Want to become an iPhone or Android app developer in just a few months, from home? You may be in luck. Tech education site Treehouse is offering a new set of online video courses that it says will get you up and coding faster than ever.
[More from Mashable: Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard for Mobile Devices Fits in Your Pocket [VIDEO]]
Treehouse, a Web education startup, officially launched its iOS and Android application development courses Tuesday. Each is divided into several stages, including instructional videos and quizzes, to help even the most technologically challenged user become an experienced coder.
The Orlando based company launched in November 2011, and offers courses from website building to Photoshop use. It currently has more than 12,000 subscribers, ranging in age from seven to 60 years old.
[More from Mashable: 6 Apps You Don’t Want to Miss]
The iOS and Android courses both start by teaching a subscriber how to create a "crystal ball" app -- where you shake the phone to get a Magic 8-ball-like answer -- on either platform, and how to submit it to the App Store or Google Play.
Treehouse CEO Ryan Course says students will walk away from the introductory course with basic coding knowledge. The site has plans to launch intermediate and advanced courses by December, making users job ready in a matter of months.
“No one cares about building a crystal ball, but it’s an app you can build from beginning to end,” Carson says. “If you’ve never coded a single line of Java ever, you should be able to watch the videos, do the challenges and walk away and build your first app.”
Though there are countless coding sites out there, Treehouse hopes to differentiate itself with the “consistent teaching” videos produced by its full-time teaching staff. Treehouse's instructional videos are free, but only paid users are granted access to the site's quizzes and coding challenges.
Treehouse offers several subscription levels, starting at $9 a month for students and $25 a month for the rest of us. Included in the subscription price: a job-matching service where Treehouse’s staff helps point a student to an open job after completing the most advanced course.
“The goal is that you could pay $75 over three months to be job ready instead of $50,000 a year for a CS degree,” Carson says.
Treehouse's instructional videos are broken up to teach one concept at a time -- they're straightforward and brief, though the occasional appearance of a puppet or boxer is somewhat distracting.
Image Courtesy of Treehouse
This story originally published on Mashable here.