Since the Invoice 3 WOD, I feel as though the difficulty of the class has ramped up significantly. This could be due to the absence of screencast solutions for these WODs, or just the overall combination of skills that we have learned throughout the course. Assignment 1 challenged us to combine nearly every aspect that we have learned in this course in order to create a functional e-commerce website. This forced me to think outside my comfort zone, and attempt to problem solve using past work and also new resources. In this assignment, I relied heavily on the use of comments in order to lay out what I needed to do ahead of time, rather than attempt to simply solve the problem and then comment it after I got it to work. I also was required to understand what every single line of code in my program did and it’s specific function, in order to combine code through different methods. This required me to research the many problems I had and figure things out, rather than relying on provided code, as we had in labs.
Understanding the code itself rather than troubleshooting each time expecting a different result is something I definitely need to work on. Although I tried my best to interpret what the computer itself was processing, there were many times where I would simply input code in order to get a different result, hoping that it would work out. I also need to adapt this new principle of commenting before I code, as it helped tremendously in allowing me to understand what I needed to do, and also how I could approach it.
The lack of screencasts as the semester progressed forced me to truly understand my program itself, and look for other resources when I was stuck. In the beginning of the semester, I did not feel a sense of urgency to understand my code, as I knew that I could always look at the screencast if I got stuck; however, by not using the screencasts, I learned to take my time and understand every part as a whole. This process very much helped when attempting Assignment 1, as I was used to this style of coding with my own resources.
While I agree that the labs have definitely helped in specific aspects that are prevalent in Assignment 1, I would not say that I feel comfortable when completing them. I often still feel lost when going through the labs in class, and attempt to understand some of the prompts on my own.
Although I feel ready to attempt Assignment 2, there are still many things that I need to work on which worries me. With that being said, though, overcoming Assignment 1 has given me tremendous confidence in my coding abilities, unlike anything I felt before this Assignment.
While I do think that WODs were extremely beneficial and fun to attempt, the labs for me were not quite as effective. There were so many specific details in the lab prompts that often times I would miss a few things and get completely lost. I know that this class is on an extremely tight schedule; however, more time should maybe be spent on clarifying or giving us time to practice harder examples.
As said earlier, the WODs were extremely beneficial in my learning. However, the most beneficial aspect of this class was being able to meet with Dan one on one. Dan made me feel that I should be confident in my coding abilities, and was able to help me understand every process of my code. When I left his meeting, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t tackle this assignment anymore, but was rather excited to attempt it with my newfound knowledge. Because of this, I think that it should be mandatory for each student to meet with their respective teacher during each step of their assignments. I know many students may feel embarassed or too shy to set up a meeting, so it may be very beneficial for these to be required.