Anyway we can improve this js series?

I agree with the above statements, I'm having a hard time following this course. The videos are very long, with very short challenges. I'd prefer shorter videos with a fewer concepts, then longer challenges to make sure I understood everything. I see there is a new JS course, but this one is still part of the requirements for Rails Development track. Any chance of swapping out this course for the JavaScript Basics in the Rails Development track?

Hi Shane

Great news! We're re-doing that Course, and we've started here with JavaScript Basics. Dave McFarland is adding another Course soon as well.

Thanks for being a Treehouse Student!

Cheers, Ryan

I want to reiterate the point Jonathan Risinger is making about this course: it is perfect as a technical overview of the JavaScript language. What it is not, is a method to learn how to program (i.e. diving in without prior experience with coding).

Anyone starting their programming adventure... steer clear, but anybody wanting to thoroughly understand all the specifics and quirks of the language will find this extremely useful.

Jim does a good job, it is well known among computer scientists that javascript is a quirky language to say the least. Learning programming languages takes a different mindset and a dedication to logic. HTML and CSS are not programming languages and are intended to be used in a visual way, which is why it may feel more intuitive when learning those things. That stuff is very cool and the people who work on standardizing all that stuff do a great job at making the internet something everyone can contribute to.

There are many visual applications a good programmer can use to get an intuition to learning a programming language like javascript, but what Jim does in this series is present the language, this is how every programming language is learned formally and I see no reason to change that. It is necessary if you want to be able to do things that are correct and logically sound. Programs must be logically sound, they are equivalent to a mathematical proof. If there is an error the program breaks and it starts to spit out false values. That is really really bad if important systems are depending on the programming giving out correct information, for example an airplane's auto pilot.

The course is not a course on applications, its a course on the language. If you want is to be able to make cool things happen without learning the structure of the language I would recommend learning jquery, its fun and it is all you need for most design applications and can be applied right away:

http://jquery.com/

Code academy has a bunch of drills to help you if drills are all you desire which are a really good place to get an intuition:

http://www.codecademy.com/

Here are drills for java (very different and not related to javascript except for the c style syntax) that are similar to what you would do in an intro course to computer science:

http://codingbat.com/java

Here are more drills including stuff with C and C++

http://turingscraft.com/index.php

If you decide to become a programmer you will need to learn a lot of languages, if for nothing else, just because the market for languages changes all the time. Javascript might be hot right now, but 10 years down the line in could be replaced. I do drills all the time, like I am practicing an instrument, it helps a lot.

Don't torture yourself with programming languages if you find its not your cup of tea, there are a lot of important things good designers and artists do. Many of humanities greatest achievements are related to art. I'm sure I'm stating the obvious. Getting good at those skills is hard enough.

I say all this because there is generally no short cut to learning programming languages. It gets easier to learn new ones after your first few but it comes with a lot of practice and a desire to learn mathematics. Also don't get me wrong, I think Treehouse needs some improvement, I would like to see them do a lot more with the Canvas for instance, and their course on Angular is a bit of a mess. I think for their rails projects they could spend more time setting up each chapter and explaining a plan, some goals, and some software engineering concepts, before Jason just starts spitting out a hundred lines of rails code at top speed. But I digress and this post is doing more than it needed to do.

Use the other resources, getting good at computer science takes a lot of different perspectives and years of your life. The whole point of all this was that learning programming languages takes time and is tough at first, if you stick with it you'll get used to it.

I felt the same way when I first started on JavaScript Foundations and I to recommend the new Javascript Basics.

I am using a free web-based book in conjunction with this course and it's helping me a lot. The author explains the concepts with metaphors and in the context of stories which helps me. http://eloquentjavascript.net/

There's room for improvement, but I think this series is good and informative. I am confident the notes I am taking will come in handy when attempting to write a js plug-in.

I started reading "A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half [Kindle Edition]". It comes with free access to an online interactive website to practice each lesson. The chapters are very short and concise, introducing new concepts gradually.

I think Nikki is on point. I had learned a bit of Ruby from a book, so this course is great in reenforcing concepts that I've already learned, but adding an initial video to this course that summarizes what we're learning and why would be very helpful to wrap my brain around the bigger picture. We keep hearing about the "powerful tools", but without the context of how they would be implemented in a real life scenario, it's challenging for someone who is new to programming to gain full comprehension.

Also, it would be great to learn another output for our javascript code than console.log. I haven't done more than skim over the components of the JavaScript Basics course, so I don't know if this is something which is taught in that course. My problem is that without project files, I am trying to follow along with codepen, and it doesn't seem to get along well with the console.

I completely agree with the original poster's sentiment. I was having a lot of fun learning on the Front-End Web Development track up until the last few videos, which have become tedious and long, with very short, irrelevant challenges that don't measure what I've learned or allow me to commit to memory. Very disappointed in the JavaScript track and just trying to grind my way through it to move on.