Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Trevor Scandalios
11,910 PointsDisappointed with Jquery instruction
There needs to be an intermediate step in between the Javascript deep-dive and the Jquery Island.
The deep dive is pretty effective at teaching you the basic commands to interact with the web console using javascript. However, the island jumps immediately to using Jquery to change interactivity on a webpage and doesn't explain concepts very well. New concepts that were not covered in the deep dive are brushed over in moments, and basic ideas that were taught in the deep dive are used in a very advanced manner without almost any explanation. This is the first time that I have given up on a Treehouse course, and I am going to take some lessons on Jquery somewhere else before coming back to it. I would be interested in finding out if any one else had a different experience and if its just me.
6 Answers
Jason Massey
16,635 PointsI felt similar. The jQuery instruction doesn't provide enough background and conceptual understanding. I have a membership through Code School and their jQuery course is pretty code. You check out the first level for free at (http://try.jquery.com)
Jason Massey
16,635 PointsI felt similar. The jQuery instruction doesn't provide enough background and conceptual understanding. I have a membership through Code School and their jQuery course is pretty code. You check out the first level for free at (http://try.jquery.com)
Trevor Scandalios
11,910 PointsYeah, I completely agree and I actually already started taking that exact course before you answered. I've only gone through the first video and I already have a much better understanding of Jquery. It starts by breaking down how the Jquery code works at a basic level, for example showing how the structure of the code compares to CSS, which I wish Treehouse had done.
I'm not trying to endorse Code School (as I really like Treehouse and the rest of their courses have been great, and I'm not familiar with any other Code School courses, although I am a little grumpy about Treehouse not teaching Jquery adequately), but I'd definitely recommend the free Code School course as an intermediate step between the two Treehouse courses for anyone else who's having problems.
Adam Sackfield
Courses Plus Student 19,663 PointsI think the point to be taken here is that for maximum learning you should ideally be a member of here and CodeSchool as they complement each other and you get different teaching styles. Then you will also need to be very keen yourself and be willing to become obsessed and researching what you are taught on the W3C, reading forums, trying stuff out, books and many more. Things like Anki are great for spaced repetition learning and premade decks for jquery css html and more
Trevor Scandalios
11,910 PointsI'd rather not sign up for another coding website if I don't have to. For everything else so far, Treehouse has been very effective in helping me learn the subjects. I might still get a Code School account though, depending on how much of the Jquery class is free.
John Fu
2,209 PointsNothing beats hands on experience when it comes to coding. I remember when I first started out with jQuery, I constantly revisted http://api.jquery.com for help on how to use methods. The way I approached things was, think of what I had to do, eg. I wanted to insert some text before another element. So I looked for keywords in the jQuery documentation, such as "insert" or "prepend", and voila! They have both those functions in there, with examples.
To be fair, I haven't done any of the js courses from treehouse as I am already a web developer by trade, so I can't comment on how good or bad the course is. Anyways, hopefully my recommendation helped someone.
Adam Sackfield
Courses Plus Student 19,663 PointsAdam Sackfield
Courses Plus Student 19,663 Points+1 For codeschools jQuery course, plus they have a free Google Drive API course too now