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Hosting and showcasing your coding skills

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Hosting and showcasing your coding skills

As a new developer, you’ll need to build a portfolio to show businesses and recruiters that you have the skills they’re looking for. The best way to do this is through a portfolio website. Read on — or watch the video below — to learn what to include in your portfolio site, where to host it, and how to find inspiration from other developers.

What to include in a portfolio site

There are several essential elements you’ll need to include in your portfolio site. While other developers may go above and beyond, don’t feel the need to compete. Even a simple portfolio is fine — you can always update it later as your skills grow. In the meantime, let’s explore the most important elements of your portfolio site.

Contact information

The contact page is important for people to, well, contact you. Add an email dedicated exclusively to your portfolio site here. Keep in mind that it may receive a lot of spam because it will be on a public-facing website.

You also may want to add your phone number. If you’re worried about receiving spam calls, Google Voice provides a free phone number that’s perfect for this. If Google Voice is not available in your area, a messaging service like WhatsApp or Telegram will work. Adding professional social media accounts is a nice touch.

Skills

This is the section where you list your skills. List all of your technical skills and the most relevant of your soft skills. Be sure to list your strongest skills or those that are most relevant to the position you’re applying for first. Recruiters will assume you list your skills in order of proficiency.

Portfolio

This is the focus of your portfolio site. Here, you should showcase at least three projects that illustrate your skills. List the most advanced project first. If you’re a beginner, you may not have many options, but you want to show some growth.

GitHub

As a developer, it’s important to have a GitHub section with a link to your profile, as well as a notable projects list. The notable projects list should direct hiring managers to your top three projects or GitHub repos. Your GitHub section adds more depth to your portfolio, allowing recruiters to look at the code behind your projects and determine if it matches their needs.

Finding inspiration

It also helps to look at other developers’ portfolios for inspiration while you’re creating your own.

Google

Through Google, you can find plenty of portfolios to give you inspiration for your own. Just don’t be intimidated by experienced developers. When you’re just starting out, no one expects you to have a portfolio full of skills and projects.

Dribbble

Dribbble is a community and social media network for designers. At Dribbble, you can discover cutting-edge trends in design, and you may find a few portfolios you want to emulate. Explore any designs that capture your attention, and see what ideas you can draw from it. Once you have some experience, it’s also a good place to market your skills.

Awwwards

Awwwards is a competition site where websites are reviewed. It also has a portfolio section that you can draw inspiration from. Once you have some skills, don’t be afraid to submit your site here. A high score or an award can change your career.

LinkedIn

Having a LinkedIn profile is one of the most important things you can do as a developer because LinkedIn integrates job recruitment, unlike other social media platforms. It’s a great place to market yourself, showcase your portfolio, and learn from other developers.

An essential part of your LinkedIn profile is the Contact Info section. Here you can put your email address, Twitter handle, and a link to your website. Just make sure to keep your website up to date if you add the link to LinkedIn.

Another section on LinkedIn that offers an excellent opportunity to market yourself is the introduction area, which gives you the option to include some links. When you’re starting out, this is a good place to add the projects you’ve worked on.

There’s also a section on your LinkedIn profile that shows your profile views, appearances in search, and recruitment messages. Your list of skills triggers LinkedIn search result appearances, so you should list all your skills on LinkedIn and update your profile whenever you update your resume or portfolio.

Where to host your portfolio site

Now that you know what to include in your portfolio, let’s take a look at some of the best places to host them.

GitHub pages

To use GitHub, you’ll need to know Git, and as a developer, this is an important skill to know. If you don’t know Git, check out Learn Git from our courses. Hosting a portfolio site on GitHub is as simple as creating a repo with the following name:

YOURGITHUBUSERNAME.github.io

Once you create the repo and push your portfolio site to it, GitHub will publish your site, and you can visit it at https://YOURGITHUBUSERNAME.github.io.

