JavaScript for Beginners

University of California, Davis via edX Professional Certificate

Overview

The JavaScript for Beginners Professional Certificate is intended for the learner with no previous programming experience who wants to work in software development. Mastering the basics of JavaScript is fundamental for anyone seeking to work doing modern web development. JavaScript was the most used programming language for the 11th year according to the StackOverflow 2023 Developer Survey.

That’s because JavaScript is the backbone of interactive web applications, powering client-side interactivity in most of today's websites. Understanding JavaScript’s foundational concepts enables learners to craft dynamic user experiences. Additionally, proficiency in JavaScript opens a gateway into numerous frameworks and libraries that extend its capabilities, broadening technological versatility. JavaScript is generally the first programming language new developers are exposed too, but it is not an easy language to learn.

This Professional Certificate is designed to help you learn the core skills and basics of JavaScript through a gentle progression of modules and courses where you steadily build and practice your skills.

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: JavaScript Basics

Gain insight into the topic of JavaScript and learn the basic fundamentals.

Course 2: Animation with JavaScript and jQuery

Learners will describe the top JavaScript libraries and differentiate which would work best to implement and accelerate development of web page animation.

Course 3: Interactivity with JavaScript and jQuery

This course is the third in our JavaScript for Beginners Specialization. The scripts will become more complex and introduce more complex jQuery plugins.

Course 4: Data Manipulation in JavaScript

This course is about learning methods for validating and handling data provided by users or coming from an external data source.

Courses

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4 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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This course introduces the programming language JavaScript and shows the websites that include the type of interactions students will eventually be able to develop.
- Learners will understand the importance of how JavaScript was developed and why such history impacts the way JavaScript is currently written and in future releases.
- Learners will write their first scripts, have their HTML and CSS skills assessed, create variables and arrays and assign values to them.
If student’s skills are lacking, resources and recommendations are provided to improve these skills. There is ample opportunity for students to practice these first, core skills.
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4 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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With the general introduction of JavaScript in the first course, this course will focus on JavaScript libraries, specifically jQuery. The scripts will be geared toward Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation.

Course objectives include being introduced to the end product of the course – a landing page style website using jQuery elements to manipulate HTML documents and enhance user experience. Diving deeper into the landing page that will be created and break it out into individual jQuery projects. jQuery events and effects will be covered while exploring more jQuery’s relationship with HTML documents. Finally, a focus on plugins and continue to breakdown jQuery's ability to manipulate HTML and CSS.
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4 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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You will have several challenges to practice your skills throughout the course.

The course objectives include:
- How to identify objects in JavaScript
- Create new objects and populate them with data
- Manipulate objects by adding, modifying and deleting data in objects
- Manipulate the DOM based on the data in objects
- Identify and articulate how multiple functions work together to create a more complex program
- Identify processes for breaking larger programs into smaller, more manageable pieces
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4 weeks, 2-5 hours a week, 2-5 hours a week
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This course builds on the skills from the previous course and goes further into managing and manipulating data with JavaScript. You will learn methods for validating and handling data provided by users or coming from an external data source. This course includes a challenge in the form of a seat reservation system, as well as a project that pulls data in from an external data source.

The course objectives include:
- Validation basics in JavaScript and jQuery
- jQuery form validation plugin features
- Arrow functions
- Asynchronous functions
- And the JavaScript event loop