Really enjoyed this course!

Thanks James Nelson

Thanks Macarena Poo

I am very happy with this course as well. My knee jerk reaction was to get frustrated and say that the final project was far too difficult. I understood after seeing how Chalkley solved the problem, but I don't see how I would have ended up with even remotely similar code. I am not at the point where I can just throw objects and functions in different javascript files and fully understand how all of these things will work together. Are there diagramming tools or ways of organizing code that make it easier to manage? Is there a way of conceptualizing code flow, a way of visualizing and planning your programming, before jumping into code?

I agree with Justin Walters. The course would be much better with a similar guidance like in the first sections of the javascript track. Its just too much code at once and not enough visualisation of what the code is doing. In some of the beginner courses the teacher told us: Write a small bit of code and test it. This would be good here, too.

After thinking about it for a few days, I appreciate this course much more and would like to see many more like it. Initially I was confused about what I should be doing, but as I studied the solution I eventually understood and came away with a much deeper understanding of Javascript as a whole. We need more projects like this. Even if some don't fully understand the code at first, they will learn if they try.

Ways to plan and organize code would be nice, but something tells me a pencil, paper, and a few minutes spent scribbling ideas would suffice.

A pen and paper are great tools for planning. What ever helps you get a model of how your project works in your mind. When you start coding you're making it a lot more abstract. Eventually a lot of this becomes second nature and you'll find yourself resisting the use of pen and paper. But I'm always glad, when I'm struggling with a particular problem, to slow down, use real world tools and then and only then start writing code.

You can choose whatever methodology and pace you'd like to do this project. As long as it works, and you get there, it doesn't matter.

The purpose of this last stage was to push students to cement what was taught in previous stages. An important part of the learning process is breaking things and getting things wrong. This is a feeling we need to get comfortable with. When things break you start building a more robust model of how a particular system works in your mind. The experiential learning is far more powerful than me abstracting things in to words, for the student to re-interpret them and hopefully get the concept what I was intending to teach.

I'm glad that people are digging this "practice project" approach!

Its worth a shot. I will try the pen and paper approach in dig in the project again. Maybe it reveals his secrets to me, too :)

The practice project in my mind is 100% the way to go for learning. Codeschool does a great job of this at the end of their courses to help reinforce new learning. However your last section is project focus which is even better I think! I would also really like to have another project available for us to try and solve at the very end. I really want to cement in this learning so having some guidance on another project to complete on my own would be fantastic. The guidance part helps so I don't bite off more than I can chew accidentally.

Great Stuff Andrew - Keep it coming!

Thanks Greg Smith