anvilon/flickr

In 2002, Torkel Klingberg, a psychologist at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, published a study involving 14 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. All of the children were asked to spend a total of 10.5 hours, over five weeks, practicing computerized games that put demands on their working memory—their moment-by-moment attention and ability to juggle and analyze the objects of their attention.

Seven of the children played the games only at the beginner’s level; for the other seven, the games became progressively harder as the children got better. At the study’s end, the group who trained progressively not only improved on the games, but also on other measures of working memory. Their hyperactivity, as measured by head movement, lessened. And incredibly, even bizarrely by the standards of orthodoxy then holding sway, they also did much better on the Raven’s progressive matrices, long regarded as psychology’s single best measure of fluid intelligence. If the results were to be believed, the kids had gotten smarter.

At first scoffed at, the little study has since led to dozens of other studies (15 of them listed here) aimed at replicating and expanding its finding. It also quickly led Klingberg and the Karolinska Institute to form a company, Cogmed, to turn working-memory training into a business. The initial target market was children with ADHD, whose parents hoped to find something other than drugs to improve their children’s attention; but soon the market expanded to treatments for both adults and children with a variety of cognitive disorders. By 2010, in a step suggesting just how vast a business this brain training could be, Cogmed was sold to Pearson, the largest education company in the world.

“Cogmed is a leader in the emerging field of evidence-based cognitive training,” the company states on its website. “We have scientifically validated research showing that Cogmed training provides substantial and lasting improvements in attention for people with poor working memory—in all age groups. That makes Cogmed’s products the best-validated products on the market.”

Aren’t claims like this rather overheated? I posed that question to Klingberg at Joe Coffee, a tiny, crowded coffee shop on West 23rd Street in Manhattan, where he was in town to give a talk at Columbia University. He wore a black leather jacket and a momentary scowl, having heard such critical questions many times before.

“Yeah, well,” he said with a shrug. “We did start to do research in 1999. Of course you can say that we still don’t have—we should wait another 10 years until we have thousands of participants. This is a general problem with cognitive training studies that we don’t have these huge studies that drug companies have. On the other hand, this is not something that is dangerous.”

He pointed out that Cogmed claims only that it can improve working memory, not fluid intelligence per se—even though many studies have found that working memory and fluid intelligence are closely related.

“What we see, over and over again,” he said, “is improvement of working memory and also of attention, including attention in everyday life. This is not everything, but it’s good enough for me if we can have that. Working-memory problems and attention problems are huge for many children and adults. Right now I don’t have any financial interest in Cogmed anymore. The influence I have had over Cogmed has been to make them very cautious. They don’t make claims about rejuvenating your brain or improving intelligence.”

I asked him to describe exactly what kind of computerized training tasks Cogmed offers.

“There are 12 tasks,” he said. “They’re all visuospatial. The role of attention in working memory almost always has a spatial dimension. When you’re paying attention—even when you’re paying attention to me talking here in this café—there’s a spatial component. When there’s a loud noise, you might shift your attention to where it’s coming from. Being able to maintain your spatial focus on me is important for you right now. Even though it’s words coming from me, there’s an important component of space. So if you can improve the stability of that spatial aspect, you will be better at visuospatial tasks and be better at keeping your focus on me rather than on that noise over there.”

Still wanting a better sense of the exercises Cogmed offers, I scheduled a meeting with a clinical psychologist, Nicole Garcia, who offers the training just a few miles from my home in Montclair, New Jersey. She allowed me to sit down at her computer to play a handful of the games. (She emphasized that Cogmed calls them “training tasks,” not games. But they looked like games to me.)

I clicked one called Hidden, which showed a standard numeric keypad, the kind used on cell phones and calculators. The keypad was hidden while a man’s voice recited a short list of numbers. When his list was complete, the keypad reappeared, and I was supposed to click on the list—in reverse order. Another game showed a circle with nine smaller circles strung along it like carriages on a Ferris wheel. As the big circle slowly rotated in a clockwise direction, the little circles lit up in a random sequence. Once the sequence was completed, I had to click on the little circles in the same order.

All of the games were easy on the first pass, but immediately grew hard enough—meaning that the sequence to be remembered grew longer and was presented faster—that I began making mistakes.

Having offered Cogmed to a few dozen of her patients, as young as six and as old as 63 (including a successful attorney whose ADHD was diagnosed in her forties), Garcia said she’s convinced of its benefits, sometimes in combination with medication and sometimes on its own. And at a total cost to families of about $2,000 for the 25 sessions, she said, it compares favorably with many other kinds of ADHD treatments.

Where Cogmed beats all other forms of cognitive training is in the number of published, randomized clinical trials demonstrating its benefits and the number of trials still under way, led by independent researchers at leading institutions without any commercial connection to the company.

Julie Schweitzer, director of the ADHD Program at the University of California in Davis’s MIND Institute, conducted a randomized study of children diagnosed with ADHD.  When published in July 2012 in the journal Neurotherapeutics, Schweitzer’s study found that children in the placebo group spent just as much time off-task at the end of the study as they had at the beginning, but those who trained on Cogmed sharply increased the amount of time they spent doing school work.

