If you are a Java developer who has heard about, but not yet mastered, Lambda expressions, which are a key new feature of Java SE 8 (JDK 8), a new hands-on MOOC, starting this month, will help you get up to speed.

Put simply, Lambda provides a simple way to pass functionality as an argument to another method, such as what action should be taken when someone clicks a button, or how to sort a set of names. Lambda expressions enable you to do this, to treat functionality as method argument, or code as data.

According to Oracle's video introducing the 3-week free online course that starts on July 14:

When Java SE 8 was released last year, it included a number of significant new features. In fact JDK 8 is the biggest change in the platform since its launch nearly 20 years ago. The syntax of the language now supports Lambda expressions and class libraries now contains the new Streams API.

To help experienced Java developers take advantage of these new features Simon Ritter, Head of Java Technology Evangelism at Oracle, has put together a course on the Oracle Learning Library platform that sets out to familiarize you with functional programming in Java.

It's main focus is 

The course, which is expected to require 3-4 hours effort per week, consists of three components:

• Video "lectures" which are annotated and include a voice-over and closed captions.
  
  
• Homework: where you put what you've learned in the week into practice. The homework is not "graded" and students are encourage  to write additional code beyond what is required and to post questions, comments and to share code,on the course forum.
  
  
• Quizzes: to measure your understanding of the material presented in the week and the homework. This isn't a test of memorization, and we encourage you to look up the answers and/or write some code to provide yourself with the answer. The point of the quiz is to ask you questions and push your thought process.

A course completion certificated will be awarded to those who complete the quizzes with a score of 70% or more.

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Apply Lambdas to everyday problems
  
  
• Convert anonymous classes to Lambda expressions
  
  
• Apply the Streams API to solve problems of sorting, identifying
  the most and least, and reducing duplicates
  
  
• Determine when to apply Lambdas (and when not to!)
  
  
• Use Collectors
  
  
• Improve performance with parallel streams
  
  
• Debug Lambda expressions

You'll need a (free) Oracle account in order to enroll.

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