Codecademy

First off, let me say that I am relatively new to coding. Been working on it for about two months, off and on, all I have done is basics to HTML and Python (and about 15-16 pages of notes)... that being said, my review is just from a new user/Python perspective.

So Code Academy was initially very appealing. I was getting badges, it saves your progress, offers hints and solutions, it seemed very inviting/easy to get started learning about things, it essentially has training wheels (and I needed those a bit) and most importantly in was free.

But imagine a free sample in a grocery store. You plop it in your mouth and are initially satisfied, but then it tastes awful. You start gagging, you double over and everyone around you stops their carts to look at you. After crumpling to the floor, blue faced, you contemplate "should I buy this product?" That is exactly how my experience went. I was thinking about paying for Code Academy over the summer when I would have more time to work at the lessons, but the more I did them in my down time, the more it became like I was a debugger getting paid $0 an hour. I started encountering lesson ruining elements every single step of the way. Needless to say, I am not considering that option anymore.

Essentially the free sample sucks and you have to make it good for people to want to buy your product. Now let me say why I came to this conclusion in my experience.

1 - Lack of Community
I understand that there are some elements I probably would not get till I pay but at the same time the community seemed bleak and disconnected. I made a number of posts on the forums, staying highly positive, and I never got a helpful reply. I had staff hide my posts a couple of times though... oh, I did get one response, but it was essentially trying to crush my enthusiasm, and well yeah, the community was a real let down.

2 - Poorly Designed Lessons
I have a Master's in Education and I have taught for seven years. Lesson planning is kind of a big thing for me. That being said I cannot tell you how many times the instructions said something along the lines of "Why don't you try using (thing you have never learned or been taught before)." Literally, a number of lessons ask new coders, such as myself, to use things in lessons that they never introduced in the first place. This really really a simple lesson planning 101 flaw that could easily be corrected, but alas it has not.

3 - Lackluster Hints and Support
Again, being new to coding, when I have somebody saying syntax error to my face, I do not know what I need to fix. Now Code Academy has one great feature (until it is not)... the "Solution" button. After enough banging your head into a wall, you can click to see the solution, an exemplar, which is great for learning purposes... but even this is broken in the later lessons. All of a sudden perfect answers have errors and there is absolutely no explanation for that. Also you can click on hints for the problem you are on and in a number of hints I have gotten "have you tried adding numbers?" or a comment of the sort (no, I am not kidding, most of the hints are nigh insulting). I have found a couple of solutions through the forums, but remember my first point...

4 - Bugs
Just a ton of them. I have had lessons where I type "f*** this buggy a** lesson" and I get a check mark and moved onto the next page. Now their staff seems to be fixing things, but I have also heard that there are probably more fixes beyond the "pay wall." Again, from above, the free sample has to be good otherwise you will get users like me fleeing Code Academy.

So do not get me wrong, I think it is great to have a free resource out there and I got a basic knowledge of some coding principles from this, I am thankful to Code Academy for this. I also hope that they use my review and others to improve their service, but when it comes to the quality of the service, I am seriously doubtful that the things I am learning are actually correct because the service is so flawed, so so flawed, that I have a hard time figuring out if it is me or Code Academy.

All in all, this means Code Academy is a great place to get your feet wet, but not a great place to stay. I am looking into Khan Academy, Udemy, Coursera, EdX and others to see what else I can do to further my learning.