Children who have survived cancer are another group often in need of cognitive rehabilitation. “Somewhere around 20 to 40 percent of children treated for leukemia will end up with cognitive changes over time,” said Kristina K. Hardy, a neuropsychologist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “For those treated for brain tumors, the figure is conservatively around 60 to 80 percent.”

What distinguishes these young survivors from most others seeking cognitive rehabilitation is that the effects of radiation or chemotherapy on the brain become apparent only with the passage of time. Immediately following treatment, a recent study found, survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia showed no significant change in their verbal IQ scores, but by early adulthood, their scores had dropped by an average of 10.3 points. 

In 2012, Hardy reported the results of a pilot study comparing Cogmed to a placebo form of computerized. Among 20 children who had survived either brain cancer or leukemia, those who trained with Cogmed saw substantial improvements compared to the placebo group on their visual working memory and in parent-rated learning problems.

Most recently, children with Down syndrome have been shown to benefit from Cogmed. “Following training,” concluded a study published last June, “performance on trained and untrained visuospatial short-term memory tasks was significantly enhanced for children in the intervention group. This improvement was sustained four months later. These results suggest that computerized visuospatial memory training in a school setting is both feasible and effective for children with Down syndrome.”

Brian Skotko, co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, told me, “If Cogmed was a drug, everyone would call this study groundbreaking.”

Not all studies of Cogmed have been positive. A large one published in October found little benefit. But as Klingberg has written in defense of Cogmed in particular and working-memory training in general: “Working memory training is still a young field of research. As with all science, no single experiment explains everything, and results are never perfectly consistent … Many questions remain. But there is no going back to the notion that working memory capacity is fixed.”

This post is adapted from Dan Hurley's Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power.

Attorney marketplace UpCounsel has spent the last several months helping startups and other small businesses get affordable legal help. But for the most part, that help has mainly been focused on short-term projects that don’t require a ton of assistance over a longer period of time.

The startup hopes to change that with a new service that will connect technology companies in San Francisco with an outside general counsel to replace the legal help they’d usually get from a traditional law firm. Those firms can charge up to $800 per hour to work with a partner, but UpCounsel believes that by setting companies up with attorneys on its platform, it can drastically reduce that cost over time.

The Outside General Counsels it connects startups with are former senior associates and partners from large firms who have previously served in the general counsel role of technology companies. The only difference is now they’re working virtually through the UpCounsel platform.

To make sure that the general counsels are a good fit, UpCounsel does interviews with interested companies to determine what their needs are, and then tries to pair them with attorneys who understand their business and have the correct skill sets to support them. Attorneys get a company profile and dossier to review only if they are selected by the company to possibly represent them.

More than just making the connection between startups and the outside general counsel, UpCounsel also handles all admin and support for them. That includes billing, but also means helping them to find paralegals as well.

As part of the program, UpCounsel is also opening up not just to attorneys, but to professionals who have served as paralegals to support them. Again, since it doesn’t have all the overhead of the big firms, paralegals can be billed at about a third of what the big firms charge for their hourly work.

In addition to the lower cost, UpCounsel believes that its outside general counsels will be more responsive to legal requests than the folks who work at more traditional firms that are loaded up on casework. CEO Matt Faustman tells me that in its early trial, some startups have used the program to complement their existing firms for when they need more immediate help.

But the platform is also seeing some startups move completely to adopt its outside general counsels, with about 10 totally jumping ship from some big firms you’ve probably heard of.

Now that it’s launched, we’ll see how well the program actually works. In the meantime, UpCounsel has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from folks that include Homebrew, Bobby Yazdani, SV Angel, Collaborative Fund, Haroon Mokhtarzada, and other angels.

Foreword

We came a long way since we started the public beta testing of Dubjoy, the video voice-over solution in the browser.

We’re targeting a pretty specific public: Language Service Providers, voice actors, voice talents, translators and interpreters. This is mostly a non-technical blend, that like most people, can’t help you efficiently debug, reproduce or describe problems as they occur.

We came a long way since then, with most of the problems being solved and the software approaching production quality fast.

But still, we were desperate for a way to better assist our customers, preferably in real-time.

There are many moving parts to a voice recording app in the browser. And moving parts always make for a fun array of problems customers encounter.

We have to be able to assist people while learning how to use the software for the first time. There can be workflow issues, microphone sensitivity and permission problems, Flash versions, etc.

Communication with your customers is key, and I can’t describe how overwhelmingly positive the reactions have been.

They love to see that you have their back at all times.

Required capabilities

So our ideal system would have the following capabilities:

• real-time feedback and help,
• log forwarding,
• error forwarding,
• diagnostic checks,
• recovery routines,
• reset routines,
• system information.

And we set out to find something out there that could help.

Olark

If you’re selling anything on the web and don’t use Olark you’re missing out.

They’re making a chat widget, that you integrate into your site. Once installed your website visitors appear as chat contacts in your IM program like Google Talk.

You can click on anyone and start talking them up, or wait that someone need help and clicks the “Chat with us” button.

So this tool by itself eliminates our first capability requirement: real-time feedback and help.

But as we delved deeper into their developer API documentation we discovered that you can easily extend the functionality of the chat widget by creating your own custom commands and binding to certain events, like when the conversation begins.

