Howdy Cynthia,
I don't know of any online or CD courses that I actually like (although I'm working on one for just that reason
)
But... we have a new book coming out from O'Reilly that is a beginning Java book (Head First Java), designed as a course rather than a text-based book. It's too hard to explain (it's not your typical technical book), but if you'd like to try it out, you're exactly the target audience we're aiming for, and we can send you the draft copy for free (the printed book won't be out for another 6-8 weeks). All we ask is that you give it a try and if you like it, give us a quote we can use (you know, about how fabulous it was and how you became rich and famous as a direct result of reading it, that sort of thing...
We have a certification book as well, but it assumes you already know some Java, so if you want to start from the beginning, I think this one will get you started. And it's fun
If anybody else out there is a programmer completely new to Java (and not already a hotshot C++ programmer) and would like to evaluate the book, please write to me directly (rather than posting here). We have only a very limited number of evaluations we can give out, so we can't promise anything, but a bunch of pages and puzzles from the book will be up here on javaranch soon.
cheers,
Kathy
perpetrator, "Head First Java" , O'Reilly
May 2003
(with Bert Bates, co-conspirator)
(and the Java 2 cert book from McGraw-Hill, the title of which I can never remember)
cowgirl@wickedlysmart.com