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March 7th class!

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Java/JSP training by a best-selling author!

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You can learn Java / JSP in a variety of ways, and these are compared with Javaonline.org:

	FREE tutorial	Paid Online Courses	Community Colleges	Universities	Workshops	Javaonline.org
Depth of Coverage	Superficial	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium	Exhaustive
Content written by an author	?	?	?	?	?	Yes
Hands-on assignments	?	Few. Assign quality not good, either ambiguous, or won't reinforce topic learned.	Few; Content mostly on applets/GUI, Limited relevance to industry	Few; Content mostly on applets/GUI, Limited relevance to industry	Few / No need to submit, never graded, never learn!	Rigorous; Content carefully designed by author to match industry req's and to "drill in" the concept.
Quizzes / Final Exam	?	? / Few. Quiz questions too easy or not comprehensive enough; won't reinforce every topic learned.	? / few. Limited relevance to industry.	? / few. Limited relevance to industry.	Few. Some feedback, but won't cover every topic. Can't get confidence to face job interview / Sun Certified level testing.	In-depth; Quiz / final exam carefully designed by author to cover every topic & give confidence to face job interview/ Sun Certified level exams.
Schedule Driven, with Deadlines	No	?	Yes	Yes	? (No assignments to submit and get a grade)	Yes
Help Response Time	N/A	Erratic, 1 business day; No support on week-ends. Don't get help when you need most.	Support only during class; For emails: 1-2 business days. No support on week-ends; don't get help when you need most.	Support only during class; For emails: 1-2 business days. No support on week-ends; don't get help when you need most.	4-5 day workshop, it's over before you get stuck! You struggle at home after the workshop is over.	Email checked every 5 min, response usually less than 2-3 hours, 7 days a week / 365 days a year
Weightage for Participation	No	?	Yes	Yes	No	No, because often times it leads to participation for the sake of points.
Group projects	No	No	Yes	Yes	?	No, because students often have trouble if a member doesn't put in as much effort as the others.
Cost (per course)	FREE	$150-600	$300-600	$500-2000	$2,000-$10,000	From $90
Reason for cost	N/A	Salaries, Advertising	Salaries, Advertising	Salaries, Advertising	Salaries, Advertising, Hotel Rent	ONE-MAN show, No advertising; Minimal cost
Relevance to Industry	50%	60%	10%	10%	80%	100%
Prior Programming Knowledge Req'd	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	No
Permanent Access	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Grading Done By	N/A	Student	Student	Student	N/A	Best-selling author

Community Colleges and Universities
Courses at Community Colleges and Universities tend to be very academic, and either focus most of their attention on topics that aren't of much relevance to industry, or start with really advanced code (such as AWT, Applets, Swing, Option Panes and GUI) right in the beginning of the course. One needs to follow a lot of basic Java before even referring to such advanced topics. The result is that the student is left overwhelmed and frustrated, not following what's going on in class.

In addition, almost no college course in Java deals with packages, which is critical to industry.

What Industry Really Wants
What industry really wants is not such an academic focus, but topics such as:

Topics that industry needs:

• Understanding abstract classes and interfaces

• Dynamic binding and polymorphism

• Packages

• Exceptions

• Struts and MVC

• JavaBeans

• Tag Libraries

Topics that industry needs (cont'd):

• Custom Tags

• Connecting to a SQL database

• JDBC

• Writing SQL queries, looping over a result set

• Displaying data

• Inserting records

• and so forth.

Very few (if any) schools offer courses on Advanced JSP topics such as: Struts, MVC, Custom Tags, Tag Libraries, and so on. So at the end of doing their Java courses, you still have a gap of learning advanced topics in JSP, which are critical to getting a job.

Why not attend a Workshop?
4-5 day Workshops (held in hotels) do attempt to cover industry-relevant content, but have the following limitations:

Limitations of Workshops:
•	Extremely expensive ($2000 or more, per course). (Why spend this much, when you can get 10 times the quality, content and support at a tenth of the cost, at Javaonline.org??)
•	Too short in duration (4-5 days) to absorb vast amount of material
•	Don't get time to actually write Java / JSP code, make sure it works and ask questions
•	Overwhelming content, loads of material given as handouts to take home
•	By the time you understand one topic, the instructor is already a few topics ahead. Almost guaranteed to fall behind and feel lost.
•	Almost never have assignments to take home, try out and submit. One will never learn programming without writing code and compiling it.
•	Must attend on specified time, can't do late in evenings or after work
•	Bottom line: Will never be able to write Java/JSP code based on workshop training. Not worth the fortune you pay.

Why not learn from a FREE tutorial?
Learning from a free tutorial can get you a few steps into the real thing, but that's about it. After that you will either be overwhelmed with the content or with the lack of support or help.

Limitations of FREE Tutorials:
•	Usually, the concepts covered are too elementary to use in a real-world JSP development environment
•	Or, they end up thrusting loads of advanced concepts without caring if the reader is following it through.
•	More often than not, these tutorials assume you know some programming language already.
•	You often follow the steps in the tutorial, but never get a chance to practice an entire problem on your own to compare your solution to the one from a professional.
•	Most of them don't have unsolved assignments that you are expected to complete. Without writing code, one can never learn Java/JSP.
•	No one grades your tutorial and gives feedback on how you are doing.
•	No one comes to your help if you get stuck or have questions or need help.
•	Plus, you most likely will need to collect several tutorials to get the whole picture, all the way from HTML / Java thro JSP and Struts.
•	Most important - since there is no pressure to complete or perform, you will most likely never complete all assignments (if there are any). How many free tutorials can you recall that you completed end-to-end? You must complete the Javaonline.org courses by the course end date in order to get a grade. A little bit of pressure is necessary to learn Java/JSP.
•	Bottom line: Most likely will turn out to be waste of time, especially when it's critical to learn it properly and use for the rest of your career.

Why not learn from a book?
Learning from a book most likely will turn out overwhelming due to the sheer volume of content.

Limitations of learning from a book:
•	Most books contain too much content that's difficult to absorb and retain.
•	It's inconvenient to flip back and forth between the pages to look back on what you learned. An online course has convenient links to move to any topic.
•	Most books don't have industry-relevant assignments that you need to attempt. Even if they do, no one grades those, so you never get motivated to complete them.
•	There's no schedule or deadline to complete anything, so most likely it never gets done. How many books did you buy and keep on the shelves, gathering dust? How many books can you recall that you ever completed cover-to-cover, with all assignments? The answer will most likely be "none".
•	No one comes to your help if you get stuck or have questions or need help.
•	Plus, you most likely will need to collect several books (by different authors) to get the whole picture, all the way from HTML / Java thro JSP and Struts.
•	Most books aren't written in an easy-to-understand style, so you will be wasting time reading one book half-way, then searching for another book. The cycle repeats, and you can't risk the time and money getting to the "right" set of books.
•	Bottom line: Most likely, the book will gather dust.