E4 Progress in Programming Report

24 Nov 2021

1. My programming skills have greatly improved in the following ways:

I can program a decent page. That’s about it. I couldn’t do that before, so whatever skills that led to that, I suppose that’s what I improved on.

2. I need to work on the following to improve my programming skills:

I think the main thing for me is finding the time to improve my programming skills. I feel as if all the tools are there, the option for help is there. It’s just the one thing that doesn’t seem to be there for me is time. If I have to pick a skill within programming though, I believe that my organization could be better. I spent a lot of time working on multiple things at once, and I think it was what made it challenging for me to determine what went wrong at certain points.

3. I have learned a lot from doing WODs and I can do them without copying the screencast:

In certain WODs, I have learned a lot. I understand how to do HTML pretty well, but these last few WODs with JavaScript were frustrating for me. As of now, they’re still DNFs for me, and I’m still trying to determine where it went wrong for me.

4. The labs have helped me learn and I am able to complete them with confidence:

The labs have helped me learn. I prefer having hands-on, so to speak, rather than just reading about the concepts. It’s good to see how it works, but I think filling out the answers feels redundant. I was especially peeved when I copied the Lab 13 web page to write my answers in and it was modified so I had to restart. That was not cool.

5. I learned a lot from my experience doing Assignment 1 and feel ready to work on Assignment 2:

Not really. I know we were given a somewhat decent chunk of time and a lot of help, but I feel as if at some points, this class is treated like it’s the only one we’re taking. It’s not. Most of us are taking 15+ credits compiled with extracurriculars, and with Assignment 1, I didn’t even get it turned in on time. I couldn’t figure out where it went wrong, I had to start from scratch, and even then it was draining.

6. I think the class can be improved to help my learning in the following ways:

Not compressing all three assignments into this short of a period. That or not make it 50% of our grade. This is already the crunch time for most courses, and this is something that should’ve either been started in the beginning of the year, or have not that much of an impact on our grade.

Morale wise, saying that this is easy when it is not easy for some of us. Kind of makes us feel like we’re never going to grasp the concept in time, and for me personally, it’s sort of turned my attention off when I hear that. Sort of a confidence downer for me. Also, it feels like it takes up a significant amount of time that we could spending on something else.

7. What helps me the most in class are:

Seeing how it’s supposed to look code-wise. It helps that the Zoom recordings are up too, so I can go back if I feel I’m missing something.