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What is back end?

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What is back end?
What is back end?

Generally, a website consists of two parts — the front end and the back end. The front end, also known as the client-side, is what you see in the browser. The back end, or server-side, is everything that happens “under the hood,” and its components aren’t immediately obvious.

In the video above, Web Developer Carlos Grijalva gives us an example. Think of a website as a restaurant. When you first sit down, you’re presented with a menu, which may include pictures and descriptions of the items you can order. When you place your order, you might request something specific, like a salad with dressing on the side. This is similar to how the front end works.

Then, the kitchen staff takes your order, gets the ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry, cooks them together, and brings you your food. This is essentially how the back end works.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at the back end, what Back-End Developers do, the tools they use, and how to become one.

What goes into the back end?

As Carlos explains, “the back end is a combination of a database and a software written in a server-side language.” The back end includes servers and databases. Servers control how users access files. Databases are organized and structured collections of data.

Here’s an example. When you log into a website, you enter your username or email and password. This information is then sent to server-side software, which ensures that your email looks like an email address and your password is structured like a password. If everything looks good, it sends the data to the database to ensure someone with that username and password exists. Then, it chooses what’s important and sends it back to you in the form of your user page.

What do Back-End Developers do?

In another post, Doug, one of our Senior Back-End Engineers, gives us an overview of what a Back-End Developer does. While touching on the role’s capacity for problem-solving, he provides a list of common responsibilities, including:

  • Creating, integrating, and managing databases.
  • Using back-end frameworks to build server-side software.
  • Validating data to make sure it’s formatted correctly before being sent to the database.
  • Integrating user-facing elements with server-side elements to make sure that information is being sent to the right place so the server can retrieve it.

Back-End Developers use a range of technology and software, many of which fall into three categories: databases, programming languages, and frameworks.

Databases

As we explained above, databases are used to store user information and other important data. Popular database management systems include:

  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Oracle
  • PostgreSQL

Programming languages

Back-End Developers use query languages like SQL to manipulate the data stored in databases. They also use various programming languages to build applications that facilitate communication between servers and databases. Some of these languages include:

Python is a great choice for beginners. It’s concise and easy to read. It’s also extremely popular and has a large programming community behind it. Ruby is another beginner-friendly language that has an enthusiastic programming community behind it.

Frameworks

Frameworks make software development faster and easier, saving time developers would otherwise spend writing code. Popular frameworks include:

How do you become a Back-End developer?

You can take a few paths to become a Back-End Developer. One obvious option is to get a degree, but that’s not for everyone. Fortunately, you can become a back-end developer without a degree by taking classes and learning on your own.

Carlos suggests starting by choosing a language and a framework. For example, you could begin with Ruby and then learn its associated Ruby on Rails framework.

From there, Carlos suggests learning how to work with servers, then learning APIs and HTTP methods. Next, you’ll want to connect to databases and learn how to retrieve data. Finally, you’ll want to build something on your own. This allows you to implement the server, database, and APIs and connect to a simple front end. This brings all your learning together and provides you with a project you can include in your portfolio.

How do you become a Back-End Engineer?

If you’re intrigued by all the happenings behind the scenes of websites, another career option is becoming a Back-End Engineer. Back-End Engineers tend to take a big picture view of the back end, essentially serving as architects — designing entire systems and overseeing entire projects.

If this sounds like the role for you, check out our Back-End Engineer Career Path. You’ll learn how to use tools like JavaScript, Node/Express.js, SQL, and more. You’ll also create Portfolio Projects, which will help you land a job as a Back-End Developer or Engineer.

You’ll also learn about web security, algorithms, and how to scale servers. We’ll even help you prepare for your technical interviews, which are on-the-spot demonstrations of your skills. Ready to start your Path? Sign up today!

Python Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

Python is a general-purpose, versatile, and powerful programming language. It’s a great first language because it’s concise and easy to read. Whatever you want to do, Python can do it. From web development to machine learning to data science, Python is the language for you.

SQL Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

SQL is the standard relational data management language. We live in a data-driven world, and there are many businesses that store their information inside large, relational databases. This makes SQL a great skill not only for data scientists and engineers, but for anyone wanting to be data-literate.

What is front end?

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What is front end?
What is front end?

If you’re familiar with web development, you’ve probably heard reference to “the front end” — but what is it, exactly? Generally speaking, the front end is the user-facing part of a website. It’s what you see when you type in something like “codecademy.com.” But, of course, there’s more to it than that.

As Front-End Web Developer Pat DePuydt explains in the video above, the front end is the part of the website a user or customer interacts with. A lot goes into making the front end work, including database architecture, frameworks, scaling solutions, and more. It includes:

  • Styles: This includes the buttons, layouts, inputs, text, images, and more. It’s the overall look of the website.
  • Accessibility: Accessibility features like text-to-speech, voice recognition, simple user flows, and more make websites easier to use and provide a better user experience.
  • Speed: Most people won’t wait for a website to load. The faster a website works, the better.

What are common front-end tasks?

Front-end web development can include a variety of tasks, including:

  • Updating existing web pages or creating new ones
  • Building HTML emails for email campaigns
  • Making sure web pages work well on mobile or tablets
  • Improving website performance by cleaning and splitting code
  • Adding and improving accessibility features

What are front-end technologies?

You’ll use three main technologies in front-end development.

