#54 overall
CS169.1x Software as a Service
edX
10 recommenders · 11 threads · recommended in 3 years, 2012–2014 · score 9.5
CS169.1x Software as a Service is a Berkeley-run online course (edX, with an earlier Coursera version) that teaches modern web software engineering using Ruby and Rails, including testing, BDD/TDD, and development practices. It is often paired with the saasbook.info textbook.
Commenters call it a free, practical introduction to Ruby on Rails and modern software engineering practices, with one saying it works well as a first step for beginners.
Programming Languagesbeginnerfreevideo lectures#ruby on rails#web development#software engineering#tdd#berkeley
Recommendations by year
20062026
edX MITx has a great course for Ruby on Rails.
https://www.edx.org/course/berkeley/cs169-1x/software-servic...
https://www.edx.org/course/uc-berkeley/cs-169-2x/software-se...
It is a good mix of theory, practice and homeworks. I took both of them and while I didnt manage to complete all tasks due to time constraints my Rails knowledge has significantly increased.
That's a great course. Its actually on Coursera for free ... https://www.coursera.org/saas/class ... I did it in April last year; that's how I learnt Ruby & Rails. It is quite fast paced though and you definitely need some decent programming skills to get through.
For women who get into this program, great! You're set and will probably have an easy time finding work afterwards!
When recently moved back to the US with a basic programming foundation, I really wanted to get into this sort of school. I moved back with the primary motivation of becoming a top notch programmer. As a guy with my background, these kinds of programs aren't easy to get into! In general they all have a pretty strong desire to invite more women, and there are an awful lot of guys that want the training.
Without the option of this kind of top-notch program or others like it, I joined the local ruby meetup group and kept an eye out for any kinds of free instruction... and found that all were railsbridge (women only unless you're invited by a female participant). If you're already at a level where you can build some things, there are a lot more options like going to hack night and asking for feedback on what you've already built, but there's not much if you're not to that point yet.
If anybody reading this now is in the situation I was a couple of months ago, I strongly recommend the Coursera SaaS course through Berkeley. Obviously it doesn't compare to scholarships and in-person teaching, but there are free lectures, automated program graders, forums with active participants, study groups, and even human feeback on the quizzes. It's got pretty much all of the positives of Open Courseware, Code School (also great) and more videos rolled into one. It's open to people anywhere in the world, it's subtitled in several languages and everything except the optional textbook is free.
I'm not trying to hijack the thread-- this is a genuine attempt to help others who are in the same boat I was in until I found this.
https://www.coursera.org/course/saas
Highly recommend this free 5 week Coursera course out of UC Berkeley. All development is in Ruby and Rails. There is some introductory Ruby material - you don't need to have any prior knowledge. It started last week, but you can join late without a problem.
https://www.coursera.org/course/saas
Oh yeah the optional textbook that goes with it is available on kindle for $10.
Any of several languages would fit that bill, including PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, JavaScript, C# and others. As important as choosing a language is selecting a web framework and also learning how to build a web application.
For a novice, I would recommend the free "Engineering Software as a Service" course[1], which uses the Ruby language and the Rails framework to teach the fundamentals of web development.
[1] https://www.edx.org/course/uc-berkeleyx/uc-berkeleyx-cs169-1...
Consider getting involved in some of the edX courses.
CS169.1 and CS169.2 draw from UC Berkeley's CS169 - Software Engineering and present a course in SaaS. They extensively use Github as the code repository and are really cool assignments to boot.
CS188.1x covers the first half of an AI subject and whilst not using github, certianly was really enjoyable from solving machine learning puzzles. It's in fact probably one of my favourite courses I've done.
It's a great way to stretch your brain by either learning new skills or revisiting old, possibly rusty ones. I try to keep doing 1 or 2 at a time.
For Rails I highly recommend this course an the accompanying book https://www.edx.org/course/berkeley/cs169-1x/software-servic...
Hartl's Rails tutorial is comprehensive, but does not spend enough time explaining the underlying principles IMO. Writing a test for everything also muddies the water in that tutorial (which does not mean TDD is not good for you).
1) Yes. I'm 28 and began coding 6 months ago. I guess that the biggest challenge for people like us was how to get education. I couldnt spare 4 years of my life in a university. But MOOCs changed this. A few courses on edx/coursera, and will be ready to do great things.
2) I guess that, before you think in specialize into something, you must ask yourself what you must learn before that. You need to be confortable with databases and the infrastructure process (version control, deploying, testing, etc.)
Go look the SaaS course on EDx.
3) I recommend you start with python. It is easy to learn the basics and have a great community. You will find many libraries to help you achieve what you want, and your questions will be answered quickly in stackoverflow or something like that.
4) Again, MOOCs are the aswer. If you find time to be always doing 2 courses at the same time, in 6 times you'll be in grate shape. seriously.
I think you should find a resource that will guide you step-by-step along the way and teach you modern software engineering concepts, not just language syntax. A lot of tutorials out there today simply focus on syntax and eschew the bigger picture, which is critical for fully understanding what your doing.
If your at least somewhat familiar with object-oriented programming concepts already, I would highly recommend the following course: https://courses.edx.org/courses/BerkeleyX/CS169.1x/2013_Spri...
It deals with modern programming practices in the ruby/rails environment. I'm working through it myself and it's already answered a lot of questions that I've had about most of the tools you mention and how they work. It has specific sections on BDD and TDD also, among other relevant topics.
If you need some more general background first, take an introductory computer science course. I would recommend CS106A Programming Methodology from Stanford, which is a good pre-requisite course for the one listed above.
All of these courses are free.
Berkeley. The weather is a lot nicer, never freezes. It is on the edge of Silicon Valley, and across the bay from SF. It is a very big state school with lots of weirdness.
Seriously, take the "Software as a Service" class at EdX that started two weeks ago. It will give you a taste of Berkeley CS. Dave Patterson is a famous hardware architecture guy.
As a general suggestion, take a course or two from coursera, edX, or udacity to see if you are tough enough for CS.
i'm not a treehouse user, and while i hear awesome stories about their company (like having a 4-day work week, or getting funding although they don't plan an "exit"), I don't know anything about the quality of their lessons...
but I do know two free resources for learning rails, and having used both of them I can wholeheartedly recommend them:
https://class.coursera.org/saas/lecture/preview
http://ruby.railstutorial.org/
after completing these two you will be able to build your own web app, and go from there. afterward it's not so much about learning rails in general. it's more about coming across a very specific problem that you encounter while building your app, in which case google is your friend.
i really don't want to bad mouth treehouse, but i feel like there are enough free resources out there to get you started. especially for rails. on the other hand, paying 25$ dollars a month, might keep you committed.
Engineering Long Lasting Software [1] is a book written by UC Berkeley profs who were teaching a great SaaS-class on Coursera (using Rails) two years ago
[1] http://www.saasbook.info/