There’s nothing wrong with using GitHub for your portfolio site and a free email service like Gmail when you’re starting out, but there are advantages to having your own domain and hosting. It helps with branding, adds a more professional look and feel to your portfolio, and will give you branded email accounts.

Advanced hosting for complex portfolios

GitHub is great for basic sites that consist of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s also decent for single-page apps, but if your portfolio consists of more than a single page, then you may need more advanced hosting, and the free options become limited.

Front-end application hosting

Surge is a hosting platform that offers free hosting for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can install the platform’s SDK to your computer with the following command:

npm install --global surge

You can then deploy your application using the Surge command-line tool, and Surge will generate a URL for your project.

Other sites similar to Surge that provide developers with free hosting include Netlify and Zeet, which have a similar experience.

Back-end application hosting

If you want hosting for one of your back-end projects, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Many developers use Heroku to host their portfolios. Heroku will let you host up to five apps for free. The only caveat is that your apps will be suspended after they haven’t been used for 30 minutes. So, there could be a delay when someone visits your app due to spin-up time.

Another option for hosting your back-end project is Firebase, which offers not only free hosting but also a free database. Another good option is Amazon Web Services. Amazon offers a free tier, but it’s only free for one year.

If a free service is not enough for your portfolio, you may want to get your own VPS (virtual private server). Digital Ocean is a good option because it comes with templates that make setting up your VPS simple.

All of these services will require configuration, and you’ll have to learn deployment techniques to use them. This skillset will also look good on your portfolio and resume, so you may want to start by learning deployment. We offer a short course called Deploying with Netlify and Heroku to help you out.

We covered a lot in this article, and it may seem overwhelming, or you may be uncomfortable showing your work on LinkedIn or Dribbble. But you don’t have to do everything listed here, especially at the same time. Just get started.

Introduction to ‘Country of the Week’

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Introduction to ‘Country of the Week’

Every week The Learning Network publishes an interactive quiz that invites students to learn more about countries around the world. Each quiz first prompts students to find the country on a map. Then it asks four questions about the country’s demographics, history, economy and culture based on New York Times reporting. Teachers tell us the feature helps students build geography skills and gain a broader sense of the world. We have even compiled a roundup of 100 of these quizzes.

Find all of our Learning Network tutorials in this video playlist.

Learn without limits on Coursera

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Learn without limits on Coursera

Wondering where learning can take you?

Explore stories from the Coursera community:

“I study and learn because my country needs help. We need to encourage Syrian youth to participate in the peace-building process and fight for social justice.”

Ehab B., learning from Germany

“Coursera is a game-changer just for leveling the playing field. It allows you to get a high-quality degree
at a rate that you can afford. Getting my degree from the University of Illinois is something I’m very proud of.
Earning my MBA gives me confidence.”

Kara A., learning from the USA

“Coursera has changed my life. I’m achieving my dreams and continuously growing in my career. I want to raise awareness for Coursera as a learning destination for all people, especially in my country, because we don’t have data science and AI degrees in Lebanon.”

Mo R., learning from Lebanon

“Coursera introduced me to the world of AI and now I can’t stay away! I’m a medical student exploring how AI can be used to solve healthcare delivery problems in West Africa.”

Paulina M., learning from Ghana

“When I was five years old, I lost 85% of my vision. I use Windows Magnifier and screen reading software to learn online. Thanks to the courses I completed on Coursera, and my Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, I got my first job as a data analyst.”

Bharathan M., learning from India

“After I got pregnant, I didn’t know how I’d manage traveling for my sales job with a small child. I started working on the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate, and I really loved it. It was scary, thinking, “Can I change careers now?” But the course gave me the confidence to proceed.”

Emma S., learning from Australia

“I was unemployed for two long years, but today, I feel very accomplished. When I face challenges, I know that my current situation doesn’t define my future. Not only is my resume filled with the names of world-class institutions, but each certificate brings me closer to my career goals.”

