Learning how to code can be a tricky business, especially if you are trying to do it on your own. While there are books and other resources available, they’re often quite a slog to get through — with some even acting as barriers in the learning process. Another drawback that comes with these is that they’re rather rigid when it comes troubleshooting mistakes you may make along the way. To remedy this, Upskew, the company that brought Android users the interactive code editor Encode, have developed an app that will teach people how to code at their own pace. Knowin is an educational iOS app that condenses the fundamentals of coding into consumable nuggets of content that’s perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle.

How does the app work?

What’s especially useful about Knowin is that you can learn at your own pace. The app gives you a series of lessons that help you develop the skills necessary to start coding, no matter what your background in tech is (or lack thereof). But regardless of how helpful the app is, that doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t look for additional resources to help you along the way especially if you’re a beginner. Leading learning marketplace Udemy has a variety of web development courses available for beginners that will help you study the basics in HTML5, jQuery, and Bootstrap 4. And while the app provides lessons on all of these, the different perspective that some of the Udemy courses will approach these subjects will help you learn much faster and gain extra insights. Knowin also features modules on more advanced coding languages such as Python, JavaScript, Swift, CSS, and SQL. These are perfect if you want to start building websites. And best of all, the app gives you the option of picking which lessons to tackle and when making your learning experience as customizable as possible.

The app gauges your progress via mini-challenges, giving you instant feedback along the way — treating the lessons almost like a game. This is one of the app’s biggest strengths, as research published on Science Direct has found that tracking your progress and performance via leaderboards and challenges increases both competence and autonomy. This makes for more motivated learners, and at the crucial early stages of the learning process, motivation tends to go a long way.

Another aspect where Knowin differs from the rest is that their lessons provide users with examples of how the concepts they’re learning have been used in real-world settings. The concretization of abstract concepts like this can be a big help, as knowing the direct applications of the concepts you’re learning will give it much-needed context. Knowin also helps you think horizontally, as it gives you opportunities to tweak pre-existing concepts with interactive summaries — this way, you aren’t just memorizing concepts, you are learning how they work from the ground up. This allows you to be more creative and flexible when needed.

Summary

Overall, Knowin is a good place to start your coding journey. It covers the basics at your own pace, letting you pause and resume as needed. It provides you with ample challenges that test what you’ve already learned, while motivating you in the process. If you want to go deeper into coding, other apps can be supplementary to the content you’ve been learning from through Knowin. One great example is DevKit. DevKit is the only portable application that helps users code, configure, and test applications they’ve created for mobile devices. Applications like this will take the foundations built from Knowin and push them even further.

For anyone looking to get started, Knowin is available to download for free via the Apple Store.

Price: Free