  • HTML: Pat describes HTML as the skeleton of a webpage. It’s used to structure a webpage’s content, and it also tells the web browser how to display it.
  • CSS: The “skin and clothes of the webpage” according to Pat, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) gives browsers more specific information on displaying content, like the size and color of text.
  • JavaScript: There’s more to websites than just text. JavaScript allows you to create more complex elements like interactive maps and animated graphics. It’s executed both in the browser and the server, which makes it versatile.

Front-End Developers also use other tools, ranging from content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress and Drupal to libraries and frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue. Libraries and frameworks allow you to use a blueprint to create web elements like buttons rather than creating a new one every time.

What are front-end careers?

There are two primary roles in front-end development: Front-End Interface Developers and Front-End Engineers. While they might sound similar, several distinctions lie between the two.

Front-End Interface Developers

Front-End Interface Developers (or Front-End Designers) take drawings and other static images and translate them into web pages. This is a big task, as the web pages need to match the designs and ensure they work on various screen sizes.

Front-End Engineers

Front-End Engineers are less focused on design and more on making the website functional and scaleable. Some Front-End Engineers also do design work, and some workplaces use the two job titles interchangeably.

What goes into front-end design?

Front-end design is a collaborative effort, so if you enjoy working with others as much as you enjoy development, it could be a good fit.

Most Front-End Developers and Engineers coordinate with user experience (UX) teams. These folks determine the target demographic for the website and how users might interact with it.

Graphic design is another critical part of front-end design. It includes fonts and colors and ensures that the website’s design matches the company and product the web application is for. This often comes from the research and branding team. For example, Amazon has a distinct logo, the same fonts used throughout, and consistent colors.

Front-End Developers coordinate with various departments to ensure web applications work across all browsers and screen sizes, including phones and tablets. They may also receive feedback from these departments throughout development, so they need to be able to incorporate and listen to feedback from a variety of people with different perspectives and priorities.

Why is the front end important?

In the video above, Pat explains that the front end is important because:

“It’s the digital representation of a company, or an individual, or an organization. It builds a bridge between a customer or client and the brand.”

If a website or application has an issue, it reflects poorly on the brand.

The front end is also what makes a website usable. If a website or application doesn’t work well, it can push customers away, and those customers can be difficult to win back.

Ultimately, the front end represents someone’s idea, and it’s important to do it justice.

Becoming a Front-End Engineer

One option for becoming a Front-End Engineer or Developer is to get a degree. While that’s a good fit for some, getting a degree isn’t practical for everyone. Fortunately, you can become a Front-End Engineer without a degree.

To do that, you’ll want to start by taking relevant courses. You could start with programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Or, you could check out our Front-End Engineer Career Path. Each Career Path provides a series of courses that take you from a beginner to ready to interview.

The Front-End Engineer Career Path includes the languages listed above, along with libraries like React and Redux. You’ll learn the basics of web design, including wireframing and color theory. You’ll build projects that you can include in your portfolio. You’ll also learn what to expect in a technical interview. Ready to get started? Sign up now!

Web Design Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

Web Design is essential to bringing a website to life and creating the experience that you want for your end users. The courses here will help you polish your HTML and CSS skills while learning about color design, navigation design, and more.

Web Development Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

Web Development is the practice of developing websites and web apps that live on the internet. Whether you’re interested in front-end, back-end, or going full-stack, the content in our Web Development domain will help you get there.

How to use GitHub to strengthen your resume

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How to use GitHub to strengthen your resume

Boasting 40 million users, GitHub is one of the leading online development environments. Programmers use GitHub every day to work on projects and collaborate with others. In today’s competitive developer job market, you can use GitHub to showcase your skills, giving you a leg up on the competition when you apply for your next job.

Keep reading to learn the benefits of using GitHub to bolster your job prospects, some of the possible downfalls and how to approach them, and how entry-level, mid-career, and seasoned professionals can use GitHub to make their resumes pop.

What is GitHub?

GitHub provides internet hosting for developers who use Git — a software used to track changes made to code. With Git, programmers can work with each other to design and improve source code.

Developers use GitHub to manage and store different versions of projects. For example, if you’re working on a web application, you can upload your code to GitHub, invite others to help you work on your code, or simply store it there to work on later.

Plus, as you develop new versions of your app, you can use GitHub to get easy access to what you’ve already made, giving you a straightforward way to compare, improve, and troubleshoot your solutions.

The benefits of including GitHub work on your resume

Even though you can describe your skills and experience on your resume, GitHub adds another dimension. Here are some of the top benefits of including your GitHub projects and contributions on your resume.

It shows you know how to write code

It’s easy to claim you’re a programmer, but it’s another thing to prove it. Showcasing GitHub work on your resume gives a prospective employer tangible evidence of your skills. Showing some of your best work also gives your interviewer something they can share with decision-makers and other stakeholders, like the rest of the dev team.

Showing your work can be intimidating, especially if you feel like your project still needs some fine-tuning. Don’t let this stop you because analysis of what you could’ve done better is a great talking point during an interview. It shows you’re introspective about your work and capable of evaluating it with a critical eye.

It shows you can read code

When you showcase projects you’ve contributed to on GitHub, you let employers know you’re proficient at reading code. For many programmers, reading other people’s code is very challenging. Employers know this, and while they’re often ready to invest time into improving a new developer’s reading skills, they’d prefer someone who already has experience.

To make your reading skills shine, you can:

  • Collaborate on different kinds of projects
  • Work with multiple developers
  • Contribute to projects that are out of your comfort zone to broaden your horizon

Doing this will add diversity to the kinds of code you can read and work with, giving your employer the confidence they need in you to move forward.

