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JavaScript

Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points
Posted by Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points

Clarity of course: Javascript & The DOM.

Hello to the wonderful community of Treehouse,

I've currently been doing the front end development track and so far I have had minimum difficulty in understanding the concept of Javascript (I had some problem grasping the concept of arrays objects loops but its all good now).

Now I have reached the course: Javascript and The DOM and I have to say that this course is very difficult to understand. I am not trying to say that Guil is a bad teacher in any way, not at all. Its just that Its very difficult for me to understand the message he's trying to convey and this is only specifically in this course.

For example, when I got to the "Responding to User Interaction" and "Traversing the DOM" part of the course, I honestly am still very confused with all the methods and syntaxes. Everything I did was shrouded with doubt and I was unsure of what does what.

My question is, am I the only one that is having a problem with the clarity of this specific course? The quizzes and challenges also seem to be worded very... weirdly... Is there any other sources that I can go to which explains everything a bit simpler? Then I could go back and repeat this course.

All suggestions, feedback, opinions are welcomed.. :)

3 Answers

Andreas Nyström
Andreas Nyström
8,887 Points
Andreas Nyström
Andreas Nyström
8,887 Points

Hi Timothy.

When taking this course I already had some JavaScript under the belt, but not much. Even if it feels like it's not always clear what's happening, you're still getting a little of it. The course is basically showing you how to manipulate the DOM(Document Object Model). Which is one way of saying "if you click something on my site something should happen".

On a personal level, I think using JavaScript for the DOM like this is pure pain. But it is good to know how to do it. Later in this course you will learn jQuery, which makes everything ten times easier with the DOM.

So my best suggestion is to just force yourself to complete this course and keep going on the track. When you've done some more courses, re-do it for better understanding. Also, don't worry about not getting everything directly. You will repeat a lot of it as long as you keep coding. Good luck and happy coding :)!

Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points
Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points

Hi Andreas, So you are suggesting me to just carry on with the course even though I don't understand it all?? That's what I wanted to do, but i feel bad for not being able to fully understand a course by the time of completion.

I also had an idea of maybe switching to learning the bootstrap course just to refresh my brain on html, but then I thought maybe it will just add more weight since I will have have to remember even more stuff.

What to do?

Antti Lylander
Antti Lylander
9,686 Points
Antti Lylander
Antti Lylander
9,686 Points

I remember having hard time with that course as I didn't know css at the time. In case your html and css knowledge needs refreshing, I believe it will make this topic a lot easier.

Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points
Timothy Harrington Bourne
Timothy Harrington Bourne
6,372 Points

Hi Antti, I dont quite understand your response... My confusion of the course is because of the many new syntaxes and methods and my inability to apply them when it comes to challenges and tests... :(

Antti Lylander
Antti Lylander
9,686 Points
Antti Lylander
Antti Lylander
9,686 Points

OK, never mind. I guess I can't relate to those feelings.

Javano Collins
Javano Collins
9,108 Points
Javano Collins
Javano Collins
9,108 Points

I totally. And quite frankly, Treehouse was my first introduction to the DOM, and it made me skip it on other tutorials from Udemy, YouTube, and freeCodeCamp. However, the DOM is not as complicated as Treehouse led me to believe. This is why it is important not to depend on one source for learning code. Try a Udemy course or YouTube.