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JavaScript Express Basics Getting Started with Express Creating a Route with Express

Posted by L Haney
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L Haney
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 10,263 Points

Express Basics course needs improvement

This method of teaching is fine for a History class where you have to memorize dates and facts, but it's not the best for this type of material.

You learn Node and Express by having to use it, or else it's not going to stick. You need to be giving us small exercises to do to apply the concepts covered in lectures. New students do not have the self knowledge or experience to come up with ways to practice effectively on their own. For many of us taking this course, JavaScript is our first and only programming language.

Rent out "Starting out with Java" 6th edition by Tony Gaddis and observe how he teaches. After every chapter, there's 12 programming challenges, 11 short answer questions, and 18 true/false questions. Plenty of ways to practice the concepts, which is why a lot of colleges use that textbook.

Michael Cook
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Michael Cook
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 28,975 Points

Your post is from a long time ago now, but I'm still commenting for others who might read this. By the time you get to the point of learning Express.js, you should already be comfortable programming JavaScript and be ready to follow along with the course without needing constant exercises. The course uses an example project, so to learn effectively I recommend following along in your text editor, writing the code, and pause where you need to in order to write notes right in your code that explain things. Also spend a lot of time looking at documentation. Once you finish the course, take the notes you wrote directly in your program and separate them out into a full set of notes. Then, think of a simple project and attempt to built it. You can learn this stuff. It feels unfamiliar and strange at first. Just stick with it, code along, make your own notes and think of little projects to challenge yourself and before long you'll find its becoming a lot easier.