Free Online UML Course From The Ground Up

Using the Unified Modeling Language (aka UML) is an area where I know lots of developers are interested in but don't really know how to get started. It's a very dense area and it's extremely easy to get in lost in the various types of diagrams available in the language. I've searched around for tutorials myself, but the hits I usually get are the "first in a series" that never seem to have a second or third entry!

Well today I was using my UML modeler of choice, Poseidon for UML by Gentleware, and decided to go to their site to see if they had an update for their current edition (they did). On reaching the homepage, I was extremely excited to see that they have partnered with Synergy Learning to provide an incredibly comprehensive online course entitled Introduction to Object-Oriented Modeling and UML.

I went ahead and clicked into the course to see if it was the usual high-level stuff and was blown away by how detailed the course is. Again, there's no registration and no cost for the course. Not only do they cover virtually every area of UML and approaching UML, but they offer the course as PDFs, PodCasts, videos, and downloadable source code. Here are the high-level areas covered:

• Overview (how to approach Object-Oriented Modeling, intro to the Poseidon for UML IDE)
• Structural Elements (modeling object, classes, instances, etc.)
• Behavior (modeling class interactions)
• Inheritance (modeling base and sub classes)
• Advanced OO Concepts (modeling relationships, packages, etc.)
• Best Practices (naming conventions, commenting, etc.)

If you're a complete novice to UML, this looks to be your one-stop shop. Even for intermediate and advanced UML users, there looks to be something to learn. Gentleware even offers a free Community Edition of Poseidon for non-commercial use if you're just curious about learning. I've used UML to do class diagrams, use cases and light class interactions, but there's so much I don't know about the language. I will say that if properly built in to your development practices, UML can really be a life saver. It helps me better visualize my domain and the relationships between my classes.

In case you're wondering, I wasn't able to find anything with regard to whether or not this is a short-term offering. Have a look!