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Liz Karaffa
17,576 PointsjQuery Basics feedback
Andrew asked for some feedback on his new course so I figured I'd just open a discussion cuz I often benefit from the thoughts of others.
I've only gone through the introduction so far but I'm really excited about this course and feel like it's a much fuller experience that I was longing for.
I really appreciate the background provided because the more I get into coding the more I realize there are fundamental elements that experienced programmers are so familiar with that they forget to talk about them in laymen's terms. Kind of like trying to explain sight to a blind person. So the more context I get the more I find myself grasping the big picture. Great job, Andrew!
I really like that Andrew touched on some things newbies might run into. I've often been super overwhelmed by the documentation for most languages and I give up before I really get what I need. I definitely feel more empowered.
The only thing that might have been nice is maybe one or two practical examples of jquery use within each category. For example, Andrew mentioned dimensions and how they can help get the height or width of stuff. But since I'm still so new to programming, I don't have a framework for why I'd even want to use jQuery to get the dimension. Since my limited understanding is that javascript adds behavior to a website, in that snippet example of how getting the height of something is useful, I don't understand why. Granted it's unreasonable to have an in depth explanation, but maybe a quick peak at a website where one of the dimension methods are in use. It kind of touches on the "you don't know what you don't know" idea. But really this is splitting hairs.
All in all I'm really impressed with the start of this course and I can't wait for more.
4 Answers
Austin Davis
23,939 PointsI completely agree- I'm really enjoying the additional information provided by the new jQuery course- especially in conjunction with the Treehouse Workspace. I'm learning quite a bit from running the code and tinkering with it. In regards to your concern about dimensions... that's where I really begin to see the value of what is being demonstrated.The process that is being outlined encourages us to utilize the API documentation list, that the course introduces you to at api.jquery.com, where you can click on the Category for Dimensions and see a brief explanation: "These methods are used to get and set the CSS dimensions for the various properties." The value of this idea might be lost without a bit of understanding regarding dimensions in CSS.. but for a quick visual glimpse that might help you can go to http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/jquery_dimensions.asp. Or... you could always take some of the CSS courses available- they all piece together quite nicely.
Liz Karaffa
17,576 PointsThanks Austin! I'll have to check out that website.
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherI'm glad you're getting confidence to use the documentation!
Shiraj Ganguly
12,608 PointsI'm halfway through the course and am really enjoying it. The previous jQuery lesson in the "Building an Interactive Website" was kind of a mind bender when it came to the end of it with the Google Maps API. This lesson seems to be a great bridge between the super basics and more advanced jQuery.
I've actually been trying to do these projects on my own after watching the introductory video for each project, and have had decent success at accomplishing the goal just by fishing through the documentation for jQuery. Knowing where to look in the documentation and how to understand what the different methods do and what kind of input they receive/send back is a huge leap forward in my understanding.
More courses like this would be amazing!
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherI'm glad you're enjoying it so far. It's good to see you trying to push yourself like that. Keep it up!
Liz Karaffa
17,576 PointsI also LOVE the 4Ps approach. I'm shocked that I haven't heard it before in any of the other courses. It's a really helpful tip and I'm looking forward to approaching all projects this way.
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherHat tip to Mat Helme for Design Foundations - Becoming a Problem Solver.
A designer or a developer is the same thing. A problem solver. Solving problems for our users.
Liz Karaffa
17,576 PointsI do, however, wish the code challenges had been a little bit harder or a little bit different than what we just did in the videos. If we're following along in the workspaces, we basically do the same work twice. But, I did love the code challenge at the end of stage 3 where we had to fix the bug.
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherThe repetition is intensional to reiterate the new methods used. I have erred on the side of caution not to be too jarring by having you use the same methods in different context during each project on each stage (i.e. a different CC setting, back to project, different CC setting). Having to orientate yourself on multiple projects on a single stage may be a bit too much. But hopefully, as you progress through each new project you'll see the same methods pop up in different contexts giving you a better feel of what you can do with them in different settings.
I did however try and push you a little bit with breaking the code in Stage 3 and if you get to Stage 5's end I push a little further... Have you got to that yet? If so how was it?
Austin Davis
23,939 PointsI concur about the code challenges being a bit easy... though that's a consistent experience across the board with all the courses- including challenges and quizzes (for good user experience that consistency should be maintained or changed on all the courses at once). The best learning results I've found have been in the Treehouse Workspace- not by simply copying the code but by watching the video in chunks and then trying to implement the process from memory. This leads to a lot of frustrating troubleshooting, reading through the api documentation, and rewatching segments of the videos, but seems to make the best impact on my grasping the core concepts. I've experienced that is especially helpful if you take a moment to tinker with the code and see what happens to really begin grasping what I'm working with.
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherAndrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest TeacherI am so glad to hear!