Anatomy of our Olark integration

Olark has a nice feature that chat operators can issue commands.

A command is simply any word prefixed with an exclamation, like !debugon.

The “brain” of the integration is a simple parser, that hooks up to the api.chat.onCommandFromOperator event.

A simple example of this, an implementation of the !explainer command:

olark 'api.chat.onCommandFromOperator', (event) ->
 # !explainer
 # Show the popup with the explainer video.
 if event.command.name is 'explainer'
 V.olark.send "[EXPLAINER] Showing popup"
 V.overlay.help()

So Dubjoy’s current integration looks like this (you can list the current commands by issuing !dubjoy:

# !dubjoy
# Show Dubjoy help and commands.
if event.command.name is 'dubjoy'
 V.olark.send "[HELP] Dubjoy Olark integration\n"
 V.olark.send "!status - Status report (env, kombajn, video, frags, app)"
 V.olark.send "!debugon [<level>] - Turn on log fwd at a level"
 V.olark.send "!debugoff - Turn off log fwd"
 V.olark.send "!reload [<restore>] - Force reload and restore state"
 V.olark.send "!undo - Undo last step"
 V.olark.send "!explainer - Show the explainer popup"
 V.olark.send "!fragments - Output detailed fragments data"
 V.olark.send "!fragmiss - Output fragments that are missing audio"
 V.olark.send "!fragclear <fragment_id> - Clear audio data for fragment"
 V.olark.send "!fragseek <fragment_id> - Seek to fragment"
 V.olark.send "!diagnose - Run system checks"
 V.olark.send "!system <details> - Show system information"
 V.olark.send "!video - Show video information, such as YouTube ID, etc."
 V.olark.send "!mic - Show if mic access is allowed"
 V.olark.send "!audio - Show the average and latest audio levels"
 V.olark.send "!audiotest - Send the audio test URL and instructions"
 V.olark.send "!exec <command> - Execute command in V. namespace (e.g.: '!exec video.play()' would execute 'V.video.play()'"

We have a variety of commands for performing basic to advanced tasks to help the customer, run diagnostic tests and check system information.

If you prefer reading code to prose and to learn more, check out our Olark integration class.

Real-time feedback and help

It’s super useful to be able to help customers who are lost or just in the app for the first time.

One of our options is to just issue a !explainer command and this pops up a short video on the customer’s screen, showing her how to use the app.

Using Olark this way makes customers feel like you always have their back. And they appreciate this and in turn easily forgive you the early bugs.

Log forwarding and error reporting

We rely heavily on logging to know in-depth what’s going on in our application. Everything from events firing, video currentTime updating to audio encoding progress is being logged, with various levels of specificity.

It doesn’t hurt to be instantly alerted whenever a breaking error occurs on the client side either. It instantly pops up a chat window to all of our engineers and the one that responds to it first, takes care of the customer.

Now imagine this scenario:

A customer is trying to voice-over a video in Dubjoy and gets stuck with the voice not recording.

She finds the Olark widget and writes us “Help! My voice is not being recorded!”.

We reply “Just a second” and turn on log forwarding with a !debugon custom command implemented for the Olark API.

This starts to forward all of the logging data the customer is generating instead of in his console to your chat window. All in real-time.

This is beyond powerful, you can instantly see what the customer is doing or clicking and of course what the app itself is doing.

We have some central logging routines that we use throughout the app.

This made it trivial to plug in some code, that also sends this through Olark. This isn’t done by default, but rather the current operator can turn this on or off as simple as issuing the !debugon command.

This is a snippet from the logging routine that integrates with Olark:

# Log to Olark
if V.olark 
 if output_routine is 'error'
 # Log errors ALWAYS to Olark.
 V.olark.log type: 'ERROR', text: msg, args: args
 else if V.olark.debug and V.olark.debug is true
 # Forward logs to Olark if debugging is turned on.
 V.olark.log text: msg, args: args

A typical use case looks like this:

Diagnostic checks

It’s useful to have a single command that runs some basic diagnostic checks on the customer’s system.

We quickly check if the microphone permissions are set correctly, if the mic sensitivity is in order, Flash version, native MP4 support, video buffer status and more.

Here’s a whipped !diagnose command in action:

We also have detailed audio diagnosis commands like !audio that show the gain levels of the last recording the customer did. This way we can quickly see if the mic’s not getting any information through or the sensitivity is too low, etc.

Recovery and reset routines

It’s useful that if a customers’ session gets corrupted somehow we can trigger a reload on his end and choose whether we want to restore his data or start with a clean slate.

System information

Olark by itself shows some customer’s system information, like browser version in the tooltip of your IM app.

But it’s useful for us to have a manual way of bringing up some relevant information.

By issuing !system we get a bunch of useful information about his browser and system.

By issuing !video we get crucial information about the video he’s currently working on.

Conclusion

We’re extremely happy with the way this turned out and so are our customers.

The extensibility of the Olark platform offers unlimited potential for customer support in any JavaScript client-side application.

