Ruby Programming 21st Batch: An Intensive, Online Course For Beginners

Introducing an intensive, online course for beginners that helps you get started with Ruby programming.

What’s Ruby?

According to http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ – “Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write.”

Yukihiro Matsumoto, the creator of Ruby, in an interview says -

I believe people want to express themselves when they program. They don’t want to fight with the language. Programming languages must feel natural to programmers. I tried to make people enjoy programming and concentrate on the fun and creative part of programming when they use Ruby.

What Will I Learn?

In the Ruby programming course, you will learn the essential features of Ruby that you will end up using every day.

Depending on participation levels, we throw a Ruby coding challenge in the mix, appropriate for the level we are at. We have been known to give out a prize or two for the ‘best’ solution.

Who’s It For?

An absolute beginner but with some experience in some other programming language.

You can read what past participants have to say about the course. Click here.

Mentors

Satish Talim, Satoshi Asakawa, Victor Goff III and others from the RubyLearning team.

Dates

The course starts on Saturday, 15th Jan. 2011 and runs for two months.

How do I register?

You first need to register on the site and then enroll into the course.

Hurry, registrations have started.

At the end of this course you should have all the knowledge to explore the wonderful world of Ruby on your own.

5th Jan. 2011: So far, the registered participants are from:

Many of you wrote in asking for details on how the course works. Here are some of the details:

Important:

Once the course starts, you can login and start with the lessons any day and time and post your queries in the forum under the relevant lessons. Someone shall always be there to answer them. Just to set the expectations correctly, there is no real-time ‘webcasting’.

Methodology:

• The Mentors shall give you URL’s of pages and sometimes some extra notes; you need to read through. Read the pre-class reading material at a convenient time of your choice – the dates mentioned are just for your guideline. While reading, please make a note of all your doubts, queries, questions, clarifications, comments about the lesson and after you have completed all the pages, post these on the forum under the relevant lesson. There could be some questions that relate to something that has not been mentioned or discussed by the mentors thus far; you could post the same too. Please remember that with every post, do mention the operating system of your computer.
• The mentor shall highlight the important points that you need to remember for that day’s session.
• There could be exercises every day. Please do them.
• Participate in the forum for asking and answering questions or starting discussions. Share knowledge, and exchange ideas among yourselves during the course period. Participants are strongly encouraged to post technical questions, interesting articles, tools, sample programs or anything that is relevant to the class / lesson. Please do not post a simple "Thank you" note or "Hello" message to the forum. Please be aware that these messages are considered noises by people subscribed to the forum.

Outline of Work Expectations:

1. Most of the days, you will have exercises to solve. These are there to help you assimilate whatever you have learned till then.
2. Some days may have some extra assignments / food for thought articles / programs
3. Above all, do take part in the relevant forums. Past participants will confirm that they learned the best by active participation.

Some Commonly Asked Questions

• Qs. Is there any specific time when I need to be online?
  Ans. No. You need not be online at a specific time of the day.
• Qs. Is it important for me to take part in the course forums?
  Ans. YES. You must Participate in the forum(s) for asking and answering questions or starting discussions. Share knowledge, and exchange ideas among yourselves (participants) during the course period. Participants are strongly encouraged to post technical questions, interesting articles, tools, sample programs or anything that is relevant to the class / lesson. Past participants will confirm that they learned the best by active participation.
• Qs. How much time do I need to spend online for a course, in a day?
  Ans. This will vary from person to person. All depends upon your comfort level and the amount of time you want to spend on a particular lesson or task.
• Qs. Is there any specific set time for feedback (e.g., any mentor responds to me within 24 hours?)
  Ans. Normally somebody should answer your query / question within 24 hours.
• Qs. What happens if nobody answers my questions / queries?
  Ans. Normally, that will not happen. In case you feel that your question / query is not answered, then please post the same in the thread – “Any UnAnswered Questions / Queries”.
• Qs. What happens to the class (or forums) after a course is over? Can you keep it open for a few more days so that students can complete and discuss too?
  Ans. The course and its forum is open for a month after the last day of the course.

Remember, the idea is to have fun learning Ruby.