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Need advice on choosing a Java Course

 
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Hi all,

I’m considering doing a evening course in advanced Java development to keep my skills sharp. I’ve come across two Advanced Java courses where the course content differs.

One course looks to be about using java practically where as the other appears to be more about advanced topics in the language. My current level of java is about enough to pass the Associate certificate exam and my current position isn’t really giving me much exposure to as much java as I was hoping .

At the moment I'm working as a full stack web developer but doing very little actual coding.

Course summaries are below, hopefully someone can give me a few pointers to which one would be more relevant \ advantageous (I've put a tick beside areas I've touched on in the past)

Course 1
  Files and Streams
✓ Collections
✓ Generic Collections
  Java 8 Lambdas and Streams
✓ Generic Classes and Methods
  Concurrency
  Networking
✓ Databases and JDBC
  Web Applications1
  Web Applications2
✓ JAX-WS

Course 2
  Aliases and Cloning
✓ Inheritance
  Polymorphism
✓ Abstract Classes
✓ Interfaces
  Enums
✓ Packages
✓ Nested
✓ Classes
✓ Inner Classes
  Reflection
✓ Variable Scope within Classes
  Iterators
✓ Ordered Lists
✓ Dictionaries/Maps
  Sets
  Internal and external libraries
  Design of libraries
  Library implementation & packaging
  Error handling
  Boundary Conditions
  Unit testing
  Object decomposition
✓ Model-View-Controller
  Threads
✓ Introduction to relational databases
  Access & manipulation of relational database
  Optimisation & efficiency
  Client considerations
  User interface
  Installers
 
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If you're not a beginner, both courses look a little disappointing, looking at the topics they could be about instead. For instance, in the first course, the topics of concurrency, and networking would be much more interesting than the topic of collections.

Are these courses offered by different institutes? Are they set up the same way? How long do the courses take? What is your own take on these two?
 
Kevin Mckeon
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Stephan van Hulst wrote:If you're not a beginner, both courses look a little disappointing, looking at the topics they could be about instead. For instance, in the first course, the topics of concurrency, and networking would be much more interesting than the topic of collections.

Are these courses offered by different institutes? Are they set up the same way? How long do the courses take? What is your own take on these two?



Im not a beginner but my programming knowledge is a bit dis-jointed. For example, I've done personal projects on reading in and analyzing large text files via streams but I've never used Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstract Classes, Interfaces, Enums, etc except in theory.

The courses are in different institutes, both cost about €1200 ($1481) both are a 3 hourly class a week and run for 11 weeks.

At first I was hopeful but now I think that the courses will be too easy. the "Advanced" title only seems to me to means that it is a little more advanced than absolute beginner. On the other hand. Im doing very little Java in my current job and need to keep it fresh in my mind  
 
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As you told you are not a beginner,  course 2 would be best one for you. However find some coaching center who train you by real time projects. Becaz you can learn java from projects not from boring  theory classes.
 
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Welcome to the Ranch
 
Campbell Ritchie
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I am not sure how much difference there is between the content, but there is a big difference in how it is presented. The second course may cover the same material, but it has been subdivided into many more tiny parts. It has ordered lists, dictionary/map and sets where the first course has Collections. I cannot tell from what you posted which has more practical material and which has more theory.
I would worry about any course teaching Threads or Dictionary. Creating Threads is often regarded as a low‑level activity and nobody has used the Dictionary class for ages. So I think there is a risk of that course being out of date. Find out where generics appears in the second course.
 
Campbell Ritchie
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€1200 is no slight sum if the course isn't any good. Have you phoned to ask for more details? How does that material match your current skill set? Can you get more practice by other methods, e.g. creating projects, or frequent posting on this sort of forum?
 
Kevin Mckeon
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:€1200 is no slight sum if the course isn't any good. Have you phoned to ask for more details? How does that material match your current skill set? Can you get more practice by other methods, e.g. creating projects, or frequent posting on this sort of forum?



Im beginning to feel now that neither course would be worth doing.. There is a huge difference between the courses I'm talking about and the beginner / intermediate / advance course I have found online :

Beginner - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPI70
Intermediate - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPM70
Advanced - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPM70

(This course is somewhere in the USA, but I'm just using it as a comparison)

Also a 3 hour lecture for 11 weeks isn't a lot of class time (bearing in mind not all material will be new). I would say I've touched on about one third of the material from each of the evening courese

Maybe my €1200 would be better spent on a solid book, a laptop upgrade, a few concentrated Udemy courses and self study plan/project that I implement over 12 weeks or so.
 
Kevin Mckeon
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Kevin Mckeon wrote:
Beginner - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPI70
Intermediate - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPM70
Advanced - https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?loc=NYMG&ccode=XJPM70



Typo - The Advanced course is here:
https://www.onlc.com/outline.asp?ccode=XJPV70
 
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Kevin Mckeon wrote:Maybe my €1200 would be better spent on a solid book, a laptop upgrade, a few concentrated Udemy courses and self study plan/project that I implement over 12 weeks or so.


That's certainly how I would do it.  Look in https://coderanch.com/c/books for some ideas.
 
Campbell Ritchie
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Kevin Mckeon wrote:. . .
Beginner . . .
Intermediate . . .
Advanced . . .

Those courses do look better. Unfortunately they include things like RMI and threads (rather than Executors) which make me wonder whether they are quite up to date. There is a little overlap between the beginning and intermediate courses.

Who needs a laptop upgrade? As long as it works at all, you can probably use it.
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