whatever it is they may be teaching that week (specifically Math.floor and Math.random, and the concept of Objects, null, and indefined), where they have made sure to point out “Look, we know this part of the code is more advanced, just copy it for now, and know that we will get back to it.” Sure enough, when they went over Math.floor and Math.random last week, they made sure to explain it in great detail, far more detail then they used in their first few lessons.

I’m not here to champion for Codeacademy/Code Year. I think there are valid criticisms with their grandiosity. However, they are doing a great job of making code seem less scary, which I think is very important. They may not teach the world to code, but they are doing a great job of taking the scary face off programming and making it more accessible to smart people who have been intimidated by it in the past, and so in that respect, it has to be considered a valueable tool.

I know I’m not going to become a programming wizard through the program (nor is that my goal), however, I am now looking outside the program for more ways to develop my understanding of coding, because now that Code Year has made me realize its not as scary as I’ve thought (for two decades, since I logged in to my first BBS at the age of 12), im actually excited, enthusiastic, and motived to learn these new skills.