Instructional Feedback

randyhoffman · January 17, 2018, 10:19pm

I wanted to give some feedback on the instructional approach. Don’t get me wrong. I love the site and I’m grateful for what you’ve taught me.

The JavaScript Basics needs a little more review though. Often, I was doing laser focused on one concept at a time for 10 or so problems, and then there would be a problem which would bring in multiple concepts and I simply couldn’t recall the older concepts, so I had to look at the hint, or Google an answer. With how it’s structured, an average problem requires 95% new learning and 5% review.

I personally think moving to more like 20% new learning and 80% review would be awesome. Also, the further you get from a concept, the less you review it. So the first question is on comments , then the next is one declaring variables but also requires comments. Then you store a value but also simply declare a variable and comment something out. Then you might not require commenting things out for 10 problems, then 30, then then 50.

80/20 might seem like too much, but when you are on problem 100 and problem 30 was two weeks ago, I might struggle to apply what I learned back then.

Thank you for this site though, it’s awesome!

PortableStick · January 18, 2018, 2:18am

Your input is appreciated. I agree that review is important and that the curriculum is a super fast tour through a lot of dense information. I’d love to see some sort of formal review mechanism someday, but until then I strongly suggest you take notes as you go through the lessons. I do this with every language and framework I want to learn well. Here’s an example of how I take notes:

github.com

PortableStick/Programming_notes/blob/master/javascriptSkills.js

/* eslint-disable */

/* Create variable
================================ */
var foo; //implicitly typed

/*Assign variable
================================ */
foo = bar;


/* Function expression
================================ */

var functionExpression = function(){
	//do stuff
};

/* Function declaration
================================ */

This file has been truncated. show original

I try to write the notes in the language I’m learning, which often makes for ugly formatting. It’s hard to read, and the notes are so informal they’re basically indecipherable to anyone but myself. The only thing that matters is that I write out what I’m learning in my own words.