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C# C# Objects Loops and Final Touches While Loops

This is going WAY too fast...You have to show STEP BY STEP what s going on in the code, from caller to callee!!!

This game development is an interesting approach but it s going way too fast and confusing people. There has to be a step by step approach showing how each and every bit of the code is modified when adding to it. It MUST show all paths from caller to callee and all changes in between while in the same time showing how each and every concept binds to the whole. This is way too fast!!!

Nick Jones
Nick Jones
1,407 Points

I agree, I've been watching youtube videos to compliment the things being taught in the videos, but yes, some of this is ridiculous.

I agree. In the same video in which he assumes you've never heard of ++ before, he says he'll just let you figure out how to add the Tower

I agree with this comment. At the beginning of this C# course, care was taken to explain the minute details, but it's almost as if by this time in the course, folks are being rushed to completion. People are using this to learn, and there are too many jumps (i.e. "well, because we taught you this simple principle, you should be able to figure out how to do something we have never shown you"). I find that that this method of teaching frustrates students because they get lost.

As an example of what I mean... Imagine if a GPS didn't re-calibrate if you took the wrong exit. You would be stuck trying to navigate to your destination via foreign streets. Well, I could see students feeling like that here. If these courses have to be longer to continue to add the same level of detail as existed earlier in the course, so be it. I am a certified Java programmer (and thus I have a solid grip on O-O concepts) and I'M having issues with trying to convert his brief verbal requirement to C# solution methodology. I think you have to break it down every time so folks can see how it's supposed to work the first time CLEANLY. Using the GPS example again, if you eventually found your way to the destination after taking the wrong exit, but it took you an hour to get there (and the destination was really only 8 minutes from the right exit), can you really say you "know how to get there"? Even after you've arrived? I don't think many would feel comfortable saying that.

That's the parallel I see here. It's been a good course overall, but I think this video in particular highlighted a couple gaps.

2 Answers

Problems:

Notice that none of the moderators or the teamtreehouse Employees responded to this post. Its tone is more of a rant than a plea. Let me ask the question so that they should now have the obligation to respond.

[QUESTIONS] needing to be answered for the community:

Why is this C# Object instruction moving too fast for even programmers like me who have reviewed this (now 3 times)?

Why can't the instructor take a step back for each important part of the code and briefly explain what is going on?

Why are we discussing Exceptions and syntax sugar?

Why are we learning the wrong way first?

Regardless of the speed button to choose how fast or slow the instruction is played back, why does the instructor ( and most teamtreehouse instructors ) talk through the video so fast without taking appropriately timed pauses to allow the information to sink in?

Why doesn't the instructors give at least (at a minimum) two similar examples for each new subject introduced?

Solutions: Now some opinionated solutions when and if you decide to remaster the courses on teamtreehouse.

For instance, good practice with teaching is to ask the audience if they remember a step or terminology then proceed to go over it again as you code. This is called reminder repetition. This is very effective to get a target audience to learn without even forcing them. Assuming that generally, everyone at a certain point will have the understanding, confidence, and foresight to take on challenges or think ahead is just wrong. Especially for courses that are not advanced. At that level, it's best to make those assumptions early on.

Stick to the subject at hand and keep the code (and project) simple for beginners.

Let me say this a few times over to get exactly my point: Teach them the right way the first time! Teach them the right way the first time! Teach them the right way the first time! Teach them the right way the first time (or at least one standard to stick to) then show the wrong way it is done and why.

My opinion:

This is my third time coming back to these courses for just review while I look for employment and keep sharp. Each time I get more lost with the jumping around. I understand Objects, properties, methods etc but the way it is taught makes my gut wrench because I feel that it is rushed and the examples get too complicated. For example, do we need to jump into Exceptions right after learning C# Basics? Do we need to have half of an instruction block going over property syntax sugar and then the different ways not to write code before writing it the right way?

Final thoughts:

For anyone that clicked this title because they felt the same way, my advice to you is to go ahead and go through this course but please find another source to supplement this teaching style. Not all TeamTreehouse courses are taught this way but there is a good amount of them that rush through and just assume you know better.

As far as this course I can not recommend it to others as the first option to go to.

stephen curah
stephen curah
8,249 Points

Going through the course now and I totally agree with what you and the others are saying. Additionally, the extra resource will help for sure.

In the meantime i ve perfected myself using pluralsight, they ve got tons of better explanations and coverong way more subjects. They take you from no knowledge to developer junior developer status. To get further, you really need to go at it a different route, digital electronics course, serial communications course, then try building your own compiler, learning assembly and microprogramming

Lee Owen
Lee Owen
7,907 Points

I would disagree with the Pluralsight comment. Pluralsight is great, but its really unfocused and jumps around way too much between instructors and ideas, but doesn't follow anything as from start to finish as what I've been seeing here on this course which is why I made the switch from Pluralsight to here yesterday.

One thing that I can recommend to help you out if you're getting lost and need some help seeing things from caller to callee, is to use Visual Studio to code in rather than the workspaces. If you use Visual Studio, you can click on a method or object, hit F12 and it will take you to the definition so you can follow it all the way through.

For example I can hit F12 on "OutOfBoundsException" and it will take me the to "TreehouseDefenseException" class and show me the details in there, so it makes investigating things a lot easier. I also imagine that in some later classes they'll show us how to do Unit Testing which will help out quite a bit.