It shows your collaboration skills

The ability to collaborate with others on GitHub shows you know how to produce quality work with other programmers. While many developers create excellent products working alone, working within a team environment is a necessary element of today’s DevOps teams.

When you connect with others on GitHub and include links to your work on your resume, you show an employee you know:

  • How to take feedback about your work
  • How to provide constructive feedback that improves the end-product
  • How to maintain a focus on higher-level objectives while working on smaller pieces of a project
  • How to annotate clearly, explaining your coding ideas to others

It lets the employer know you can use Git

Granted, not every employer is going to have Git as part of their production process, but some do. Someone who knows how to use Git will require less upfront training for these companies.

Also, some other development platforms, like Helix Core and AWS CodeCommit, have a few similarities with Git. Even if the employer doesn’t use Git, your experience with it could be a bonus and give you an edge over the competition.

It shows your passion for coding

Developers who use GitHub to contribute to open-source programming have an admirable passion driving them. The time, energy, and effort it takes to invest yourself in open-source solutions—usually without any compensation—shows you have a sense of commitment to your craft that may set you apart from others applying for the position.

Potential downfalls of using GitHub on your resume

While the benefits of showcasing your work on GitHub outweigh the drawbacks, there are a few things you want to keep in mind when deciding if and how to showcase your work.

Older work may reflect past weaknesses

Showing older work is great—as long as you have the opportunity to explain how you’ve improved or how you’ve grown when it comes to that specific kind of programming.

Be careful to provide context for any work you showcase, especially products that have clear deficiencies. This will make your introspection and improvement stand out instead of the errors you made.

You may overemphasize your dependence on others

If you primarily use GitHub to get help when you’re stuck, it might seem like you rely on others to solve problems versus tackling them on your own. Do your best to avoid a narrative like, “I got stuck so I went to GitHub for help. I got stuck again, and GitHub bailed me out. And this other time when I couldn’t figure an error out, I went to GitHub…”

If you use GitHub only when you need help, be sure to highlight what you’ve learned from each experience, including:

  • How another programmer’s thinking improved your own
  • New skills you picked up by working with others
  • How watching someone else improve your code helped you improve your troubleshooting abilities

Long periods of inactivity may undercut the benefits

If you choose to showcase GitHub work on your resume, there’s a chance the hiring team will focus more on your GitHub work than the rest of your resume. If that’s the case, inactivity on GitHub may convey inconsistent performance, passion, and work ethic.

To avoid this, explain why you chose to take a break from GitHub, perhaps because you got busy with other work that paid more or had to focus on more important projects.

Advice for different kinds of GitHub Users

The way you show your work on GitHub will vary based on whether you’re applying for an entry-level position, mid-career position, or if you’re a seasoned professional. Here are tips for each stage of your career.

Entry-level applicants

As an entry-level applicant, GitHub gives you a chance to show the kinds of skills many can only acquire with years of experience. By working on GitHub, you can show employers how you can:

  • Accept feedback from others
  • Improve the work of experienced programmers
  • Systematically adjust products until they meet core requirements

To ensure you have the skills you need to produce on GitHub, and for a traditional dev team, you can enroll in any of our Career Paths. For new developers, some of the best choices include:

Mid-career applicants

As a professional in the middle of your career, GitHub offers you a chance to show how you can solve more complex problems and adapt to new types of programming, including learning new languages. The ability to acquire and apply new knowledge is crucial to the skillset of a mid-career applicant.

Even if you haven’t produced stellar work with a language you’re still getting comfortable with, showing what you’ve been able to accomplish using newer skills can convince an employer you have the agility necessary to work in a flexible environment.

Seasoned professionals

GitHub offers seasoned professionals a chance to flex their knowledge and help others with their projects. Showing the hiring team how you support up-and-coming developers on GitHub is a great addition to any resume.

Also, if you’ve been working on a pet project on GitHub, letting employers see this work can be just as beneficial. A little passion project lets them know you’re still hungry, innovating, and ready for challenges.

With the help of our courses, you can acquire and improve the skills necessary to shine on GitHub—and your resume. We teach you not just skills, but also provide valuable experience working with others. Also, you can develop a portfolio of work to upload to GitHub and show to potential employers. Get started today, free of charge.

On a Vital Team of Editors, 2 Interns Learn Valuable Lessons

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On a Vital Team of Editors, 2 Interns Learn Valuable Lessons

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

The first questions we were asked as interns at The New York Times were usually: “What do you do there? Where can I see your work?”

Well, that’s a bit tricky because we worked on the Flex desk.

When we told people outside The Times that we published our first articles, they were confused as to why our names weren’t included. They were puzzled why we weren’t out in the streets conducting interviews or scrolling our phones for sources. They didn’t understand that we spent the summer working alongside a SWAT team of editors who are truly unsung heroes of the newsroom.

The Flex desk may not have a recognizable name like Styles, Books or Sports, but it exemplifies editing at its finest, which is covert protection.

The editors on the Flex desk serve as a kind of last defense before Times journalism reaches readers, making the language clearer, catching mistakes in articles, headlines, captions, videos — you name it — and maintaining Times standards in style and grammar. They’re the ones who see the shore if a reporter is lost in a sea of words.

Every piece of news at The Times is edited by at least two people other than the writer. Typically, an editor in that reporter’s department will look at the article first. Until a few years ago, a copy editor in that same department would read it second.

