Do you want to learn to make iPhone or Android apps? If so then you’re in luck, as the internet is full of 100% free-to-take programming courses that can get you well on your way. This article will list 25 of these, and will tell you a little bit about each.
This article includes two types of resources for iOS programming. Full-fledged online courses, on the one hand (which we came across while researching an earlier article on free online learning resources), and a handful of Objective C tutorials and resources, on the other. I admit the distinction is somewhat superfluous, however, it seems that knowledge of Objective C is a prerequisite in most of the online courses, and we felt that we needed to include that in the article as well.
This post started out as a simple list of links that I was collecting for my own use (someday it will happen), and I don’t presume to be anything like an expert on the subject. The list then kind of of just grew when I thought I would turn it into an article. It would have been much more value added if the various items were ranked by some sort of programming level (beginner to advanced), but it isn’t, as I am not the best person to judge this sort of thing. I hope it is useful in some way.
1. Full fledged online courses
1. iOS Programming Ros-Hulman Fall 2010 By Dave Fisher
- This one might be a good place to start off with
- Video podcast
- Course offered by Rose Hulman Institute of Technology
- This course also available here, in a more structured presentation
2. iPad and iPhone App Development (Fall 2011)
- First given in 2011
- Offered for free from Stanford University as video/audio lectures on iTunes
- Geared towards programmers. Prerequisite:C language and programming experience.
3. iPad and iPhone Application Development (HD) by Paul Hegarty (2011)
- First given in 2011, Updated for iOS 5
- First given in 2011
- Offered for free from Stanford University as video/audio lectures on iTunes
- Geared towards programmers. Prerequisite:C language and programming experience.
4. Developing Apps for iOS (DS) by Paul Hegarty (2010)
- First given in 2010, Updated for iOS 5
- Offered for free from Stanford University as video/audio lectures on iTunes
- Geared towards programmers. Prerequisite:C language and programming experience.
5. iPhone Application Development (Winter 2010) by Alan Cannistraro and Josh Shaffer
- First given in 2010
- Offered for free from Stanford University as video/audio lectures on iTunes
- Geared towards programmers. Prerequisite:C language and programming experience.
6. iPhone Application Programming (Spring 2009) by Evan Doll and Alan Cannistraro
- First given in 2009
- Offered for free from Stanford University as video/audio lectures on iTunes
- Geared towards programmers. Prerequisite:C language and programming experience.
7. Harvard Extension School’s Computer Science E-76: Building Mobile Applications
Lectures consist of slides, source code, and video, and cover building apps for both Android and iOS. To quote “Students learn how to write native apps for Android using Eclipse and the Android SDK, how to write native apps for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads using Xcode and the iOS SDK, and how to write web apps for both platforms.”
8. iPhone App Development – from Alison
This courses is designed for the average learner (i.e. high school education level) and has an estimated duration of 10-15 hours. This course consists of 5 modules (4 modules of video content, while the 5th is an assessment module at the end). Note that this course is also originally published by Stanford, although it is a different course from any of the above listed Stanford courses.
9. iPhone Application Programming ’11 by Prof. Jan Borchers
- Offered for free from RWTH Aachen University.
- Consists of video lectures offered via iTunes.
- Note that there is an earlier (2010) version of the same course that you could check out.
10. Advanced iPhone Development – Fall 2010 by Dr. Brad Larson
An advanced iPhone development course that covers a number of the more interesting frameworks in iOS (e.g. Cocoa development, OpenGL ES, multithreading, and iPad specific development). You will need to have iOS development experience; this is not for beginners. This course is offered from Madison Area Technical College and is offered for free in the form of video lectures.Note that there is an earlier (Spring 2010) version of the same course that you could check out.
11. HackRocket.com – 12 week intensive training bootcamp
This has not launched yet as of this writing, but promises all-online courses to teach people with basic knowledge of object-oriented programming how to build iOS apps from scratch.
12. How to Prototype Web and Mobile Apps in 30 Minutes
- Not a programming course per se, but a course on prototyping; specifically (to quote) “designing and testing interactive user interfaces using Apple Keynote or Microsoft Powerpoint + Keynotopia User Interface Libraries.”
13. App Development for Beginners
- Learn how to make iOS applications. Video lectures from My Bringback.com, who have a good range of free tutorials on offer, and whom we m we also mention below (#23 below).
14. iPhone App Design: How To Make A Top Selling iPhone App With Great Design
We mentioned Udemy previously as one of the best online education resources on the internet. This course consists of 10 video lectures as well as a downloadable sample project. This course has a focus on getting your to stand out from the app crowd by focusing on great app design. It is not mainly a programming course
15. How To Design An iPad App With A Custom UI
- This is another course from Tope A (founder, App Design Vault), whose other course that is very similar to this one is listed above at #14. Like that first one, this course is focused on the getting the kind of good design that can distinguish your app from the competition.
2. Objective C tutorials and resources
As mentioned above the distinction between the tutorials below as ‘objective C tutorials and the courses above are somewhat superfluous, as all courses in the end are teaching objective C programming. Yet some of the courses above require prior knowledge or objective C programming, and some are design or prototyping courses. This section, therefore, will list objective C tutorials and/or introduction to programming courses as such.
16. Beej’s Guide to C Programming
An introduction to C programing for beginners
17. Building iOS Apps from Scratch, from Design the Code
This one geared for first time coders. It explains objective C, the Cocoa framework, and other basics.
18. Apple offers an Objective C Course
Note that you can download as PDF (top right under the search box). Also check out Apple’s iOS Developer’s Library. Also check out the various videos from the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC).
19. BecomeAnXcoder – a free ebook for starting with Cocoa using Objective-C
Download a free ebook on Objective C, available in many languages.
20. DJAvuPixel.com – Video Tutorials and free ebook to learn Objective C for iPhone and mac OSX
Includes a downloadable ebook and video tutorials
21. Objective C Programming Tutorials – “The New Boston”
Video Tutorials. I found this while scouring UC Berkeley’s webcast site for objective C tutorials.
22. Learning iOS Development Screencasts by AzamSharp
A series of 37 video tutorials (which somehow are not laid out in the correct order)
23. Learn Objective C Programming Tutorials from mybringback.com
More video tutorials, this time from mybringback.com, who actually have a lot of high quality free tutorials (see here).
24. CS 107: Programming Paradigms – from Standford University
This course on Udemy introduces several programming languages, including C, Assembly, C++, Concurrent Programming Scheme, and Python.
25. Mastering iPhone programming – Lite, from EDUmobile
A quick video course on Objective C offered from EDUmobile. The ‘lite’ in the title refers to the fact that this consists of the first chapters of a larger, paid course.
Do you know of other notable resources that weren’t included? Please share them in the comments section below.