Rayan B., learning from Brazil

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Introducing Create REST APIs with Spring and Java

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Introducing Create REST APIs with Spring and Java

Until now, our Java curriculum covered the language’s basic principles and fundamentals, syntax, and applications in mobile development, with courses like Learn Java and Build Basic Android Apps with Java. But all that’s changed with the release of our new Skill Path: Create REST APIs with Spring and Java.

As the name implies, the new Skill Path will teach you how to build web APIs with Java and the Spring framework — which was ranked as one of the most popular Java frameworks by sources like HackerRank and Snyk. Along with building APIs, you’ll also learn more about databases, web servers, command-line tools, and more.

Who is the new Skill Path right for?

Create REST APIs with Spring and Java is perfect for learners who want to build their own web APIs — or even just upskill as a Java developer and learn more about the language’s uses in web development.

What is an API?

Essentially, an API (Application Program Interface) is a type of software that facilitates communication between two applications — allowing access to and the transferral of certain types of data. Phil Sturgeon, consultant at WeWork and author of Build APIs You Don’t Hate, explains some of the benefits of building your own APIs:

“Building your own can be a huge benefit to your own company for building your own applications, but it can also be a great source of primary or secondary income. As you open up to other companies and maybe even the general public, you can start to see integrations you’d have never even considered. Who knows, it might even evolve your business, and give you ideas for new products and features.”

What is a REST API?

As we explain in another article, REST (Representational State Transfer) is “an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other.” So, a REST API is an API that conforms to REST standards, allowing for a wide range of benefits, such as:

  • Improving flexibility of the interface across platforms
  • Improving scalability by simplifying the server components
  • Allowing each component to evolve independently

What will I learn from the new course?

Along with building your own APIs, you’ll also:

  • Deepen your understanding of how the internet works, including HTTP, REST, CRUD, APIs, and the client-server relationship
  • Work with Java at an intermediate level, including object-oriented programming.
  • Learn how to use Spring Boot, Spring Initializr, and the annotation-based approach to building Spring applications.
  • Learn how to attach a database to a web server using Spring Data (specifically JPA and H2 databases).

Recap

Our new Skill Path, Create REST APIs with Spring and Java, will teach you how to use Java and its associated Spring framework to build your own APIs while deepening your understanding of web development. This Skill Path is great for anyone looking to upskill as a Java developer or learn more about the programming language’s applications in web development.

Unit 1: Documenting and Reflecting on Teenage Lives in Extraordinary Times

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Unit 1: Documenting and Reflecting on Teenage Lives in Extraordinary Times

Our open-ended invitation to “show us — in words or images, video or audio — how the events of this extraordinary year have affected you” resulted in a deluge of extraordinary submissions. In the end, we received over 5,500 entries, and honored 245 finalists whose work included screenshots, charts, poems, plays, photos, paintings, diary entries, doodles, essays, Lego sculptures, posters, soundscapes, illustrated lists, comics, musical compositions, recipes and rants. Some of it was ultimately featured in special Times digital and print sections.

Now, as schools reopen, teachers have asked us to run this unit and contest again, this time to acknowledge a new set of issues and concerns.

We all hope to return to something that looks like “normal life” soon, yet we will all return changed. How can we make space for students to process their experiences, but be mindful that these months have been traumatic for many? How might a project like this one help bring school communities together? And how could teaching students to document and reflect give them skills they can use not just for this contest but for the rest of their lives?

This time we are asking, Who are you now? How do you think the last year and a half has shaped — and will continue to shape — you and your generation? What can you show or tell us that might help explain what it’s like to be a teenager in 2021? In answering these questions, students have an enormous amount of choice:

  • They can reflect on their own lives, or document the impact on their generation as a whole.

  • They can focus on any aspect — big or small, serious or silly, fleeting or fundamental — that might contribute to the story of what it means to be growing up in this moment.

