Is Pluralsight Good for Learning JavaScript

Photo of author
Simon Mclellan

Writer, developer.

Pluralsight started its journey as an offline corporate training company in 2004, only to shift its focus later to distance learning in 2007. Since then the company has exhibited significant growth and established itself as an authority in the field of online education, particularly within the technology realm. In fact, Pluralsight offers only technology courses on its platform. Therefore, it’s quite understandable to see people wanting to know how good Pluralsight is with its JavaScript courses. If you’re contemplating a Pluralsight subscription to learn JavaScript, keep reading.

[wpsm_toplist]

What is JavaScript and Why Learn the Language?

JavaScript is an extremely popular coding language since its applications are many and varied. It helps you build static websites, native mobile applications, web applications, desktop applications and also server-side apps. The language also increases your chances of getting a job, as the number of employers looking to hire candidates with JavaScript knowledge is much greater than the job opportunities there are for professionals with other programming language skills. Because JavaScript is widely used, the demand for JavaScript professionals has constantly been on the rise. And this means the number of people wanting to learn the language is also increasing. The best part is that the marketplace is not saturated and there is more than enough room for new JavaScript developers.

Learning JavaScript with Pluralsight

Pluralsight offers more than 500 JavaScript courses. You may filter the list of courses based on ratings, recency, relevance, and your skill levels. You can also narrow down on a course based on your professional background. If you are a data professional, there are JavaScript courses specifically designed keeping your requirements in mind. Similarly, courses are designed for software developers, creative professionals, web developers, etc.

If you are a complete programming noob and have no clue which JavaScript course to start with, Pluralsight Learning Paths would come to your rescue. Through Learning Paths, Pluralsight cherry-picks and bundles together a bunch of courses to guide you on the courses to start with and the learning trajectory you should adopt.

For JavaScript, the “path” comprises 11 courses or a comprehensive 26 hours of learning. The courses have been placed under the beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories. To start rolling with this path, you don’t need any prior JavaScript experience. However, you are expected to have some understanding of programming.

Top JavaScript Courses on Pluralsight

As aforementioned, Pluralsight has more than 500 JavaScript courses to its credit. The following are the top and/or most recommended courses on the platform in their respective categories.

Beginner

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • JavaScript: Getting Started

[/wpsm_list]

If you have never learned JavaScript before or are transitioning to JavaScript from another language, JavaScript: Getting Started is your ideal first JavaScript course. The class’s primary objective is to help you learn how to create simple web applications and programs in JavaScript. It teaches you JavaScript coding basics with multiple examples. You would learn about the different kinds of apps that can be made using JavaScript, along with the platforms they support. By the end of the course, you would have built a blackjack game.

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • JavaScript Fundamentals

[/wpsm_list]

This Mark Zamoyta course teaches you everything there is to creating production-quality web page features and web applications using JavaScript. The course begins with teaching you how to create a development environment that would render your JavaScript coding highly productive. Next, you would learn the JavaScript features required to create professional apps. In the concluding phase, you would be shown a sample web app to handle a self-driving car fleet.

Intermediate

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • Practical Design Patterns in JavaScript

[/wpsm_list]

This course introduces to you the tried and tested authentic design patterns that help with the structuring and organizing of your JavaScript code. The instructor, Jonathan Mills, guides you through the multiple routes to engage with and control JavaScript objects.

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • JavaScript Objects and Prototypes

[/wpsm_list]

This program not just teaches you the multiple ways to create JavaScript objects, but also brings to your knowledge the things that happen behind the scenes. Moreover, you would get to learn the control and reconfigurability aspects of object properties. Once you are done with this program, you would have a complete and clear sense of prototypes and how to discern and employ prototypal inheritance. With such deeper understanding, you would have gained the expertise to create robust and well-structured apps that leverage JavaScript’s dynamics.

