Having been a user for the past few months, I want to show you how Treehouse does a good job preparing its subscribers for real interviews and jobs by delivering the skills they need.
Table of Contents
Course Offerings.
The way Team Treehouse works is that there are different tracks to choose from. Each track selects courses with a common theme, like a certain language or a certain aspect of web development. The track’s courses are laid out in a sequence that will let you build on your skills from course to course to course. You are not forced to pick the courses in a specific order, though.
You often have a significant amount of choice for the course you want to complete next. Some of the tracks that Team Treehouse offers include Rails Development, which has a focus on Ruby on Rails, Web Development and Web Design, which provide training in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, iOS and Android development, which are mobile-oriented, PHP Development, WordPress Development, and a track in Starting a Business. Each track contains a lot of content.
Structure of a Team Treehouse Track.
A course in Team Treehouse consists of lectures, projects, and quizzes. The combination of different methods of delivering content is a good means for ensuring that students will retain the knowledge of each course. For example, the quizzes require a certain number of correct answers to pass. In addition, each lesson within a course has a video lecture, project code to experiment with, and a “Code Playground” where you can make changes to the project code and see the results right away. This is a great tool because you can go to the Code Playground at any time- even before the lesson is over- so that you can always get some experience with the lesson’s material.
This is an invaluable advantage.
Incentive System.
Team Treehouse has a wide array of different ways of motivating the student to complete their courses. First of all, there are badges. Students get badges for fulfilling certain landmark goals. There are always new badges being added to accompany new courses and new lessons. Next is the points system. You get points in each area of Team Treehouse by completing courses and lessons.
The more lessons you complete in, for example, PHP, the more points in the PHP area you get. Team Treehouse tracks both your points in each area and your total points. Team Treehouse also tracks your progress in percentage form- you can see what per cent of the total amount of content in a given area you have completed. This is a good concrete measure of your progress, and it feels good to see how far you have come. These motivational tracking tools are excellent for keeping you focused. Other online learning tools are frequently too hands-off. Team Treehouse gives the student a lot of different angles for keeping at it.
Value.
Team Treehouse is a powerful suite of tools and courses, but is it really worth the money? I believe the answer is yes. There are indeed free courses for learning to code popping up nowadays, but the extra advantages that Team Treehouse offers are unmatched. The delivery of the course content is excellent- short videos that are long enough to get the idea of the lesson across without dragging on. Being able to jump right into the code playground is a massive bonus. Many coding schools motivate the courses through specific projects, but the code playground makes it much easier to see in real-time how the code works and what happens when you change different elements of it.
Team Treehouse is a subscription service. Students sign up for annual subscriptions at either the Silver (Basic) or Gold (Pro) level. Choosing Gold allows the student to access feedback from staff on code, inspirational ideas for projects, interviews with people working in the relevant industries, and special workshops. Both subscriptions cost money. Every time someone purchases a Gold membership, Team Treehouse will give one to a public school student somewhere in America. The value of the Gold membership perks will depend on the person. It might be a good idea to start with a Silver year first.
If you are still with Treehouse at the end of the year, consider a Gold subscription.
The Pros and Cons.
Pros of Learning With Team Treehouse:
- Treehouse has a diverse library of training with coding topics such as PHP, Ruby on Rails, iOS development, Android development and JavaScript. There’s also content on web design, business, marketing, Photoshop and much more.
- Content meets a high-quality standard because it’s all crafted by a team of in-house expert teachers.
- Treehouse takes a project-based approach, helping you learn the practical skills to create real products like websites, web apps, and mobile apps.
- Treehouse goes the extra mile to help you start a career or business. A section of the library is dedicated to this area, with courses on how to establish a business and start a coding career.
Cons of Learning With Team Treehouse:
- Treehouse’s training is primarily based on videos, so it might not be ideal for people with other learning styles.
- No lifetime access: If you stop paying, you lose access to courses.
- There are no student reviews/ratings you can read through before taking a course.
Summary.
Team Treehouse is a great paid option for learning coding, specifically web development. The coursework is rigorous and interesting, the projects are good motivation, and the incentives are beneficial for keeping you interested. The major highlights include the code playground and the constant stream of new content to learn.
Give Team Treehouse a try if you want a higher-tier form of learning to code online- every month, it is fairly inexpensive and offers a 7-day free trial.