  • They can work alone or with others.

  • They can send us work in almost any medium they can upload digitally.

Whatever your students choose to do, however, writing will be used as a tool throughout to help them brainstorm, plan, compose and edit. All students will also be asked to craft written artist’s statements to accompany their submissions.

Below, you’ll find everything you need, whether your students are submitting to our contest, creating work just for a classroom or school exhibition, or even using the unit to prepare for other tasks that require the same skills, like writing the college essay.

Coming of Age in 2021: A Multimedia Contest for Teenagers

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Coming of Age in 2021: A Multimedia Contest for Teenagers

And, we have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Often, doing the metacognitive work of stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words why and how you made craft choices, what you wanted to express, and how the work connects to a larger theme can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger.

We hope you’ll compose your statement as carefully as you do your main piece since, as you can see from our rubric, it is an important part of the submission overall.

There are so many options, both for format and for message. How do I even begin?

We know that choosing what to say and how to say it might be the hardest part of this challenge, so we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help. We will also soon publish a wide range of mentor texts from the winners of the 2020 contest that can provide inspiration.

Here are some questions to get started:

  • What would you like others to know about who you are now? Has some part of your identity — as a family member; friend; student; worker; member of a racial, religious or ethnic group; athlete; artist or anything else — been challenged or changed? What can you show or tell us that others may not know or understand? What aspects of your life — whether big or small, serious or silly, fleeting or fundamental — seem important or interesting to share with others at this moment?

  • What have you noticed not only about yourself but about others in your generation? Is there something many teenagers have experienced during this time that adults may not know about or fully understand? How can you document or express that?

How can I make my submission stand out?

It is safe to say that, as in all our contests, we’ll prize original work that has a strong voice and goes beyond cliché to show or tell us something new.

Here are three pieces of advice we find ourselves repeating often, but which are especially important for this contest, no matter what kind of work you are submitting. You can find them described in more detail here.

1. Create from who you are and what you genuinely care about.

The finalists in this contest last year showed us memorable aspects of their real lives, whether their submission was about obsessively playing Among Us, the feeling of being trapped in one room, learning to catch lobsters, participating in the George Floyd protests, or experiencing the death of a loved one. The pieces that impressed us most felt genuine and grounded in details that made a specific time, place and set of concerns, observations or questions real, honest and meaningful.

2. Focus on something small to tell a larger story.

Describing the time you made brownies with your stepbrother at 4 a.m. might say much more about the experience of quarantine than trying to write an essay capturing an entire year of family interactions.

A Time of Challenge and Change: Writing Prompts to Help You Reflect

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A Time of Challenge and Change: Writing Prompts to Help You Reflect

As part of the suite of resources we’re creating to help students document and reflect on their lives, we’ve rounded up a list we hope can provide instant inspiration. Here is a selection of Student Opinion questions we’ve posed on our site since the pandemic first began to shut down schools in early 2020. We will continue to update this list through October, 2021.

Each question is inspired by, and links back to, a related Times article, and invites teenagers to reflect on some aspect of ordinary life that has been affected by the pandemic, the struggle for racial justice, 2020-21 politics, and more. The questions invite reflection on the present, memories of the past and predictions for the future. They ask students to tell personal stories, take stands on important issues, consider new ideas and use their imaginations.

We hope teenagers will find potential here for their own work in any genre — work they’re invited to submit to our Coming of Age in 2021 Contest. All of these questions are still open to comment by anyone 13 or over — and many of them already have hundreds of responses. In fact, simply reading what other teenagers had to say might be enough to inspire your own memories and ideas.

You can find links to all the materials that support this unit in this overview. As we remind students in the introduction to our contest … no matter what format you choose, trust us: Even if you don’t think you have something to say, you do. There are stories only you can tell.