In 2017, however, The Times eliminated the copy desk, and this decision wasn’t met without controversy. It soon became clear that “there was a glaring need to restore some of the ancillary luxuries that a copy desk had once afforded,” according to a note from our boss, Peter Blair. This became the motivation behind the Flex desk’s creation in February 2019.

Now, when other departments need help, a second read will most likely be done by editors like us on the Flex desk, who can read any piece of text from anywhere in the newsroom. In fact, at some point, one of our colleagues on the Flex desk edited this very piece. (And for whoever did that: Thank you!)

Editing for style means ensuring that articles are consistent in the way words and names are presented. For example, we always spell out “United States,” instead of saying just “U.S.,” if it’s used as a noun, except in headlines, digital summaries, certain newsletters, charts and social media posts. (There are seemingly hundreds of rules like this.)

Editing can be tricky and sensitive when you’re a new face, especially when you edit an article by a veteran reporter. However, we couldn’t have been better trained, and we dived headfirst into this world. We were taught how to refine our “editing eye,” to look out for dangling modifiers, watch for instances where a word or phrase could be misinterpreted and spot passages where an article’s tone just seemed off. It was the best English class we’ve ever taken.

Every day, we would read articles from across the newsroom. We edited stories about Olympic records, the Delta variant and scientific discoveries about fireflies. Our 10 weeks went by in a blink, but they also felt like a lifetime. We learned more than we could ever imagine, not only about the topics we covered but also about how painstaking, relevant journalism is done.

We also witnessed nearly an entire newsroom operate virtually. Reporters and editors produced creative and boundary-pushing journalism from their living rooms, and we learned the skeletal foundations of editing in our bedrooms. Instead of hearing office noises like the ringing of telephones, a cacophony of clacking keyboards or the murmurs of colleagues, the noises of our block became the soundtrack to our workweek. Having your fridge nearby wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Throughout this internship, we learned valuable things that you can’t absorb in a classroom. The editing process isn’t a monolith, and errors happen. Journalism is about humanity at the end of the day, and humans make mistakes. But when we do, we admit it, correct it and try to do better next time. And on the Flex desk, there’s always a next time. Usually on deadline.

“Lead Without Limits:” Rethinking Leadership for the Age of Disruption

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“Lead Without Limits:” Rethinking Leadership for the Age of Disruption

What does it mean to lead in a world where unpredictability, interdependency, and accelerating change are the norms? How can leaders cultivate the resilience, agility, and grit necessary to succeed, both individually and across their organizations, when hard-and-fast rules fail to apply? 

In his recent webinar for Coursera, “Lead Without Limits: Navigating through Uncertainty and Disruption,” Mike Barger, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, addresses these critical questions. Timed to the launch of Coursera’s Leadership Academy, Berger’s talk illuminates how leaders can thrive within environments that are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—VUCA, for short.

Winning in a VUCA Environment

The VUCA framework was developed by the U.S. military in the late 1980s to describe a new reality: one shaped by complex, shifting dynamics that defy linear understandings of cause and effect. Drawing on his 13 years of service in the U.S. Navy and his tenure as a founding executive at JetBlue Airways, Barger reveals how lessons from military strategy can be applied to business contexts. In doing so, he empowers leaders to anticipate potential threats, adapt to unexpected events, and manage crises when they arise.

Until recently, business-world orthodoxy has held that leaders should simply avoid crises. Yet as the coronavirus pandemic has shown, mission-critical disruptions can emerge suddenly and intensify at exponential rates. In our present-day VUCA world, Barger argues, crisis is not a matter of “if” but of “when.” Rather than naively assume that adverse scenarios can be prevented, today’s businesses need to accept the inevitability of crisis. By adopting a preparedness mindset, leaders can develop the essential tools, capacities, and processes that enable them to tackle any crisis as it comes.

Three Universal Truths of Crisis Leadership

Bringing together learnings from his professional experience and academic research, Barger identifies three universal truths of crisis leadership:

  1. In a crisis, people look for tangible evidence of leadership.
  2. When they look, people want and need leaders to believe in.
  3. People don’t expect their leaders to be perfect or omniscient.

Rather than obsess over the perfect decision, Barger asserts, leaders must learn to make continuous, incremental choices in the face of inconclusive data. By proving their ability to respond in a composed yet forceful manner to unfolding situations, leaders can build the confidence and trust of the multiple individuals and groups whom their businesses impact.

Pushing against generalizations, Barger encourages leaders to specify the various stakeholders in their businesses, from employees, customers, and the executive team to investors, community members, and the media. Each stakeholder, he explains, needs to be understood holistically and on their own terms. By cultivating a nuanced appreciation of each party’s unique needs, expectations, and value propositions, business leaders can more effectively engage them in moments of crisis, trading a one-size-fits-all plan for a spectrum of targeted approaches.

Key Imperatives for Leaders: Be, Know, Do

To clarify his argument, Barger borrows a second framework from the U.S. military, “Be, Know, Do”:

  1. Be: Visible, Caring, Empathetic, Calm, and Assertive.
  2. Know: Vision, Values, Guiding principles.
  3. Do: Communicate, Make decisions with limited information, Take responsibility, and Engage your stakeholders.

“Be” directs leaders to demonstrate determination and urgency to redress unwanted outcomes while remaining attuned to their stakeholders’ diverse anxieties and concerns. “Know” foregrounds the need for leaders to internalize their organizations’ values. In moments of stress, these values serve as North Stars, offering a robust foundation for making decisions, regardless of the specific nature of the crisis at hand. “Do” prompts leaders to act even as unknowns persist. By claiming responsibility for guiding the organization and all of its stakeholders through challenging periods, higher-ups can lead by example and cement their position as the authoritative source of information in an evolving situation.