Advanced

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • Advanced Techniques in JavaScript and jQuery

[/wpsm_list]

This advanced program would help you learn how to make robust functions that manage the requirements of legacy, future, and current processing. You would learn how to handle DOM (document object model) events with jQuery, alongside learning how to build custom events for objects not part of the DOM. Moreover, you would learn to use jQuery Deferred object so that you may process AJAX requests asynchronously.

[wpsm_list type=”arrow”]

  • JavaScript Best Practices

[/wpsm_list]

If you have encountered problems using JavaScript but do not know how to solve them, this program is designed for you. The course teaches you the best practices in different areas of JavaScript. You would start the course by looking at JavaScript syntax oddities so that you know the best method to write a JavaScript code, locate the problem areas, and use strict mode’ to prevent them from occurring. Next, you would learn to handle and deal with callbacks. The course concludes with Node.js production methods and problems that could surface due to the differences between platforms. Once you complete the course, you would have learned the skills needed for preventing common JavaScript issues from occurring, so that you save time and energy during coding.

The Good Thing About Learning JavaScript on Pluralsight

Pluralsight not just offers JavaScript courses in hordes, but the overall quality is top-notch too. Unlike other platforms, Pluralsight’s JavaScript courses and other content are produced and delivered primarily by experts. The instructors are professionals who focus on teaching and offering a solid learning experience to their learners, and not rehashing content from different sources from the web and presenting them in the form of a course.

The course quality on offer has a lot to do with Pluralsight’s company training background. You would find several champion instructors teaching Java on Pluralsight. The Java Collection course by Richard Warburton and Java Multithreading course by Jose Paumard are examples worth mentioning.

As far as pricing goes, a $19 monthly Pluralsight subscription would give you access to all JavaScript courses on the platform, along with the more than 5,000 courses. If you make good use of your subscription, the value you derive from the money you pay would be excellent. And while you are subscribed to Pluralsight, use the opportunity to learn some popular and robust web development frameworks that JavaScript powers, such as React, Angular, jQuery and Node JS.

Pluralsight offers a 10-day free trial to every new member on its platform. This free trial gives you access to all the courses and lets you check their quality. You may even finish a short course or two during the trial period. Not to mention, Pluralsight runs flash sales regularly, offering discounts on their subscription plans by up to 33 percent.

The Downsides of Learning JavaScript on Pluralsight

Perhaps the only real grievance learners have with Pluralsight is how it doesn’t discard or update its older courses. There are JavaScript courses on the platform that date back to January 2009. For instance, the popular JavaScript Fundamentals course by Liam McLennan for beginners was made available on the platform way back in January 2011. These old classes may not be completely obsolete, but it’s rather wise to spend time and energy on JavaScript courses that were created recently. For instance, the JavaScript Fundamentals course by Mark Zamoyta is a much more relevant course to learn the basics.

Pluralsight’s subscription model is both a boon and a curse. In other words, you need to be an active subscriber to access Pluralsight JavaScript courses. Though you can download courses and watch them offline, your downloads would be lost if you aren’t subscribed to Pluralsight anymore. This is unlike platforms that let you download course content for a lifetime upon purchase. The premium subscription model also means there are no free JavaScript courses.

The lack of free content is offset by the 10-day free trial to a certain extent. But during the trial, you can watch videos or consume content only up to 200 minutes in total. If you exhaust those 200 minutes on the very first day of your trial, your trial period is technically over. At this point, you may choose to buy a subscription or cancel your membership altogether.

Conclusion

Pluralsight is one of the better online education platforms to learn JavaScript. There are two major reasons for that. First, the courses are devised by experts who have years of teaching and project work experience behind them. Second, the Learning Paths feature is extremely handy. If you end up finishing all the courses featured in the recommended JavaScript path, it feels like having earned a course completion certificate in JavaScript. And if you want, you may opt-out of Learning Paths and design a learning path of your own. This learning flexibility, course quality, and quantity, affordable subscription packages, etc. make Pluralsight a good place to learn JavaScript.