Computer Programming Courses don't teach about the Backend
Hi KhanAcademy,
I'm a huge fan of your computer programming courses. You've done a marvelous job on all of it.
My issue with it is that, while giving a great overview of the frontend, when someone who has never done any programming before does these courses, it makes it feel like the frontend is all there is.
The only backend language you teach (putting aside the fact that you can us JS for a backend with NodeJS) is SQL, and when a beginner comes across this, it is very difficult to see where it fits in to the bigger picture.
Don't get me wrong, the SQL course is great, but it doesn't really explain where SQL is in the bigger picture.
As a beginning programmer, I had no idea what the difference between the frontend and the backend was, and I had no idea what lay beyond HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
I'm not necessarily asking that you teach courses on languages like PHP, Python, C++, or other backend languages. I would much appreciate it, however, if you had a course or even just a few lessons on how the web is structured.
It would have been MUCH easier to get where I am now if KA had showed me the bigger, grand-scale picture of how development on the web works, instead of just showing me how to write frontend code.
And by the way, I've been trying to teach others about building web applications, with the grand-scale mindset I'm talking about, and all the materials I have made so far can be found here: https://naclcaleb.github.io/Webcourse.
Please sign in to leave a comment.