In regards to Web Development & Team Tree House, do they have real world projects that we as students can complete?

First and foremost, I must be honest and say, I would save the money and just learn from Treehouse on your own time because Treehouse does in fact cover a HUGE amount in terms of web design, development, and programming.

For real world application regarding web, I would go through the Front End Development course (the specific course your after is How to make a website where they teach you from absolute scratch). Here you will learn the absolute basics on how to build a website and how each component to a website interacts with one another. This is the exact same first course I took and the knowledge I gained from this track changed everything. I went from having absolutely no HTML, CSS, and JavaScript experience to being able to develop custom plugins and front end applications in a little over 4 months.

Team Tree House was built for everyone. Whether your an absolute novice and have no code experience, or your a pro in one language and wanting to improve skills in another. They cover it all.

I look forward to your other questions. I promise, I don't have any connection to Tree House other than using their teaching resources. They are just that great.

Very informative and like I was saying I think that I didn't convey that right.

So let's say you are in a writing class, and they give you the objectives, they give you a subject and a small outline of the key points to hit. Then they send you on your way and ask you to come back with the result. That is what I was really trying to get at.

The tests and objectives are great, but I was looking for more expanded project work. I worked on some of the extra credit work and although it helped expand some more knowledge. I think I need some like Web Developer'esque type of projects to understand better the workflow, and how they process the questionnaires and discussions they may have to come to the final solution.

As a side note I've completed a large chunk of the web development track already.

I believe what Arnaud means is does Treehouse give some time "final" project or mid-term or assignments based on real world objectives. For practice and to learn from, In order to better prepare an individual for the real world working environment.

Yes, Josh hit the nail on the head. Lol. I couldn't think of the term/word to best describe that. Lol

Does TTH have things like that? If not do any of you know of other sites out there that have things like that on them to better hone the skills you are trying to build up?

What is your reason behind it hurting someone learning?

What I'm asking about is no different than what you are doing on TTH already as you progress through the courses. The only difference here is that you are given a project to work on with expanded work with guidelines and criteria you have to meet. Just like any other assignment you'd get for other classes. It's just things to do to get your mind thinking about how to complete the task at hand.

It is one thing to just tell some, "Ok, you've completed all the courses now go and have fun......" I wouldn't expect a lot to come from most people. You need to be challenged, asked to complete tasks, etc. (Mentorship). This is what I'm looking for. Assignments to try and complete. Something that is more expanded then the small amounts of objectives given to you to do. I saw a video from Nick that talked about just that, but I couldn't find what he was talking about.

So what you are trying to say is that TTH goes as far as they need to go, and that by introducing longer more complex projects, assignments, etc. aren't necessary to learn, and they may even hurt you in the long run.....

Then why do we have mentors? Isn't the core concept of mentorship to help you build up your skills and knowledge. When you are being mentored what is it that you do? You are given problems (easy or complex)(real or fake) that you have to solve. Once completed your mentor/s then help you correct issues they may see in your work, and help you become a stronger developer. How is that any different than what I'm asking about?

Basically you are given an assignment you have to complete, and then it is reviewed maybe by peers, maybe by an expert in the industry, etc...

I stated an opinion and yes, that is almost what I said :)

I didn't state that bigger projects aren't necessary, I simply stated that you shouldn't be reliant Tree House to offer said courses, exams, and assignments. From my observation, Tree House was made to help you get started with development tools and leave all the doors open to do what you will with the tools they helped provide. I think they executed the idea perfectly!

Mentorship exists for a reason as everything does. I also stated this is my opinion and I understand that you may learn much different than I did. I do employ developers and mentor new developers as well but in a different fashion than what you are looking for.

Should you wish to find a mentor, I fully support it! Again, you and I are different! My learning style was, and still is, much different.

We could go on and on but I feel you and I can agree to disagree here. But that is what makes life beautiful! :) I really hope you find what your looking for! Sorry I wasn't able to offer more insights to fit your needs.

I wasn't trying to rely solely on TTH to teach me everything and understand I have to expand out and that is why I asked the question I did and asked if they had suggestions whether through TTH or from outside sources. Everyone has resources that they stumble upon that helped them out or they thought would be helpful for others. That is what I was trying to get at.

I also asked one of the questions I did based on a video on TTH that stated they were going to be delving more in depth into workflow, coding, and working with clients and what Nick Pettit does from beginning to end. I couldn't find any reference to that course/video/etc in the video that I watched.