At 10 years old, I lost a trillion dollar bet to my older brother. I bet him it was Wednesday. It was actually Thursday. I was very sure of myself (for reasons I can't recall), and saw a good opportunity to shave off some of the debt I owed him. Luckily, he has yet to call the debt. At the time, all I felt was keen embarrassment at my stupidity. As time went on It became clear I had learned a valuable lesson about taking deals that seem too good to be true.

Though mistakes that I make can be painful in the near term (and sometimes in the long term), I've found that they're a critical part of how I learn. I'm fairly certain that the mistakes I made which led to the end of Tutorspree taught me far more about how startups work than immediate success would have.

Success feels good

Success is usually idiosyncratic. Strategies that lead to success are self-validating. We build narratives around the cause and effect of success based on incomplete information and our own biases [1]. This makes it very easy to falsely attribute success to the factors that are easily seen without doing the work necessary to properly understand what happened. This tendency gets even stronger when we're looking at our own successes. At that point, ego starts to discount things like luck, which are frequently a huge part of success. Because success makes us feel good, it lulls our faculties for critical thinking, which almost by definition means it is harder to learn deep lessons [2].

Making mistakes doesn't give us the same kind of happy feelings that success does. Because the mistakes hurt, we investigate them more closely. Because we're thinking critically and comparing causal chains leading up to and flowing from mistakes, we're more likely to consider complexity and examine why things really happened as they did. That doesn't necessarily mean that each time I make a mistake I learn a critically important lesson about myself, but by thinking hard enough, I generally do learn something useful [3].

Mistakes vs. Failure

Near as I can tell, I'm not alone in believing that mistakes are a valuable tool for learning. In fact, in Silicon Valley, there's a tendency to talk about failure as a point of pride. But there's a disconnect between how we talk about Failure (intentional big "F") and how we talk about mistakes. While the internet is littered with post-mortems on failed companies, it's rare to find founders or investors who will freely admit to being wrong about a public comment or investment [4].

That doesn't make sense given what we know about mistakes. It does, however, start to make more sense with the addition of two other factors. The first is the increasing permanence and public nature of all media. It's relatively easy for me to admit mistakes to small and trusted groups because I don't fear malicious repercussions.[5] As that circle expands, the difficulty of admitting the mistake increases because I don't trust the intentions or actions of everyone in it. In the competition between wanting to learn by admitting mistakes and wanting to not be perceived as stupid or attacked for the same, not looking stupid wins.

This directly informs the second factor: increasing obsession with "personal brand." Personal brand isn't a new concept, but it has become increasingly important to more people because of the pressure to constantly tell the story of your life in public through social media. That publicity + the expanded circle again leads back to wanting to present a perfect image. Through that lens, each instant broadcast that is inconsistent with that narrative and "off-brand" appears to be a public failure in front of an untrusted circle. Not only do we look stupid for making a mistake; the mistake jeopardizes the narrative we've built about ourselves. [6]

Even if "building a brand" isn't something we consciously think about, knowing how public everything is makes being honest about mistakes hard. So how do we get as comfortable looking at recent mistakes as we are looking at the ones in the distant past? We probably can't - there's too much baggage. But I think there are ways to start moving in the right direction. Recognizing the cycle that makes it hard to admit mistakes is a good start. Developing a close friend, set of friends, or mentor, with whom you can speak honestly is another step. Most importantly, I think we probably need to take it easy and remember that no mistake, public or private, is likely to be the defining moment of our lives [7].  At the same time, cutting some slack for others who make mistakes will likely do a lot to ease the culture of recrimination/fear that has built up around making mistakes.[8] Really, we just need to be decent and thoughtful. Hard, but important.

__

[1] Fitting facts into a story is a common trap that seems to go the base of how our brains are built.

[2] If you happen to be watching the success of someone you dislike, the reverse might be true. Your critical thinking faculties might be working just fine, though your conclusions and avenues of investigation might get clouded by envy or jealousy.

[3] That might be "be careful when stopping with your new clipless pedals." Maybe small, but better to learn the lesson than assume it was easy.

[4] Interestingly, you'll see more evidence of VCs admitting to investments they missed than investments they should not have made. See Bessemer's Anti-Portfolio. 

[5] That certainly wasn't always easy. I've had to work on being able to admit my mistakes. The benefits I've reaped by doing so have made it easier and easier.

[6] Truth is, I haven't prioritized my personal brand that much. I firmly believe that trying to build a brand is the best way to get the reputation of just being a scenester. I think I should be judged on the things I actually do with and for the people around me. That, however, is a completely different topic.

[7] With the possible exception of Bill Buckner in and around Boston.

[8] That may mean you lose the chance to show Twitter how clever and snarky you can be. That's a good trade in the long run.

ProgressJS

How To Use

1) Include progress.js and progressjs.css in the page (use minified version from minified folder for production)

2) Execute following JavaScript code in the page:

//to set progress-bar for whole page
progressJs().start();
//or for specific element
progressJs("#targetElement").start();

Use other methods to increase, decrease or set a auto-increase function for your progress-bar. Furthermore, you can change the template using setOption method.

API

Check the API and method usage with example here: https://github.com/usablica/progress.js/wiki/API

Build

First you should install nodejs and npm, then first run this command: npm install to install all dependencies.

