Programming Java

Java for Beginners

Build a strong foundation in Java programming with Professor Anthony Owens

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Quick Course Facts
18
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
18
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
6.5
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the Java for Beginners Course

Java for Beginners is a practical Programming course designed to help new developers build confidence from the first line of code through a complete small application. Build a strong foundation in Java programming with Professor Anthony Owens as you learn the core concepts, tools, and habits needed to write clear, reliable beginner Java programs.

Start Programming With Java Step By Step

  • Learn how to set up Java, write your first program, and understand how Java applications run.
  • Practice essential Programming concepts including variables, data types, expressions, strings, numbers, and console input.
  • Build control flow, methods, arrays, ArrayLists, and object-oriented Java skills through beginner-friendly lessons.
  • Apply debugging, testing, file handling, exceptions, and project-building techniques in a final capstone application.

Java for Beginners teaches the fundamentals of Java Programming through structured lessons, guided examples, and a complete beginner capstone project.

This course begins with the essentials: setting up Java, writing your first program, and understanding what happens when Java code runs. From there, you will move into the foundations of Programming, including variables, data types, basic expressions, strings, numbers, and user input from the console.

As the course progresses, Professor Anthony Owens guides you through decision-making with conditions, repeating work with loops, and organizing programs with methods. You will learn how scope, parameters, and return values help keep code readable and reusable, giving you practical habits that support stronger software development.

You will also work with data using arrays and ArrayLists, then move into object-oriented Java with classes, objects, constructors, fields, encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, and abstraction. These lessons help you understand not just how to write Java syntax, but how to structure programs in a way that is easier to maintain and expand.

By the end of the course, you will handle errors with exceptions, read and write files, debug and test beginner Java programs, and build a small Java application from start to finish. After completing Java for Beginners, you will have a strong foundation in Java programming and the confidence to continue learning, practicing, and building real Programming projects.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Getting Started

2 lessons

Lesson 1: Setting Up Java and Writing Your First Program

20 min Preview
In this lesson, students prepare a working Java development environment and learn what each tool does. They install or verify the Java Development Kit, confirm Java is available from the terminal, cho…

Lesson 2: Understanding How Java Programs Run

18 min
In this lesson, students learn what actually happens when a Java program runs, from writing source code to compiling bytecode and executing it on the Java Virtual Machine. The focus is on the beginner…

Java Foundations

2 lessons

Lesson 3: Variables, Data Types, and Basic Expressions

22 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java stores and works with information using variables, primitive data types, strings, constants, and basic expressions. Professor Anthony Owens explains how to choo…

Lesson 4: Working with Strings, Numbers, and Console Input

21 min
In this lesson, learners practice three everyday building blocks of Java programs: working with text, doing basic numeric calculations, and reading input from the console. Professor Anthony Owens intr…

Control Flow

2 lessons

Lesson 5: Using Conditions to Make Decisions

20 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java programs make decisions using boolean expressions, if , else if , and else . The focus is on writing readable conditional logic that chooses different paths bas…

Lesson 6: Loops for Repeating Work

22 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java loops let a program repeat work without copying the same statements over and over. The lesson introduces while , do-while , and for loops, explains when each on…

Program Structure

2 lessons

Lesson 7: Writing Methods to Organize Code

23 min
In this lesson, students learn how methods help organize Java programs into small, named pieces of behavior. The lesson focuses on writing beginner-friendly methods inside a class, calling those metho…

Lesson 8: Understanding Scope, Parameters, and Return Values

19 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java controls where variables can be used, how values move into methods through parameters, and how methods send results back with return values. Professor Anthony O…

Working with Data

2 lessons

Lesson 9: Arrays and Indexed Data

22 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java arrays store multiple values of the same type under one variable name. The focus is on creating arrays, reading and updating elements by index, understanding ze…

Lesson 10: ArrayLists and Flexible Collections

21 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java's ArrayList class solves a common limitation of arrays: fixed size. The lesson focuses on creating ArrayLists, adding and removing items, reading values by inde…

Object-Oriented Java

4 lessons

Lesson 11: Introduction to Classes and Objects

24 min
In this lesson, students learn what classes and objects are, why Java organizes programs around them, and how to create simple objects from a class. The lesson focuses on the practical beginner-level …

Lesson 12: Constructors, Fields, and Encapsulation

23 min
In this lesson, Professor Anthony Owens introduces three core building blocks of object-oriented Java: fields, constructors, and encapsulation. Learners see how objects store state, how constructors c…

Lesson 13: Inheritance and Polymorphism Basics

24 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java uses inheritance to let one class build on another, and how polymorphism lets code work with related objects through a shared parent type. The lesson focuses on…

Lesson 14: Interfaces and Practical Abstraction

20 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java interfaces support practical abstraction: writing code against a capability rather than a specific class. The lesson introduces interface syntax, implementation…

Reliable Programs

2 lessons

Lesson 15: Handling Errors with Exceptions

21 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java uses exceptions to handle errors without crashing unpredictably or burying failure cases in messy conditional logic. The focus is on reading exception messages,…

Lesson 16: Reading and Writing Files

22 min
In this lesson, students learn how Java programs read data from files and write results back to files using the modern java.nio.file API. The focus is on practical beginner patterns: understanding fil…

Development Skills

1 lesson

Lesson 17: Debugging and Testing Beginner Java Programs

20 min
In this lesson, students learn how to find, understand, and fix problems in beginner Java programs. Professor Anthony Owens introduces a practical debugging workflow: read the error message, reproduce…

Capstone Project

1 lesson

Lesson 18: Building a Small Java Application from Start to Finish

25 min
In this capstone lesson, learners build a small console-based Java application from start to finish. The project brings together variables, conditionals, loops, methods, arrays or collections, classes…
About Your Instructor
Professor Anthony Owens

Professor Anthony Owens

Professor Anthony Owens guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.