My programming skills have greatly improved in the following ways:
I have a greater understanding of functions and if/ else statements. I feel like these are advanced skills that I have a good understanding of with now. Learning how to use loops and a seperate data javascript were really helpful for making codes more clean and understandable. During coding, I also learned the importance of noting everything that I am doing in my code. It feels like I can show that I understand, but I can also see more clearly how my code works with the addition of more and more layers and variabels. I really improved on how to use class= or id= to better style in my css or on my website.
I need to work on the following to improve my programming skills:
I need to learn the process of redirecting pages or inputting data. I also want to understand how the browser reads data from the client or the server bettter. There are times where I understand that there is something I need to do, but I just don't know where to start. That was how I was when I was using the template for my website. I want to better understand the reasoning for innerHTML and document.get.
I can do the WODs without looking at the screencast solutions first.
The WODs are satisfying to work on because they do well in corrrelating with the labs. When I'm doing the WODs, I feel like I have to figure it out, but I also have an idea what I am doing. I could see the progression for each new WOD and saw how it was improving on previous code. It did a good job tying to our assignment or tying to other WODs.
The labs have helped me to learn and I am able to complete them with confidence.
The labs are pretty advanced sometimes. There were times where I would start on the lab and then we would work on it in class. But after another class or a week later, there are changes in the lab. I copy and paste the labs to my own word document, so I can see the differences that are made to labs when it changes the order of the excercises or the instructions. It makes it confusing when following in class and working on the lab on my own. However, I feel like that professor Port explains the lessons well and I understand how they relate to the work of the lab.
I feel ready I am ready to work on the next stage of complexity in programming (building small web applications like Assignment 1).
I feel like I started with a really good base on my Assignment 1. However, Labs 12 and 13 were very confusing and I didn't feel like I could refer to them, when I need to do work on my web application. It's good at showing a simple example of servers, but I don't feel like I understand it enough to be able to use it in my assignment. I didn't understand how we would know some of the node(?) (or I believe it is from node) notation or commands.
I think the class can be improved to help my learning in the following ways:
The biggest problem I had was not being understand the instructions of the lab, and its changes making it more confusing,.
These are things that work really well for my learning in this class:
I think allowing us to use a template really helped push me to do more work on my website. I think just having an example to refer to has been really helpful to understand how a website should work. I realize that there is the problem of many students just copying. However, like the WODs, I think having different code to refer allows me to put them together and to understand how they work in correlation. I look at the code and try to connect what certain variables are doing, why is a new variable or function being defined, or what happens when combining the code. I think that's where I feel the most progress.