Now you can run this command to minify all static resources:

make build

Roadmap

• Add example folder and provide examples
• More browser compatibility + mobile/tablet device support
• Add more templates

Release History

• v0.1.0 - 2014-02-14
  • First version
  • Increase, decrease and auto-increase functions
  • Ability to design and add templates

Author

Afshin Mehrabani

License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

If you’ve ever been attacked by red imported fire ants, you can likely attest that these tiny insects have a nasty defense mechanism. When threatened, fire ants inject or dab their enemy with a potent neurotoxic venom that quickly dispatches most other ants and can sometimes even send humans to the hospital.

This deadly assault is a pretty effective deterrent to most other ant species, which tend to keep their distance. But the fire ants have now run up against another invasive species that's willing to take them on: the tawny crazy ant. This unassuming little ant has the surprising habit of aggressively barreling right into a colony of fire ants, seemingly undeterred by their toxic venom.

In this week’s issue of Science, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin report that crazy ants are actually able to detoxify fire ants’ venom, helping them displace this usually dominant species.

A crazy ant’s headlong charge into a mass of fire ants almost always results in it being smeared with venom. But once covered in the neurotoxin, these ants perform a systematic and ritualized behavior. First, an ant stands on its hind legs and curls up its abdomen, touching its mandibles to a small gland at the tip of its body called the acidopore. The ant then runs its front legs through its mandibles and grooms itself fastidiously.

It looks like the ant is covering itself with a secretion from its own body as a response to the fire ant's venom. To determine whether this behavior actually counteracts the venom’s effect, the researchers ran a controlled test. They used nail polish to seal the acidopore of one group of crazy ants, and simply sham-treated a second control group. After coming into contact with fire ant venom, the crazy ants with the sealed acidopores—which could not secrete any chemical defenses—had a survival rate of just 48 percent, whereas 98 percent of the control group survived. Clearly, something originating from the acidopore was increasing the survival of ants covered in venom.

By testing crazy ant secretions, the researchers found that the life-saving substance was actually formic acid from the crazy ants’ own venom. So far, it's unclear exactly how this chemical detoxifies fire ant venom. It’s possible that formic acid denatures the enzymes that enable neurotoxins to enter cells.

While this rare ability confers a huge advantage for crazy ant survival, its biggest implications are ecological. Ever since fire ants were imported into the southern US in the 1930s, they have been the dominant ant species in most grassland ecosystems. But crazy ants—introduced only about 12 years ago—are now taking over, thanks in part to their ability to detoxify fire ant venom. When the two species fight over food or space, crazy ants come out on top 93 percent of the time.

Digging into these two species’ past sheds light on this asymmetry. Tawny crazy ants and red imported fire ants share an evolutionary history since their native ranges overlap in parts of South America. Their arms race began there, with fire ants evolving venom to defend themselves and crazy ants evolving a detoxification mechanism as a counter-defense. Now the chemical warfare has been re-engaged here on a second continent, playing out across the Gulf Coast. And for a second time in the past century, a new invasive ant species is dominating and drastically transforming ecological communities.

Related PSA: crazy ants are attracted to electronics. So if you're a technology lover living in the southeastern US, watch your computers and appliances because these tiny invaders are headed your way.

Science, 2014. DOI: 10.1126/science.1245833  (About DOIs).

Listing image by University of Texas

Fortunately, learning is not limited to only a small minority of people anymore; it is not even limited to visiting a school or a university. The Internet makes it possible for us to distribute knowledge at a small price, and is full of resources to expand everyone’s knowledge on an enormous variety of topics.

Since learning is a lifelong task that doesn’t stop after pursuing a certain academic certificate, this round-up is not only dedicated to beginners. It’s for everyone who wants to become an expert in a certain field or is simply curious about the Web and the latest tools and techniques around them.

We hope that this round-up will bring you closer with many of the valuable resources that are available out there. Some are completely free while others can be obtained through quite affordable memberships. You may also be surprised to find that your local college or university is also publishing free classes and courses on all sorts of topics you can think of — make sure to keep an eye open!

Here are the topics of learning resources we’ll cover today:

Coding

Code Avengers
Code Avengers’ courses are a fun way for students to learn computer programming and Web design. Participating in interactive coding challenges, bug hunts and robot missions takes the pain out of learning JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3. The lessons are designed for students of all ages.

Coderwall
Thousands of developers share their achievements and current projects on Coderwall. Connect with them, share your own pro tips, and get feedback. Learning new programming languages, tools and technologies has a playful twist and is far from boring. Discover how others are solving their challenges, and gain badges for every completed project.

The Starter League (formerly Code Academy)
Trying to build Web apps without the necessary support and guidance can be painful. The Starter League provides you with expert instruction and mentorship. They also paired up with 37signals (creator of Basecamp and Campfire) to provide hands-on knowledge on building successful Web apps.

Pluralsight
Pluralsight was created by a group of developers with the goal of providing the highest quality training possible — for developers, by developers. The library is huge, with courses on nearly every topic you could ask for.

TekPub
TekPub was created with the goal of educating developers. The mini-casts topics range from JavaScript to Ruby on Rails, with more in-depth tutorials available. (Note: Tekpub has been acquired by Pluralsight; old videos can be accessed via Pluralsight).