Creating an Action Plan

Equipped with these frameworks, what concrete steps can leaders take to ready both themselves and their organizations? Barger encourages them to start with a hypothetical crisis, such as a market shift, data breach, product failure, execution misstep, or leadership change. After defining the threat, leaders can collaborate with their teams to: 

  1. Think through how the scenario will impact each of their stakeholders differently.
  2. Craft a step-by-step action plan for communicating with and engaging their stakeholders, considering the types, modes, and frequencies of messaging that best align with the expectations, needs, and interests of each individual or group.
  3. Use this plan to evaluate the organizational roles, responsibilities, and procedures that are currently in place and proactively address gaps within them. 

By conducting trial runs, leaders can operationalize the mindsets and processes needed to not simply weather but grow through crises, no matter how unfamiliar or unprecedented.

Dive deeper into these insights by watching the recorded webinar, “Lead without Limits: Navigating through Uncertainty and Disruption.”

 

Master the Art of Public Speaking – 7 Courses to Gain this Workplace Superpower

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Master the Art of Public Speaking – 7 Courses to Gain this Workplace Superpower

Speaking in front of an audience is not something many of us have to do regularly and so it isn’t a skill that many people can readily call on. However, it’s an incredibly valuable talent, particularly in the workplace. Public speaking is one of those key skills that can separate you from the competition. If you’re pursuing a promotion then being a confident public speaker will always stand in your favour, as it’s a prerequisite for team leaders to be able to speak confidently and motivate their team. Learning to speak publicly will also increase your overall confidence, giving your work life a general boost. 

To help you gain this workplace superpower, we’ve collected seven fantastic courses that will teach you everything you need to know about engaging your audience and delivering your message successfully. Your next presentation is going to blow them away!

First Thing’s First

Before starting your public speaking journey, you should assess the state of your current skills. Alison’s free Workplace Personality Assessment will pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses and highlight whether or not public speaking is a vital or secondary skill that you need. The results of the assessment will give you a great platform from which to plan your upskilling.

7 Courses for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills 

1. Planning for Ultimate Public Speaking Success

This course, created by public speaking expert, TJ Walker, is the perfect primer for anyone seeking to grow their speech-giving skills. It covers all of the bases, from engaging your audience confidently to clear delivery. The course includes a fantastic module for complete beginners, so you can be sure that none of the fundamentals are missed out. The perfect place to start!

 

2. Conquering Your Fear of Public Speaking

Let’s be honest, the scariest part about public speaking is simple – it’s scary. But it’s like any other skill – it can be learned, and the more you practice the better you get. This course frames public speaking in those terms and will help you overcome any fear you might have about public speaking by normalising it. You’ll also learn how to practice effectively so that when the time comes for the big presentation, you can be sure that you’re well-rehearsed.

 

 

3. Mindfulness

In tandem with the course on conquering your fear of public speaking, this mindfulness course is a great asset to have in the build-up to your public speech. Whether it’s your first or fifty-first time making a speech, you’re going to be nervous – and that’s fine. What’s important is that you know how to cut through the nerves and anxiety and stay focused on the job at hand and remain mindful of the hard work and practice that you’ve put in in preparation.

4. Public Speaking Emergencies

Without trying to alarm you, there are always going to be hiccoughs and unforeseen circumstances when you’re giving a speech. It’s like live music – sometimes the mic cuts out! However, this course covers a variety of public speaking emergencies and will prepare you for unplanned eventualities such as technical faults in presentation equipment or forgotten notes.

 

5. Video Presentations and Public Speaking

One thing that working from home hasn’t changed is that, even though you’re no longer in the office, you have to give presentations. Video presentations come with their own specific difficulties, and even those who have mastered public speaking in real life can struggle to get a handle on this new form of public speaking. Without an audience in the room, it can be hard to gauge how you’re presentation is being received and this can be a major difficulty for speakers. This comprehensive course will guide you through the unique challenges of video presentations.

 

6. Public Speaking Skills for Kids and Their Parents

Public speaking can be a difficult skill to master but just like foreign languages, it’s a lot easier to learn the younger you are. Just as parents who teach their child a second language from a young age are giving their child a gift, educating your children in public speaking at an early age will save them a lot of hard work and anxiety later in life. This course is also a great way to tackle your own project of upskilling in public speaking, as you and your child can work alongside and encourage one another!

 

7. Humorous Public Speaking, & Becoming Funnier

The best way to settle into a speech is by getting a laugh. It won’t just help put you at ease, it will aid your audience settle down into listening to what you have to say. Humour is the best way to capture an audience’s attention, especially if you’re tasked with conveying information which might be otherwise difficult to digest or remain interested in. This unique public speaking course from stand-up comedian and entrepreneur, Chester Sky, will help you craft the perfect speeches, bound to get a laugh!

Now check out the Alison Career Guide!

Now that you’ve mastered Public Speaking, it’s time to leverage it into an exciting new career! The Alison Career Guide is a unique tool that teaches you everything you need to know about a specific career path, including the skills required to succeed in that sector. It also recommends the exact courses you need to take to develop those skills, setting you on the path to the job of your dreams.

