Hackvard Takes A New Approach To Learning Code

If you want to learn a programming language, there are several ways to go about that. You can go to school, studying at a proper four-year university. There's the increasingly popular self-taught route, too. A new option may bridge the two, both letting you learn on your own time and with others.

Hackvard takes the self-learning, aspiring coder and turns them onto a more formal, collective learning experience. Hackvard is more a forum than online learning course, letting you schedule meetups with others who in the same boat as you.

The program is founded by two self-taught programmers who weren't crazy about the circumstances that led them to meet. At a conference, Ruben Abergel and Edward Lando exchanged tales of how they learned the digital language. Lando is self-taught, while Abergel came from the "bootcamp" avenue, where you're essentially thrust into a code incubator for a series of weeks.

What both wanted wasn't necessarily a formal education, but a community. They liked being able to learn with others who were learning themselves, and wanted an environment where people helped each other out.

With Hackvard, you don't need to commit to a schedule. You either post or respond to a meetup ad. If someone says they'll be at the local coffee shop, and you can make it there to code, feel free. If you want to post your own event, that's possible, too.

If anything, it's a social tool for a very focussed purpose, and that's learning code. There are other avenues for finding like-minded souls, but Hackvard keeps it simple — it's about the code. If you're about the code, too, check it out.

Like the school it's cheekily named after, there's currently a wait-list. Still, if you're not ready or able to do the four-year thing, or plop down a chunk of change on some boot camp, Hackvard might be worth the wait.

Source: Hackvard

Via: Wired