PeepCode
PeepCode offers high-quality one-hour screencasts on development resources. Learning the most important techniques is quick and easy with these tutorials. (Note: Peepcode has been acquired by Pluralsight; old videos can be accessed via Pluralsight).

Hacker Rank
On Hacker Rank, coders compete to beat high scores by solving little challenges accross the whole science universe, including areas like algorithmy, code gold or artificial intelligence. How do you match up against others when coding a bot to win at tic-tac-toe?

Mozilla Webmaker
Mozilla Webmaker wants to help you move from merely using the Web to making something amazing with it. It has new tools for you to use, projects to help you get started, and a global community of creators — educators, filmmakers, journalists, developers, youth — all making and learning together.

Google Developers University Consortium
The Google Developers University Consortium features courses on mobile and Web development. You will find many usful resources, especially if you’re working with Android and Google Maps.

Android Training
On Android Training, you will find a collection of classes to help you build Android apps. The classes explain the steps to take in order to solve a problem or implement a feature, using code snippets and sample code.

Programr
Programr is an online lab for students and enthusiasts who want to learn programming. The platform’s goal is to give you the skills you need in order to write sophisticated programs. Test your coding skills by mastering assignments, build your own app right in the browser, and check out contributions by other users. You can even show off your know-how in programming contests. It supports coding languages for console, Web and mobile.

Learn Code the Hard Way
“Less talk, more code” is the credo of Learn Code the Hard Way. Students start by getting code to work; learning the theory comes second. The website focuses on practice by featuring exercises and rote repetition, which will help you gain confidence in whatever you want to do.

Dash
Dash teaches HTML, CSS, and Javascript through fun projects you can do in your browser.

Hack Design
Hack Design is an easy-to-follow design course. You can simply receive a design lesson in your inbox each week, which is hand crafted by a design pro. A great resource if you love learning at your own pace. No fake projects.

Code School
Code School teaches Web technologies in the comfort of your browser with video lessons, coding challenges, and screencasts.

Codecademy
At Codeacademy, you can build your own projects and learn how to create interactive websites, games, and apps. You can also join groups to code with your friends and show off your progress with points and badges.

Codewars
At Codewars you can challenge yourself on kata, created by the community to strengthen different skills. Kata are ranked to approximate difficulty. As you complete higher ranked kata, you progress through the ranks so Codewars can match you with relevant challenges.

LearnStreet
LearnStreet makes learning to code easy for anyone. Whether you would like to start off with JavaScript, Ruby or Python, the platform has got you covered. Build your skill base in the interactive courses, and use it in fun little projects.

PHP Academy
PHP Academy provides free tutorials on PHP and other Web development topics, including MySQL, JavaScript (including jQuery) and CSS. There are free video tutorials, optional premium membership and a forum to ask for help.

PLAYterm
PLAYterm is a platform where CLI users share their skills and inspire others. It can replay your terminal sessions online, and it provides embed codes that you can put on your website. Share your knowledge and help others improve their skills.

The New Boston
With his project, The New Boston, Bucky Roberts makes high-quality education available for everybody. His YouTube channel features a lot of computer-related tutorials on topics such as Java, C++, After Effects or Phyton.

gotoAndLearn
gotoAndLearn is a free video tutorial resource for Flash, Game development and HTML5 by game developer evangelist Lee Brimelow.

repl.it
On repl.it, you can explore more than 15 programming languages in your browser — even on the go with your phone or tablet. Just type an expression into the console and wait for the results. The Web application also lets you save your session and share it with others.

The Pragmatic Bookshelf
The Pragmatic Bookshelf’s mission is to improve the lifes of developers by offering text books, audio books and videos for training. The content is produced by programmers for programmers, addressing relevant cutting-edge topics.

HTML and CSS

30 Days to Learn HTML and CSS
Do you want to learn HTML and CSS but don’t know where to start? 30 Days to Learn HTML and CSS is a free course consisting of one video daily for 30 days. All you have to do is spend 10 minutes a day on a new topic. By the end, you’ll have the necessary building blocks to code an entire website.

A Beginner’s Guide to HTML & CSS
This simple and comprehensive guide will help novices take their first steps in HTML and CSS. Outlining the fundamentals, it teaches you all of the common elements of front-end design and development.

Don’t Fear the Internet
For those who don’t want to learn to code, this website provides a brief introduction to WordPress, CSS and HTML, even throwing in some PHP trickery. Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer have prepared short chunks of technical information in concise videos.

JavaScript

Backbone Screencasts
If you’re learning Backbone.js, these screencast will be very useful. The extensive live coding sessions will walk you through, from the beginning to more advanced stuff like using Backbone.js with Ruby on Rails.

appendTo
JavaScript and jQuery skills are becoming more and more sought after. By offering a number of lessons, appendTo helps you develop those skills. Signing up isn’t even necessary; just watch the free screencasts (each around 10 minutes long), and start building your foundation of JavaScript and jQuery knowledge.

JavaScript Garden
JavaScript Garden is a growing collection of documentation about the most quirky parts of JavaScript. It offers advice on avoiding common mistakes and subtle bugs, and it lays out performance issues and bad practices that JavaScript programmers might run into on their journey to the depths of the language. The resource is dedicated to professional developers, rather than beginners, and it requires some basic knowledge of the language.