For me, skills wise I think I still am a little too rough around the edges and would like to build upon the skills I have learned thus far, I would also like to build up my confidence and complex problem solving skills for that transition into a professional mentorship in the future.

And as stated before I'm still working through the Web Development & Front End Tracks and was really just curious on larger project ideas to work on while going through the courses.

It was in the Build a Simple Website Q&A he talked about it, but there is no video labeled "Build a Simple Website" that I could find on TTH.

That is what I was looking for originally. But I also wanted to know if people had resources that helped them/others in building upon and honing the skills through problem solving projects.

IE) Build me a simple 3 page website using this swatch of colors, for a hair salon with (object 1) (object 2)............. Here is some skeleton content to get you started... "Lorem ipsum..." But with simple content that lets say the Hair Salon provided that they wanted on the page.

And maybe they offer other projects that get progressively harder. That's really all I was looking for to help myself learn the problem solving skills of having to research things, etc.

Personally I don't think our learning style is to far off of each other. There just seems to be this barrier that you think we are different.

Lol then I misunderstood :) I am glad to see we see things very similarly! My apologies on if I miscommunicated.

I can't say that I have seen the video of Nick that your talking about. Sorry! I will have to check it out some time.

In terms of helpful techniques and insights, I have always been impressed with this forum right here. Seriously, the people here are amazing. For both targeted and general purpose questions. Team Tree House did a great job with this forum.

Also you have Stack Overflow which can really help with those targeted questions (example: How to duplicate form fields. Targeted questions like that). This, I would recommend for more development purposes rather than CSS and HTML insights. They offer it but the community here is great for learning the development side of web.

For some really insightful front end design techniques, I remember a blog called CSS Tricks. Chris covers a lot of design / workflow techniques he uses. He does a great job of breaking down subjects as well.

As for some personal resources I use to speed up design processes, I really don't use too many online resources. I think I use only a color generator called Coolers that helps generate color schemes that I use to get inspired. These may not be what your looking for but hey, figured I would share.

In terms of gaining confidence... Man, where can I begin. That is where I really recommend just jumping in. I can remember how scary it may feel at the beginning but shoot, I still go to meetings and am thrown a curveball almost every time. The more you do it, the easier it is. I can't think of any secret or advice more so then just actually 'doing'. I honestly would be happy to answer any specified questions you have should you ever need.

As for projects to hone your skill. I can not think of a service out there that provides something like that short of an internship or mentorship. Honestly, I would start with building an entire framework for yourself an make a CSS grid layout, along with handy production classes to use. From there, crank out a few sites and literally let them sit until you might need them as a template for future clients. That is honestly exactly what I did when I started. I just built, without a reason and some how the layout ended up being used somewhere. I really hope some of this helps! Best wishes!

The Course that I was looking for was Build a Simple Website

Why it doesn't show up in the Course Search I don't really know. I had to find it linked from Google.

But either way I'm new to this, still learning, and just want to continue to build my skills as I progress further and further through the TTH coursework.

Definitely, just jumping in is the way to go, but I'm not sure I've hit that AHA (Ding!!) moment to just go and jump is I think where my apprehension lays.

And like I stated before I'm in a college class and unfortunately they are not following the Web Dev or Front-End track closely, so I think that is where some of my apprehension really sits of jumping in.

So as time goes on when I'm caught up with the class, I have been going back into the Web Dev Track and completing the series of courses to better flow with what TTH wants you to do.

So this is the path that the instructor wanted us to follow:

• Treehouse Club: HTML (Completed)
• How to Make a Website (Completed)
• CSS Foundations (Completed)
• CSS Layout Techniques (Completed)
• HTML Forms (Completed)
• HTML Tables (Completed)
• HTML Video and Audio (Completed)
• Responsive Layouts (Completed)
• Accessibility (Completed)
• JavaScript Basics
• JavaScript Loops, Arrays and Objects
• jQuery Basics
• Interactive Web Pages with JavaScript

Our Final is to modify an existing template to create a five-page responsive website advertising a product or service of your choice. The theme must be written in HTML5 and CSS3, it must also be responsive.

I just got home and noticed that the list was all messed up so I organized it a little better using a list.

That is the required track for the class, in that order. And in regards to the final, it can't be a CMS like Wordpress or anything. It just has to be a simple HTML5/CSS3 theme/template. It doesn't necessarily have to have any javascript built into it, and we are required to INCLUDE a jQuery plugin that isn't in the theme already. In regards to content, it has to be at least 5 pages including the index.html. Also all the original content must be changed like paragraphs and images to reflect the product/service we are trying to promote.