Programming for Absolute Beginners

One of the questions I get asked lot is { our kid | son | daughter | parent | granny | dog | add own tag } (* delete appropriately) is wanting to start programming what’s the best place to start this thing called .Net?

I while back I posted about the Ramp Up which are free community-based learning course, but for people with a little background, but wouldn’t it be good if there was a site which started you off from scratch?

In my usual Monday morning blog read, I came across a post from Scott Hanselman about the MSDN Beginner Developer Center. The what I hear you cry! It was new to me, so it might be something that has missed you by as well.

This is an outline of the course contents for the Web Track

Introduction to Visual Web Developer

> Introduction to Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition

> Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Feature Tour

Introduction to Web Development

> Introduction to the Web as a Platform

> Introduction to CSS

> Introduction to JavaScript

Introduction to Programming Languages

> Introduction to the Visual Basic Programming Language

> Introduction to the C# Programming Language

Bits & Bytes

> Bits & Bytes: Lesson 1 Problem Solving in Life and Technology

> Bits & Bytes: Lesson 2 Things, Things, and More Things

> Bits & Bytes: Lesson 3 The Data Game

> Bits & Bytes: Lesson 4 Computer IQ

> Bits & Bytes: Lesson 5 Life before Mice

Introduction to ASP.NET

> Introduction to ASP.NET

> Visual Basic: Beginning Website Development Module 1

> Visual C#: Beginning Website Development Module 1

Absolute Beginner Series in Visual Basic

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 1: Getting Started

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 2: Creating a User Interface

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 3: Events and Postback

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 4: Web application state

Absolute Beginner Series in Visual C#

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 1: Getting Started

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 2: Creating a User Interface

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 3: Events and Postback

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 4: Web application state

ASP.NET

> Visual Basic: Beginning Website Development Module 2

> Visual C#: Beginning Website Development Module 2

Absolute Beginner Series in Visual Basic

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 5: Debugging and Tracing

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 6: Style sheets and Master Pages

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 7: Databinding

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 8: GridView and FormView controls

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 9: Membership and Login controls

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 10: Configuring, Building and Deploying

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lessons 11 – 14: Building a Quiz engine

Absolute Beginner Series in Visual C#

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 5: Debugging and Tracing

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 6: Style sheets and Master Pages

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 7: Databinding

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 8: GridView and FormView controls

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 9: Membership and Login controls

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lesson 10: Configuring, Building and Deploying

> Absolute Beginner's Series Lessons 11 – 14: Building a Quiz engine

If you want more information then pop along to the site, or have a read of Scott’s blog which gives more details.

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Programming for Absolute Beginners