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JavaScript Interactive Web Pages with JavaScript Traversing and Manipulating the DOM with JavaScript Perfect

Has anyone else struggled with this course due to the style of teaching?

This doesn't happen to me very often with Treehouse but this module was a real tough one to go through. I'm reading the code a day after and I realize that actually this was a fairly simple project.

So what's the problem? I think the problem is, Andrew is merely "screen-casting" how he would go about doing this project in real life. Rather than focusing on discussing things in smaller chunks and teaching functions, he's putting the student through his thought/planning process way too much. His thought process is second nature to him but it really is tedious to follow as a student. In the end, you feel like you just watched a friend showing you couple of tricks while he's working on his project. I think this style usually exists mostly with Workshop videos on Treehouse and this module should be marked as such.

Hunter G
Hunter G
6,612 Points

Hate to say it but I feel like his teaching style isn't too great. Like you said, he goes about things like he would do them by himself, rather than actually teaching the subject. I would much rather learn from Dave McFarland.

Tomas Novak
Tomas Novak
6,957 Points

I am a bit glad that, I am not alone with my feelings about this course.... In this course I have to read the code at least three times to be able understand it.

Totally agree with Hunter G, I would love to learn it from Dave McFarland.

Sergi Oca
Sergi Oca
7,981 Points

I have to agree, I have learned a few interesting things in this course like classList and it's also nice to see how a pro approaches a project. But it was hard to follow and at times I was wondering if I could just do that by myself the day after and truth is, not really.

I agree!

9 Answers

I agree that the course is challenging from the content and the delivery. There is a lot of reference to the MDN (jumping screens) which is very rapid fire. At times a review of the examples from the MDN page provide greater insight but the relationship to the code that is written is a little disparate. At the end of each video I find myself in a struggle to keep up just to complete the code for the next video (even with pausing).

I don't think Andrew does a terrible job but believe some edits to help explain the code would really enhance the learning experience. It would lengthen the course but it is a happy trade-off. Perhaps simplify the project? Probably need an in between course after Dave's wonderful Javascript Basics for several of us. That might be the answer?

Quite frankly, he's a great teacher when it comes to SQL. I never had any problems learning the databases course. As multiple people have already said, though, Dave McFarland is a super good JavaScript teacher and can explain things a bit simpler.

Kostja G
Kostja G
6,424 Points

Agreed. This is the first project that I skipped through mostly because his teaching style. I have done to-do lists in JS a few times now and they are quite simple, but the way he's doing it seems confusing.

For people who are still struggling with to-do lists in JS and jQuery, try googling practicalJS. Gordon does a good job explaining each step and adding features step by step.

I totally understand. You never know; you may get something out of it if you just stick with this project. (Including a really cool badge that I personally like. :P )

John Wilson
John Wilson
11,739 Points

Not to turn this into a pity party, but yeah, I wish there was a bit more explanation in regards to the concepts underpinning why he's doing things the way he is. Not just "how" this way in comparison to "how" another way. I do find repeating the videos helpful so I do think the course matter is complicated enough to warrant some difficulty and that should not be discounted.

Yea... he basically just says what he's doing. Doesn't really say what everything means. Dave McFarland is pretty good. I think Nick Pettit is a good example of analyzing while doing.

Caleb Rutherford
Caleb Rutherford
7,431 Points

I think this is partially due to the fact that both of Andrew's courses thus far (where I am in the Front End Developer track) are the two most complicated and difficult courses we've encountered.

His teaching style feels more like "Let's learn it together" (except he already knows the information) rather than "Here's what you should do and how to do it."

In my experience, it is much easier to learn when someone teaches you exactly what to do and how to do it, but learning in that way doesn't often encourage you to think for yourself. Having Andrew reference the documentation a lot (which Guil does in the Bootstrap course very well, might I add) kinda reinforces the notion that the documentation is critically important to remember. I also learned about other things unrelated to the project just by having him talk about it in the documentation.

I'll say it's not a teaching style that works for everyone. We all want things to be given to us in easy-to-understand projects and lessons, but JavaScript is a "big boy/girl" language, so to speak, and it's not all going to be easy to understand even if someone spells it out for us. Multiple times in this course I found myself wondering how something worked, but it's not because Andrew did a poor job of explaining it. Sometimes it's just complicated. I'd pause the video, maybe run it back 20-30 seconds, watch it again, then read over the code, and it would click in my head and I'd make a note of it in my notes of how I would explain it to myself.

I do wish the code challenges were a little harder, but I think we have to remember 1) Our boss/employer is going to tell us what they want from us on a page, so we'll have a general idea of what to do, and 2) Documentation, documentation, documentation. One of the things about Treehouse that has stuck with me the whole time was when they said even the best programmers have to look stuff up. Nobody's immune to a mental block. We're all here to help each other. Keep it up, everyone!

Hazel Parreno
Hazel Parreno
18,646 Points

I have to say, unfortunately, that I agree. I struggled with jQuery so much and this course as well. For jQuery, I have resorted to using Codecademy as a study supplement. I have just finished this course a bit unsure, so I will try to download all the code, study it myself and try to do it from scratch on my own.

I am also finding this part of the course difficult. I'm following the front-end tech degree program so I can't speak for anyone else in terms of how this compares to other topics of a similar difficulty. However, I feel that whilst other parts of the course are challenging, there are not as many steps that require this level of logical thinking that I am realising are much more associated with what is often considered "real programming".

What I would add, is that the challenges that are set to test us on what we have picked up require the use of just one line of code, where as I think the real level of challenge in the work is understanding the logical steps and how to go about setting them up. I have passed the tests but think I would be lost if told to solve this problem from scratch with no guidance. I hate to be someone only delivering problems without solutions, but I feel like I need to be asked how to solve a similar problem and what pseudocode would work.

Veniamin Tsigourof
Veniamin Tsigourof
14,893 Points

I simply cant follow his teaching methods, most of the time its hard to understand what and why he is doing, it feels like he is writing all the code needed for the project simultaneously and not step by step, will not watch another of Andrew's tutorials.