There are a host of great opportunities for confident public speakers. Check out the Career Guide now to start your new professional journey as an:

  • Actor – Use that newfound confidence and go all the way to the big screen!
  • High School Teacher – Education – the best business out there. (We might be biased!)
  • Politician – Transform your new talent into a force for public good.
  • Attorney – Confident public speaking is the most essential tool in the legal profession.

An introduction to data visualization with Matplotlib

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An introduction to data visualization with Matplotlib
An introduction to data visualization with Matplotlib

Businesses have always generated and collected data and used it to evaluate the competitive landscape, where they fit in it, and what their future could look like. Until recently, these data were mostly stored in physical filing cabinets, where the organization and maintenance process was complex and time-consuming. Now that businesses store all of this information digitally, they face different issues.

There’s a lot of work involved in gleaning business-advancing insights from data — so much so that it often requires the use of specialized tools.

Plus, the Data Analysts, consultants, and researchers that work with this data may understand the results in their raw format, but they need to present this information to non-technical stakeholders. To do so, they use Python and its 2D and 3D data visualization libraries called Matplotlib.

What is data visualization?

Pictures have been used to understand data for centuries now. After all, a map is a form of data visualization, and the pie chart was invented in the early 1800s.

Technology truly changed things, though. Computers make it possible to process large amounts of data quickly, which is great because more data is generated now than ever before. In fact, in 2021, people created 1.7 MB of data every second — and in this data lies the potential for great opportunities and insights.

There are many ways these insights can be communicated to others. Spreadsheets and tables are great for transferring data and insights between technically inclined people, but they definitely don’t work for everyone.

Charts, graphs, plots, and other graphical representations of data can turn these insights into something anyone can understand. They also make it easier to absorb the information, make faster decisions, and act on the insights quickly.

Data visualization techniques

In the early days, spreadsheets were one of the most common tools used to visualize data. With a spreadsheet, you can turn data into a table, bar graph, or pie chart. While these still work in many cases, they only go so far. Here are some of the many data visualization techniques a Data Scientist may use to turn data into graphics:

  • Scatter plots: This technique displays the relationship between two variables. A scatter plot uses an x and y-axis with dots to represent data points.
  • Line chart: This is a very common and basic data visualization technique. Line charts display how variables can change over time.
  • Area charts: This visualization method is a variation of a line chart. It can display multiple values in a time series or a sequence of data collected at equally spaced points in time.
  • Treemaps: This technique shows hierarchal data in a nested format. Each data point is represented as a rectangle, and the size of each rectangle is proportional to its percentage of the whole.

For these and other data visualization techniques, a spreadsheet won’t do — you need a tool like Matplotlib.

Why Data Scientists love Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a cross-platform data visualization and graphical plotting library for Python. Many developers consider Python to be one of the most accessible modern programming languages because its syntax is similar to a natural language. This makes Python a perfect language for beginners.

Matplotlib can be installed on a Windows, Mac, or Linux system running Python with one command. Matplotlib follows in the footsteps of Python by being simple to use. Using Matplotlib, a Data Scientist only needs a few lines of code in most cases to generate a visual data plot and run the results instantly.

Once those results are displayed, you don’t just get high-quality, publication-ready graphics (though that would be enough to choose Matplotlib). Matplotlib also generates a user interface with a menu structure that you can use to customize the plot, pan, zoom, and toggle various elements.

Matplotlib also works hand in hand with another powerful Python library, NumPy. NumPy is used for scientific programming in Python and can handle huge multi-dimensional arrays quickly and efficiently. You can quickly turn raw unstructured data into clean, structured data with NumPy and then use Matplotlib to turn it into graphics anyone can understand.

Another tool that works well with Matplotlib to make handling big data a breeze is pandas. pandas turns data into a fast in-memory 2D table object called a DataFrame. pandas DataFrames can be filtered, queried, segmented, and segregated quickly with a simple syntax and fed to Matplotlib to provide different insights into a business’s health and future.

These features make Matplotlib a universal tool for creating quality graphics from any type and size of data. But don’t take our word for it. Check out our Facebook Messenger analysis to see how Matplotlib can be used to analyze Facebook chat data and gain an understanding of the relationship between Facebook friends. You could also take a look at our Song Lyric Topic Analysis Livestream to learn how Matplotlib can be used with natural language processing to gain insights into popular music lyrics.

Getting started with data visualization

When a business uses the data it collects correctly, it can change its future. A Data Scientist will use a lot of processes to gather these insights from this data, and one of the most important is data visualization. When data is presented visually, it can tell its story to people from all walks of life.

To get started with data visualization, you can’t go wrong by choosing Matplotlib. If you already know Python, our Learn Data Visualization with Python course will teach you the Matplotlib skills that businesses are looking for. If you don’t know Python, no worries. Our Visualize Data with Python Skill Path will make you a Matplotlib expert, teaching you how to program in Python and how to use it for data analysis.

To use your data visualization skills in the financial industry, check out our Analyze Financial Data with Python course. And to make handling big data with Matplotlib even easier, try Learn Data Analysis with pandas.

What is computer science?

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What is computer science?
What is computer science?

Computers are a part of almost everything we do, from banking to streaming movies and videos to work (especially remote work). Given how important computers are to our lives, computer science is a field that’s constantly growing and evolving. It’s a field where your work can make a difference. Below, we’ll take a closer look at computer science, careers in the field, and how to get started.

The basics of computer science

Computer science is the study of computers and how they work, including software, hardware, and algorithms. An algorithm is a list of instructions for completing a task. In computer science, an algorithm tells the computer what to do and how to do it.