On-Demand Webinar: Teaching With Learning Network Contests

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On-Demand Webinar: Teaching With Learning Network Contests

This webinar will introduce educators to the nine contests, as well as additional monthly and weekly challenges, that The Learning Network will be running during the 2021-22 school year. Through writing, photography, podcast production and more, these contests give students an opportunity to exercise voice and choice and to create work for an authentic audience.

In this webinar, our editors and guest speakers will give you an overview of our contests and walk you through the logistics of participating in them with your students. We will also share resources for preparing for the contests and discuss how they fit into our free yearlong writing curriculum. We hope you will leave this webinar with inspiration for how to integrate these contests into your curriculum during the 2021-22 school year.

C.T.L.E. credit is available for New York educators. All participants will receive a certificate of completion.

Register now to view the on-demand recording.

  • Resource List: In this PDF you can find links to all the resources we discuss in this webinar.

  • Original Webinar: You can watch the original, unedited webinar here and download a professional development certificate at the end. The webinar is free, but registration is required.

Should I learn PHP?

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Should I learn PHP?

PHP is an open-source, server-side programming language used across industries to develop dynamic websites and pages. Some of the common tasks PHP is used for are gathering information on leads, processing sales from a website, sending and receiving cookies, and more.

The ease of use and popularity of PHP makes it an obvious choice for programmers who want to find jobs in cybersecurity, development, and IT. Also, it’s a programming language that’s used by entry-level and advanced developers, so there’s no right or wrong time to learn PHP.

Below, we go over what PHP is used and why it’s so popular to help you decide if learning this versatile language is the right step for you and your career.

What is PHP used for?

PHP is one of the oldest programming languages still in use. It was invented in the late ’90s, and its many uses have kept it relevant to this day. By creating a back-end architecture that supports commerce, publication, and more — while also keeping the data provided to the client secure — PHP powers some of the most popular and frequently used websites.

PHP provides the basis for many popular websites and functionalities. Also, frameworks for many widely used applications are available in PHP, which eliminates the need to start from scratch each time you want to customize a new project. There are many shortcuts that can exist within the embedded functions making  PHP a time-saving solution for programmers who need to create something new in a limited amount of time or with a limited budget.

PHP is often used to create customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which are used to manage customer-facing websites. (A few CRMs you might be familiar with are Salesforce, HubSpot, and Monday.com.) This makes it easy for users who aren’t technically savvy to add content and make changes to the site without the help of a designer or developer.

E-commerce websites are often based in PHP, making it easier for small businesses to create an online storefront without paying for custom development. And thanks to the HTML embedded within PHP pages, it’s much easier to add or edit content pages or modules of an established website or delete them.

Advantages of learning PHP

Whether you’re interested in learning PHP as your main programming language or adding it to your toolbox of skills along with other languages, there are many reasons to consider learning it, including:

Ease of learning

PHP can be easier to learn than other programming languages, thanks to its similarities with HTML, as well as the embedded HTML in code, built-in functions that are present, and the ability to reuse the blocks of code you build. There are also extensions available to help make creating new sites in PHP simpler, including authentication, location services, and encryption. Once you’ve mastered PHP and its functions, you can use these skills to build almost anything quickly and effectively.

Popularity and universality

PHP is a popular back-end programming language that’s used worldwide, and data shows it’s present in almost 80% of websites built in a server-side scripting language. It’s compatible with all operating systems and many databases, making it a great choice for large enterprises with offices in different locations. Large corporations like WordPress and HubSpot use PHP across locations, regardless of the equipment used in a particular office, thanks to the universal nature of the data produced.

Potential industry uses

PHP is often used with HTML and databases to create dynamic applications for use on the web. It can also be used to run a server or create command-line scripts to complete tasks without the need for a browser.

Cybersecurity applications

Malicious attacks aimed at PHP-based sites are easier to identify and block when you are familiar with the language. PHP is used in cybersecurity by managing secure data sharing between servers and users, increasing the level of security when transferring data. The end-user gets the HTML output from a server, but they don’t see the full PHP code, offering the originator of the PHP pages a level of confidentiality greater than other programming languages. This provides a basic level of security against malicious actors looking to hack your website.

