My programming skills have greatly improved in understanding some codes and being able to use them when coding. However, there are times that I make mistakes when coding which makes my program not work and it frustrates me. I feel a little confident when using HTML. When I use HTML, I can do basic stuff like header, paragraphs, the use of tags, the use of href, etc. With CSS, I’m okay with it but I just have to go back to the old WODs on how CSS and HTML work together. Javascript I still need to learn it as I find it hard to understand. But all in all, I still have a long way to go to learn and understand more codings.
I must say that I have a lot of things to improve especially in javascript. My problem is that when one thing is not working or I don’t know how to solve the problem, I will skip it and go do another thing. That is a big mistake for me because if there’s a problem everything will not work at all. I’m giving myself a hard time even more. For my coding, I still have a lot of things that I need to work on. I’m still having a hard time understanding the use for loops and if-else statements. What I did was I searched on how to use the following codes, I read the documentation, but I’m still a little confused. Even, the commenting part, I need to work on that.
At the beginning of the semester, I really didn't know anything about coding. But as time goes by I’m starting to understand little by little. Doing WODs really did help me to gain knowledge with codings. But when I was doing WODs, I would watch the screencast many times because I keep making mistakes.
I would say that yes labs did help me but at the same time it didn’t. When doing labs in class I can follow along and I’m trying my best to understand how to use a code but when doing it on our own part, I’m not able to complete them with confidence. I would read the instruction a few times, try to do what it was asking me to do. But I feel like I’m doing it wrong.
I did learn something from Assignment 1. Like what Prof. Port says, this assignment is not easy and you will make a lot of mistakes. I feel like I still have a lot to learn and be able to say I’m ready for Assignment 2.
One of the things that can be improved to help my learning is going over labs that we did on our own. I think by doing this, we know what mistakes we made. One suggestion would be having a screencast of completing the on your own part or the whole lab. Another thing I see that needs improvement is updating the WODs screencast. When I was doing the WODs, I didn't get to complete the WODs within the Rx time. So, I have to go watch the screencast to see what I was missing or what I did wrong. Lastly, I feel like it would be better if we all students start working on an assignment at the same time. It would also be nice to have a week where we have the whole class time working on our assignments and asking the professor for help.
What helps me the most in class is the screencast. As a visual learner, I learn better if I see examples of how to do something. I can easily understand and be able to apply what I learned from watching videos. WODs did help me too with my programming skills. Even though it was annoying to redo them a few times until you got it right and finished it within Rx time. But it was okay for me to do it a few times. It feels like I’m practicing my coding skills. The more I practice, I get to learn how to code and not rely on screencast videos.