Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Jordan Siu
10,042 PointsWhat exactly is he trying to teach me?
Problem solved.
7 Answers
Kevin Faust
15,353 PointsI disagree with what Zoltan said. This was way back several months ago but after I completed the javascript track thoroughly, the jquery section was honestly a complete mess. Even with knowing javascript, the instructions are scattered throughout the place in the jquery projects; not to mention a lack of explanation. I ended up giving up as I felt I was wasting my time.
Brian Mullis
7,192 PointsHe is laying out the basics of the Document Object Model (DOM). One of the most important aspects of JavaScript and thereby jQuery, is manipulation of the DOM. The DOM is a mechanism for representing and interacting with your HTML documents. It allows you to navigate and manipulate your documents. If you want to "grab ahold" of a div on your page and have it change when a user initiates an event, you do this utilizing the DOM.
Jordan Siu
10,042 PointsThank you I appreciate you breaking it down. Now I can erase the mess I wrote in my notebook and add what you said lol.
Christopher Mlalazi
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 17,305 PointsThe first time I tried to learn this jQuery course about three months ago was tough for me as I couldn't understand anything. I had to drop it halfway through and went to other sources on the internet where I read about JavaScript basics which I complemented with the Treehouse Track. I went through Javascript basics five times, twice at Treehouse, twice at Codecademy, and once at Free Code Camp, and then I have now come back to this jQuery course, and now things are becoming to sound more clearer as I am now understanding what the jQuery professor is talking about. But what confused me in the beginning? I think, just like the Professor says in the beginning video, if you want to understand this course more clearly, you have to have javascript basics, otherwise it will all sound like hieroglyphics. This is the challenge with programming languages, if you dive in at the deep end of the pool you will quickly become overwhelmed and disillusioned. If you feel you are not understanding this the first time, just drop it and go back to Javascript basics. You just need to be patient. That first time I dropped this course I was so frustrated that I even wrote something about it in the community here, where I was literally cursing and all, thinking that this was a waste of time. Now I know better. I still can't write an app on my own, but there is light now at the end of the tunnel.
Unsubscribed User
501 PointsIf you don't understand jQuery than you probably have to start with "Javascript basics" course as jQuery is a layer on the top of Javascript. We should know your current level in programming to help you where to go or start.
Agustin Vargas
10,896 PointsNot sure if the videos have been changed or not since this was written but I don't think anyone who has done the prereq courses to JQuery should have trouble understanding this. He's explaining how hard it is to access certain elements of the DOM with vanilla JS. JQuery makes it much simpler by allowing us to access specific elements of the DOM by using their IDs or classes. Basically this whole video shouldn't have taught you anything but you should walk away with a new appreciation for JQuery.
napoleondevilla
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 15,381 PointsI know I'm late, but he's explaining how comparatively simple it is to use jQuery as opposed to using vanilla JavaScript to manipulate the DOM.
Reid Everett
14,009 PointsThe DOM is the same concept for any OOP language which just means everything is an object with properties and those properties have values. A webpage is an object named "document" and the elements such as h1, p, div are the properties of that object that have values.
Just like the students array is an object with properties like "name" and "age" which can have string or numeric values.
I hope that helps.
Jordan Siu
10,042 PointsJordan Siu
10,042 PointsThanks Kevin. I'm starting to realize this the more I go. I re-watched the video about 5 times trying to understand what he's going on about. Do you have any advise as to where to go from here? I'm on the verge of giving up on this course.
Kevin Faust
15,353 PointsKevin Faust
15,353 PointsA lot of people that praise Andrew's jquery teaching methods are not complete beginners. Explaining what "DOM' is in a few sentences or in just a few minutes of video talk does not help me understand it at all. I also notice that half the videos are of Andrew looking up what we need to use from the web. Instead of wasting time on that, everything should be laid out and prepared before hand instead of while he tries to teach us. With the saved time, a much more detailed explanation on why we are doing something and what exactly we are doing should be done. If you plan to learn jquery on treehouse, you will have to break down all the written code by yourself and do much more additional research on what exactly is going on. I already am paying money to get knowledge unattainable from free sources so I dont understand why I should try to research what is going on from potetinally outdated and unreliable sources. I was never able to finish the jquery course as going through just one video became waay too frustrating. This is not only me as lots of others have criticised the teaching style yet I dont believe treehouse added an updated course on jquery. Maybe they have changed it over the past 4 months but i doubt it
If you really want to learn front end web development then i dont see any way to avoid this course. i dont have any helpful advice for you unfortunately other than telling you what I did. After I quit jquery, I turned towards java but realized as well that this was just as tough as jquery and i was just as lost. however, unlike jquery, i beared through it and ended up learning a lot (java was hard but i still believe it was structured way better than jquery). so to apply this concept back to the jquery course, even though it's hard, all the other tracks will probably be just as hard at some point. it's best to just bear through it and hope to come out more knowledgeable.
Or I can tell you the typical response from people and say "just go online, watch some youtube videos, learn on your own, blah blah blah" which is pretty much the reason why we decided to sign up and pay for treehouse instead of doing that.
sibal gesekki
3,484 Pointssibal gesekki
3,484 Pointsi agree with kevin
A X
12,842 PointsA X
12,842 PointsKevin Faust I appreciate your thorough comment about Andrew's jquery video, and I also appreciate your frank honesty about your feedback on jquery. It does sometimes feel very lonely to not understand something even on multiple look throughs, and I don't appreciate the "just go online, watch some youtube videos, learn on your own, blah blah blah" that does sometimes happen in this community as you're totally right, I'm paying for more than that. I also would expand if I understood things well doing that I wouldn't be paying for Treehouse content. How have you bridged the gap between what TH offers and what it doesn't?