My programming skills have greatly improved in the following ways:
Having come from a few of C-like languages like Java, C, and C++, JavaScript was fairly familiar at the start. I enjoyed how much more forgiving in the syntax it is compared to those other languages. I’ve come to enjoy programming more through how quickly I can develop my ideas into working code. Outside of the homework, I’ve been using what I’ve learned about the all-JavaScript stack we’ve been learning to make a few personal projects. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what skills have improved for me (although they certainly exist), but I would say overall the biggest impact the class has had on my programming has been reigniting passion introducing me to a world where the development time can be very quick compared to the more strict, compiled languages.
I need to work on the following to improve my programming skills:
I need to plan out my logic more before I start coding. I tend to have a general idea in my head and I jump right into coding and inevitably run into a problem at some point and sometimes might have to rewrite significant portions of code.
I can do the WODs without looking at the screencast solutions first.
I can generally do this. The timed nature of it can make me think of the most obvious but sometimes least efficient way of doing things first but usually I can get it done.
The labs have helped me to learn and I am able to complete them with confidence.
The labs have been good for illustrating certain points. I can always complete them with confidence but I do wish that they would be more clear about what should be provided in the actual document submitted for grading. A simple ‘Paste your code for x here’ instruction when code should be shown would be a good way to achieve this.
I feel ready I am ready to work on the next stage of complexity in programming (building small web applications like Assignment 1).
I am very excited to try new things. I’ve been experimenting with implementing databases and user profiles for sites and it is really fun.
I think the class can be improved to help my learning in the following ways:
As someone with some knowledge of programming coming into the class, I was a little surprised at the early pace of the course. I think it would be very helpful to spend more time painting the broad picture first before delving into detailed discussions of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or client-server relationships in general. Another thing that would help might be to make more of an on-going project that gets complexity continuously added as we learn new things, that way we can constantly track our own learning.
These are things that work really well for my learning in this class:
The assignment and lab activities are very helpful for me in tying ideas together. Assignment1 was very fun for me and it opened my mind up to trying lots of different techniques.