Diversity of output

Along with creating HTML, PHP allows you to create PDF, Flash, and simple text files without having to learn any new languages. PHP can create forms that collect data from visitors, offer dynamic page content based on the visitor’s location or interests, or send cookies that help identify returning visitors to the site and launch remarketing efforts.

Depending on your current skillset and where you want your career to go, learning PHP can really pay off in the short and long run. If you plan to have a long career in development or back-end engineering, adding to your PHP knowledge will only benefit you over time and open the possibilities of what you can accomplish. Get started learning PHP today with our courses.

7 Unique and Interesting Courses to Try This August

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7 Unique and Interesting Courses to Try This August

Holiday time in August can sometimes feel like the only chance you get to escape your usual routine. It’s a chance to take a step back from the daily grind and try something new. We’re often put off from taking up new hobbies or trying out different ways of doing things because we feel like we just don’t have the time or energy to start them. If only we could get going, there would be no stopping us!

An August break is the perfect opportunity to devote some quality time to trying something new because you actually have the chance to integrate it into your life. And to make things even easier, we’ve put together a great shortlist of unique and interesting courses for you to try out until you find your new favourite pastime!

 

1. Reiki

This Reiki course will teach you the theory and techniques of this ancient form of holistic energy healing, giving you the skills to help yourself and others. The course looks at the discipline’s guiding principles, the seven major chakras, as well as traditional and non-traditional sacred symbols. You’ll also learn the fascinating story of Reiki’s rebirth in popularity and about the lives of its most influential practitioners.

2. Standup Comedy

Being funny is one of the hardest skills in history to master, this course in Standup Comedy is a great place to start. Created by a practicing standup comedian, this course will help you understand the culture and unwritten rules of standup, information you won’t get anywhere else. From writing to performing jokes, you’ll learn how to build a comedy act from scratch with plenty of instructive examples. Trickier topics like improvisation and staying confident are also covered in this comprehensive and fun course.

3. The Minimalist Lifestyle

We’ve all thought to ourselves how much we’d like to declutter our lives, if only we had the time! This August, why not take Alison’s Minimalist Lifestyle course and simplify your life? This transformative self-help course will show you how to live your life more joyfully and with more freedom by learning that “less is more.” By paring back your lifestyle, you’ll reduce your stress levels, free up more money and find yourself living a simpler and happier life.

 

4. Floristry

August is the perfect time to indulge a passion for floristry. With everything in bloom around you, it’s a great opportunity to try out the practical knowledge you’ll learn by taking this Diploma in Floristry. From plant varieties to the dos-and-don’ts of flower arranging, this course will teach you everything you need to know, whether you’re just an amateur lover of flowers or have your sights set on a new career!

5. Become a Wine Expert

For many people, wine is one of those things that you’d like to know about but have no idea where to begin. This Introductory Course on Wines is the perfect place to start! From production and blending to fermentation and storage, this free course gives you the grounding in winemaking that you need to help you make sense of the thousands of different grape varieties and wine regions. The course also provides practical information on decanting wine at home and the correct temperatures different wines should be stored at.

6. Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency isn’t just a fascinating subject to learn about, it’s also a potentially lucrative passive income stream for those in the know. This Cryptocurrency Masterclass will teach you everything you need to know to get a foothold in the market and start investing. You’ll learn how to read and navigate the market and how to use the various financial exchanges and brokerages to increase your working capital and net worth.

7. Urban Gardening

While the sun is shining, it’s time to get out into the garden and start learning! This fascinating course on Urban Gardening will allow you turn any patch of land, no matter how small, into a thriving green space. Whether you want to grow flowers or vegetables, this course will teach you how to create an attractive and sustainable garden that will give you hours of joy.

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