NodeSchool
NodeSchool offers interactive lessons for Node.js, including core concepts and electives. There is also a list of free/affordable in-person NodeSchool events around the world which are .

Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming
The book “Eloquent JavaScript” by Marijn Haverbeke introduces the JavaScript programming language and programming in general. A free digital version is available in HTML format and you can order a paperback version from Amazon. Furthemore, the book has been translated to French, German and Polish. (Note: A second, more modern edition is currently in process.)

Node Tuts
Node Tuts by Pedro Teixeira offers free webcasts exclusively about Node.Js.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails Tutorial
Michael Hartl has written a tutorial book named Ruby on Rails Tutorial. Visit the website to find the free online version, along with screencasts.

TryRuby
Ruby is a revolutionary programming language from Japan known for its simplicity and power. On TryRuby, you can experiment with it right in your browser. A 15-minute interactive tutorial will help you get started.

Hackety Hack
Hackety Hack teaches you the basics of programming by introducing the Ruby language. Build your skills from scratch, and use them to build desktop applications and websites.

Virtuous Code
Avdi Grimm is a software “cultivator” who publishes a screencast series on Ruby development. When you subscribe, you get new screencasts every Monday and Thursday (or access to the full scripts if you prefer reading to watching), the source code for each video and access to the complete archive of episodes.

RubyMonk
RubyMonk is an interactive Ruby learning plattform. You will learn the basics of the programming language right in your browser. The tutorials are free but donations are very welcome.

Rails for Zombies
Learn Ruby the zombie way with Rails for Zombie. You don’t have to worry about configuration. After watching short introductory videos, you can start experimenting right in the browser. The course is aimed at beginners, but there are also courses for more experienced Ruby developers.

RailsCasts
RailsCasts by Ryan Bates, offers a free weekly screencast featuring Tips and Tricks for Ruby on Rails. The topics are targeted for intermidiate users, but beginners and experts can also get something out of it. You may subscribe for additional screencasts.

Design

Drawspace
Drawspace is a community of drawing enthusiasts, professional artists and art educators. It features a huge library of free downloadable lessons that teach you how to draw or enhance your current abilities. With a profile, you can track your progress, from beginner to advanced levels.

Miscellaneous Lessons From The Web Industry

Treehouse
Treehouse is for beginners and experts. It offers material for learning everything you need to be successful in the Web industry. This includes technical knowledge, but also skills for starting a successful business. You can learn via specific tracks (i.e. Web developement) or topics.

Tuts+ Premium
Tuts+ Premium is a subscribers-only platform that offers resources for learning creative and technical skills such as design, Web development, motion graphics and photography. The content is created and constantly revised by leading experts. Choose whether to learn by video or articles with screenshots. A large community is behind Tuts+ Premium that you can connect with and ask for further help.

Ontwik
Ontwik gathers the latest lectures and conferences from Web developers and designers in one place. It covers topics such as JavaScript, NodeJS, jQuery, Ruby, Rails, HTML5, CSS3, UI, UX and more. There are also lectures on creativity, marketing and startups.

Because technical knowledge is not enough

A Student’s Guide to Web Design
Here is an attempt to better equip graduates in the design industry. It provides resources and information to help young Web designers with life after graduation.

#The50
After graduating from art college, Jamie Wieck realized that he had no clue about professional life. So, he started #The50 to help students and graduates in the same situation learn what every creative should know. The tips are made up of 140 characters and a hash tag, making them easy to share on Twitter.

“The Web Design Community Offers Advice to Beginners,” Smashing Magazine
We asked, “What is the single best tip from your experience that you would give to a newbie developer?” This article compiles all of the amazing responses we received.

Jessica Hische’s Thoughts
Illustrator Jessica Hische doesn’t have a traditional blog, but she shares answers to frequently asked questions about her and her work. You’ll find useful advice on random topics regarding the Web industry such internships, pricing, non-creepy networking, and so on.

The Secret Handshake
The creative industry is very different from traditional companies and applying only traditional methods in the application process won’t bring you too far. The Secret Handshakes is a resource for students and young creatives looking for insiders insights, honest answers and solid solutions to help you go pro.

WaSP InterAct Curriculum
Designed to keep up with the fast-moving industry, WaSP InterAct is a living curriculum that prepares students for careers on the Web. Courses are divided into several learning tracks, covering everything from the foundations to professional practice. Recommended reading lists, assignments and exam questions help you to become a real Web professional.

Conference Organiser’s Handbook
Are you planning to organize a conference? Then, the Conference Organiser’s Handbook is the best place to start. The website was put together by Peter-Paul Koch and provides information on everything you need to know, from start to finish.

Expanding Your General Knowledge

TED
TED is devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” You can watch talks on technology, design, business, global issues, science and entertainment. Get inspired by other thinkers, and get involved in a community of curious people!

Khan Academy
The Khan Academy wants to provide anyone anywhere in the world with a world-class education — for free! All you need is an Internet connection. A huge video library provides you with lessons on a wide array of topics, covering everything from basic maths to macroeconomics to programming basics and even art history. Test your knowledge, track your progress and earn badges.