Computer science is an umbrella term that covers everything from artificial intelligence and data science to robotics, game development, cybersecurity, and more. While you might think of computers like laptops or desktops, computer science involves everything to do with computing. That means everything from cell phones to ATMs to wearable technology like Fitbits.

It’s also a way of thinking. As Alex, one of our Curriculum Developers, explains:

“Computational thinking is about understanding how computers solve real-world problems. There are things we do every day that use computational thinking. If I’m meeting a friend at a restaurant, and I know where the restaurant is, I’ll naturally find the shortest or most efficient path there. Being able to recognize how we think computationally and translating that to programming is a big part of gaining that foundational computer science knowledge.”

Is computer science hard?

Like any field, computer science can be challenging at first. It involves a lot of new terms and concepts and learning programming languages. If you want a career in computer science, you can achieve that goal by taking classes with expert instructors who help you learn at your own pace. Our courses certainly fit the bill, and we’re happy to help you choose courses that will be a good fit for your goals and learning style.

Computer science jobs

As we explained earlier, computer science is an umbrella term covering several disciplines. Similarly, various roles in software development and software engineering fall under the term “Computer Programmer.” Let’s take a look at some of the most popular computer science jobs.

Front-End Engineer

A Front End Engineer develops the user interface elements of a website or application. They’re the ones that make something visually appealing, functional, fast, and user-friendly. They work closely with other engineers and designers to solve problems and improve the end product.

Back-End Engineer

Back-End Engineers build the behind-the-scenes components of a website or application. They spend time maintaining and improving servers, implementing security measures, and writing server scripts and application programming interfaces (APIs). Server scripts are instructions that tell a server how to respond to requests. APIs are software that help two applications communicate with each other.

Full-Stack Engineer

A Full-Stack Engineer works on the front end, the back end, and everything in between. They help connect all the applications and programs and ensure they can talk to each other so the website or application can work effectively. They take a big picture view of projects and spend a lot of their time solving problems.

Data Scientist

As websites and apps have grown in popularity, so has the amount of data that businesses and other organizations have. That data can provide valuable insights if you know how to analyze it.

Data Scientists make sense of data, create algorithms and models to find patterns and trends, deploy data tools, make predictions, and communicate their findings to colleagues.

Cybersecurity

Given the frequency of cyberattacks, cybersecurity is a critical part of computer science. It’s also a fast-growing field, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cybersecurity positions include Cybersecurity Analysts, Cybersecurity Managers and Administrators, and Incident Analysts.

Entrepreneurship

Have an idea for a unique app or the solution to a common problem? Instead of working for someone else, you could start a business of your own. Some of today’s largest computer firms started with a few people who wanted to solve problems. If you’re creative and driven, entrepreneurship could be an exciting and fulfilling career within computer science.

Do you need a computer science degree?

A computer science degree shows hiring managers that you’ve completed certain courses and had the discipline to finish a degree program. Still, it’s not the only path to a career in computer science.

You can also start a career in computer science by taking courses that teach you the skills you need. For example, take our Computer Science Career Path. Modeled after the core curriculum at universities like Stanford and MIT, our Computer Science Career Path covers everything you’d learn in a traditional undergraduate program (at a fraction of the cost).

You’ll learn the basics of programming with Python, delve into data structures and algorithms, computer architecture, the math behind programming, and more. Plus, as you learn, you’ll also prepare for your future job search — building projects and portfolios, preparing for technical interviews, and more. While discussing the Computer Science Career Path, Alex (who we heard from above) explains:

“You can come into computer science to appreciate a new way of thinking, and to shape how you think about problems in the world. You’ll start to see how this way of thinking relates to things you’re excited about and things you want to build. Or you can come into computer science with something you’re really excited to build. And in the process of building that, you’ll learn all of these foundational skills.”

The days are gone where you’d need a computer science degree to enter the field. Every day, more and more people are teaching themselves new skills and discovering new opportunities in the world of computer science.

Preparing for a computer science career

Aside from the Path detailed above, you can also prepare for a computer science career by taking courses to learn the specific skills you need. One of the best places to start is by learning one or more programming languages. Here are some common ones to consider:

  • HTML & CSS: HTML & CSS work together to create websites. These are a good foundation and beginner-friendly.
  • Python: This language is general-purpose, concise, and easy to read. It’s also a good choice for beginners, and it’s supported by a large programming community.
  • JavaScript: This option is front- and back-end friendly and is a core technology behind web development.
  • Java: This is another great place to start. Java has a wealth of online documentation and is used in software development, large systems development, mobile applications, and more.
  • SQL: SQL is used to manage relational databases, and it’s an especially good fit for people who want to pursue data science.
  • C++: C++ is fast, flexible, and used in various industries, including game development, virtual reality, robotics, and scientific computing.
  • C#: C# is also used in various settings, including video games, web apps, mobile apps, and cloud computing.
  • PHP: PHP is a general-purpose scripting language backed by an active community.
  • Ruby: Ruby is an intuitive, general-purpose programming language often used in web development.

Ready to get started? Sign up today to launch your path to a fulfilling, exciting computer science career.

Teenagers in The Times: August 2021

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Teenagers in The Times: August 2021

Here is the August edition of Teenagers in The Times, a roundup of the news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com. We publish a new edition on the first Thursday of each month.

For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.

_________

For Some College Students, Remote Learning Is a Game Changer

Last year, online classes helped many students with disabilities pursue their education. They want the option to continue.

