Note on June 11, 2012: I stopped work on this project a long time ago in favor of creating workshops with my friends. Check out the Frontend Masters Video Workshops for excellent training on jQuery, jQuery UI, HTML5 Semantics, CSS3, building large JS apps with Angular JS and writing testable code.

During the prerelease of The jQuery Course, you’ll get early access to 61 minutes of video training for $25. You will also receive the final course content when it’s ready for no extra charge.

Prerelease of The jQuery Course

“I bought this video series the moment it has been released because ive loved your previous tutorials on your blog. From the perspective of someone who has only ever lightly used javascript / jQuery its been great so far and i would highly recommend it.” – Kieran Hutchinson

Video outline

• Introduction [1:44]
• Examples of jQuery [1:44 – 3:56]
• Web Fundamentals, Brief intro to HTML, CSS and JavaScript [4:26 – 7:57]
• Setup – Web Browser, Firebug, Code Editor [7:57 – 9:49]
• Why jQuery Exists [9:49 – 12:13]
• Using jQuery [12:13 – 15:45]
• About Google Hosted jQuery [15:45 – 17:14]
• Methods with Many Uses and Chaining [18:52 – 19:57]
• Dollar Function [19:57 – 23:58]
• Using jQuery with Other Libraries [23:58 – 26:16]
• Dive Into Selectors [26:16 – 36:04]
• Attributes [36:05 – 51:18]
• Animation and Effects [51:19 – 61:34]

“If you’re on the fence about this, I can recommend it (I purchased it immediately). I found the section on ‘context’ immediately useful. Also, if you’re not using Firebug and working with the console then this first series will be so worth it.
Great work; I can’t wait for the rest.” – Todd Holdman

Setting out to create “The jQuery Course”

Teaching has been huge a passion of mine. My larger contributions in life have been through educating others… teaching whatever I learn. It is because of this that I decided to focus more on education and set out to build a definitive resource where I can point people to learn jQuery. The project is titled “The jQuery Course”.

It is training for both beginners and those already somewhat familiar with jQuery. I’m using my own flavor and teaching style which has resulted in over a million (unique) people to visit this website to learn about web development. Many people have emailed me asking where “the best” place to learn about jQuery is. There is already a myriad of resources out there to learn jQuery (it is a deep library) with many voices and perspectives, but I wanted to make something I was proud of. Something to really teach the ins and outs of what I’ve actually used to build my career of jQuery projects over the last few years.

What have you done with jQuery before creating The jQuery Course?

I started using jQuery back when the plugins list was one editable wiki page somewhere in mid to early 2006. jQuery was just released in January of 2006 and so I was using it during the early beginnings. Since I picked up jQuery, I’ve never put it down and used it pretty much daily. jQuery has been a fundamental building block of all my projects (client and open source). I participated in the jQuery community a lot and created the jQuery UI Datepicker project. I’ve spoken around the world about jQuery and web development topics and have enjoyed teaching and learning how to communicate knowledge along the way.

Why are you charging money?

First, I’m all for free, open source, etc., but you still buy books, don’t you? Books can be $40-50 and that is because the author takes a significant portion of their life to organize their thoughts in that format. For me, instead of spending my time writing a book (I’ve been approached by many publishers) I decided to make a video training course. I like video, it feels like a natural way for me to share my knowledge, and frankly, I enjoy watching this much better than I like reading books. I’m selling it for as cheap as I can reasonably do with justifying my time and creating incentive to do more educational content in this format, just $25. It would cost you a lot more money if you were to hire me in person, plus this way you get to sit and learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.

How are you handling different learning styles?

Each of us have our own learning style so I tried to cater to many styles through this video. The process of creating the course was recording, then sending out to get feedback, rinse and repeat many times over. This is so far the best shot at teaching jQuery, and my best shot at teaching anything really.

I’ve been using The jQuery Course as a way for me to organize all of this knowledge I’ve gained into one seamless format. It has really been a mind-expanding project. It is an amazing experience trying to dump over four years of my jQuery knowledge into this.

What can I expect from the course?

Expect me to first lay out the fundamentals to get you up to speed with starting with jQuery. I get into some depth about the philosophy and why the project is so important. After that, I will dive into each section of the jQuery core based on what I have actually used out in the real world. This is not about every little detail, this is about teaching the things about jQuery that I think really matter to bringing your projects to life.

There might be parts of the course that could overwhelm a newcomer to programming, but those who have at least familiarized themselves with jQuery will be able to follow along throughout the entire course. If you don’t understand something, you can always come back to it later. Video is great because you can learn at your own pace and you get a second (and third and..) chance to review the content.

I want you to feel like you are getting one-on-one training from someone who really knows what they are doing with jQuery.

What do I get with the prerelease of The jQuery Course?

When you purchase the prerelease of The jQuery Course, you get early access to video content before I release the entire course. The prerelease contains 61 minutes of the video course. I will notify you and give you access to the rest of the course when it is released at no extra charge to you. If I decide to raise the price when it is released, there will be no extra cost to you and you will still get access to the entire course.

I’d like to continue to improve the course before the final release so please email me your feedback ( m at marcgrabanski.com ) so that I can have a chance to edit and polish “The jQuery Course” content. Enjoy the course!

During the prerelease of The jQuery Course, you’ll get early access to* 61 minutes of video training* for $25. You will also receive the final course content when it’s ready for no extra charge.