University of Reddit
The University of Reddit is an open-source peer-to-peer learning platform. The courses are free and range from computer science to mathematics to languages.

VideoLectures.Net
Registering on this site gives you free access to educational video lectures. The videos cover many fields of science and feature distinguished scholars and scientists at conferences, workshops and other events. The high-quality content is aimed at both the scientific community and the general public.

P2PU
The Peer 2 Peer University is an open-education project that encourages lifelong learning, following its credo “We are all teachers and we are all learners.” Everybody can participate and make use of the content. It also features a School of Webcraft, with some basic tutorials.

Online Courses
Online courses offers 100 open courses for tech geeks. Among them, you will find general computer science topics and courses on Web design and development. The website also provides information on accredited schools, college finances and studying.

Lynda
Lynda helps you learn software, creative and business skills. As a member, you get unlimited access to a huge library of high-quality video tutorials, taught by working professionals. Topics also include design and development.

Learners TV
Learners TV provides a huge collection of free downloadable video lectures on all sorts of topics, including computer science. The website also features science animations, lecture notes and live, timed online tests with instant feedback and explanations.

ReadWrite
ReadWrite covers all things Web, tech and social media. Its list of tech-focused instructional websites links you to platforms that teach a wide array of topics. The topics are pretty general, ranging from computing to hacking.

Learn a new language

Radio Lingua
Radio Lingua is a podcast that helps you learn languages where, when and how you want. There are quick starter courses if you want to learn the absolute basics of a language, or you can take your skills to the next level by diving into grammar and vocabulary. The episodes are aimed at learners of all ages and conducted by experienced teachers and native speakers.

Busuu
Learning a language with Busuu is completely different from what you are used to. As a member of the platform’s community, you learn directly from native speakers via video chat. That way, everyone is not only a learner, but also a teacher. To keep you motivated, the language you are learning is represented as a tree, which grows with the effort you put in. Joining Busuu is free.

Open University classes & University-style classes

Udacity
Udacity’s learning experience is different from other education platforms. Learn by solving challenging projects and by interacting with renowned university instructors and other students. The courses are as demanding as studying at a real university, but a range of certificate options are available.

OnlineCourses (formerly know as Lecturefox)
On OnlineCourses you will find high-quality classes from renowned universities such as Harvard, Berkeley and MIT. Topics range from biology to accounting, foreign languages to science.

Education Portal
Making education accessible is the goal of the Education Portal. The platform offers articles and videos on researching schools, degree programs and online courses. Covering everything from arts to sciences, it also has a list of free Web design courses that lead to college credits.

OpenClassroom
Stanford University’s OpenClassroom provides videos of computer sciences courses. You can watch the videos for free, and the lessons are split up into short chunks of quality information.

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare publishes virtually all MIT course content. The open platform doesn’t require any registration, and it features free lecture notes, exams and videos.

OpenCourseWare
The OCW consortium is a collaboration of higher-education institutions and associated organizations from around the world to create a broad and deep body of open-education content using a shared model.

The Faculty Project
The Web isn’t be the only thing you are interested in. If so, then the Faculty Project might be for you. It brings lectures from leading university professors to anyone with an Internet connection. The free courses are taught through video, slideshows and reading resources, and they cover lessons from maths to economics to history.

Academic Earth
Whether you want to advance your career or just take classes that interest you, Academic Earth provide anyone with the opportunity to earn a world-class education. The website offers free lessons and learning tools from many disciplines. If you would like to study further, it also connects you to universities and scholars.

Course Hero
Course Hero has a mission to help college students get the most out of their education by giving them access to the best academic content and materials available. Search for study documents by department, keyword and even school. After registering, you can use the resources for free.

edX
edX is a not-for-profit enterprise by MIT, Harvard, Berkley and the University of Texas System. Take part in high-quality online courses from different disciplines — including computer science — and obtain a certificate from one of the renowned universities. The institutions use the insights they gain from the platform to research how technology can transform learning.

Coursera
Partnering with the top universities from around the world, Coursera offers free online courses. The lectures are taught by renowned professors and cover a variety of disciplines. Assignments and interactive exercises help you test and reinforce your knowledge.

Webcast.berkeley
Since 2001, Webcast.berkeley has been a window into UC Berkeley’s classrooms, publishing courses and campus events for students and learners everywhere in the world. View audio and video recordings of lectures online, or download them to your device.

The Open University
The Open University is open to anyone and offers over 570 courses at many different levels, from short introductory courses to postgraduate and research degrees. Studying is flexible and adapts to your lifestyle. You can even connect to other learners online and use the activities to assess your progress.

Last Click…

WeekendHacker
Do you have a small project or idea in mind but need a little help? WeekendHacker is a place to reach out to designers and developers who may be able to assist. Simply sign up, post your project, and sit back and wait for someone to help.

Until Next Time!

We hope that this list of learning resources will help you to further develop your skills and open doors for you. Of course, you’re more than welcome to share other resources that are missing in this round-up in the comments section below! Also, we look forward to hearing which resource you find most valuable, and why!

By the way, you may also want to check out Melanie Lang’s list of inspirational podcasts — we highly recommend it!

(sh, ml, ea, il)

Front page image credits: Programmr.