Doubts, Anger and Anxiety: What It’s Like to Go to School Now

What was supposed to be a new, relatively normal year has become a politicized, bewildering experience for many parents, students and educators.

Campuses Are Virus Incubators, but These Colleges Can’t Require Vaccines

University of Texas at San Antonio will begin with mostly remote classes, because of the city’s high infection rates. Other schools are trying to avoid that fate.

The School Kids Are Not Alright

“A year of lost schooling will hurt children for years to come,” states this Editorial.

How Our Classrooms Became Battlegrounds

“Our schools have long been spaces for right-wing extremist panic to disguise itself as a defense of children,” writes the author of this Opinion essay.

This Is the World Being Left to Us by Adults

“We will not allow the world to look away,” write the authors of this guest essay, youth climate activists from Sweden, Mexico, Bangladesh and Kenya, working with the international youth-led Fridays For Future movement.

She Was Declared a Witch at Salem. These Middle Schoolers Want to Clear Her Name.

An eighth-grade class in North Andover, Mass., is seeking to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who was convicted of witchcraft in 1693.

Teenage Aviator Aims to Be Youngest Woman to Circle the Globe Solo

Zara Rutherford, 19, left Belgium last week and plans to complete her journey by early November. She landed in New York City on Thursday.

‘This Is Really Scary’: Kids Struggle With Long Covid

Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial infection.

Babies and Toddlers Spread Virus in Homes More Easily Than Teens, Study Finds

Although young children bring the coronavirus home less often than teens do, their close contact with caregivers may make them likelier to transmit it.

Young People Do Not Need Shaming to Get Vaccinated

“The barriers young adults face are not inherent to their age, but they have fewer resources to tackle them,” write the authors of this Opinion essay.

Half of the adolescents in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, White House says.

Jeff Zients, the Covid-19 response coordinator, called the news “a major milestone in our efforts to vaccinate adolescents.”

Britain to Include 16- and 17-Year-Olds in Covid Vaccine Campaign

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization advised Britain to expand vaccination for 16- and 17-year-olds with no underlying health conditions. Shots were already open to ages 12 to 17 with increased health risks, or living with an immunosuppressed person.

Are the Kids All Right? Ask the Camp Directors.

Summer camp in the middle of a pandemic has been a tech-free, joyous balm for some. For others, though, it’s a pit of anxiety.

The record for the youngest gold medalist stays intact. But who exactly holds that record remains a mystery.

Kokona Hiraki, 12, and Sky Brown, 13, won silver and bronze in park skateboard, leaving Marjorie Gestring, a 13-year-old American diver, as the youngest athlete to have won an Olympic gold. But there’s a twist.

Athing Mu wins the 800 meters with a dominant performance.

The 19-year-old won with a time of 1:55.21, a new national record and her personal best time.

A 17-year-old sprinter from Tampa, Fla., is the youngest Olympic track competitor for the U.S.

Erriyon Knighton broke Usain Bolt’s under-18 record in the 200 meters in May and surpassed Bolt’s under-20 record in June, and he beat reigning world champion Noah Lyles in two races at the Olympic trials.

Student-Athletes Can Now Earn Money. Here Are the Pitfalls.

College athletes have limited life experience and financial expertise, which makes them ripe for being taken advantage of, wealth advisers say.

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Arts, Media and Culture

54 leading companies across EMEA choose Coursera for Business to drive employee reskilling

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54 leading companies across EMEA choose Coursera for Business to drive employee reskilling

By Anthony Tattersall, VP Enterprise EMEA 

When the World Economic Forum asked businesses how they would respond to COVID-19 last year, 84 percent said they would increase the rate of automation and digitalization. As a result,  workforce upskilling and reskilling within the enterprise has become an urgent priority. This trend has been widely adopted by organisations across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), as businesses work to create better economic opportunities for employees.

In the first half of 2021, more than 130 companies across EMEA have launched, renewed or expanded their Coursera for Business licences to provide employees with the critical skills needed to ensure future success and deliver a positive business impact. This includes 54 new customers like Lycamobile, Checkatrade, Eurowag, and Scania.

The Coursera for Business platform features world-class content and approximately 5,000 courses. In the first half of the year, enrollment in EMEA increased by 44.3% year-on-year as companies doubled down on their digital transformation efforts, including demand for technology, data science, and business skills. 

‘Our partnership with Coursera adds to our employees’ seamless learning experience, enriching customer, technical and human-centric skills, and contributing to personal and professional growth’, said Navanit Narayan, Lyca Group CEO. 

‘As part of our digital transformation journey, we are delighted to partner with Coursera to support our employees in their upskilling and reskilling journey’, said Rowan Laurence​​, Engineering Director at Checkatrade. 

We have also recently launched new platform innovations, including Academies and SkillSets. These resources are helping organizations target the right skills for their employees, whilst benchmarking and measuring the impact of their upskilling. 

In EMEA,  WPP’s AI Academy for example, is upskilling the workforce with critical digital skills, helping agencies within the WPP group like Mindshare and Xaxis drive greater value for customers. The Academies are powered by recent platform innovations known as SkillSets. These are expert-curated, AI-driven content recommendations which help employees develop skills for specific roles. Ericsson and Sber are among the first to adopt SkillSets in EMEA.

With the business landscape changing at an unprecedented rate, access to high-quality online learning will be critical in helping employees develop the right skills. It is an honor to partner with leading companies across EMEA as they navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by the new digital economy.

Learn more about Coursera for Business today.

 

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