Maxen Donate

E4: Progress in Programming Report

01 Jan 1970

In my reflection, I will be sharing my reflection and experience with Assignment 1 Project.

  1. My programming skills have greatly improved in the following ways: I believe that my programming skills have improved in every aspect. When beginning the class, I had very little coding, and/or programming experience. In the span of just 4 months, I have learned and practiced so many things about programming and coding. It may be extremely confusing or frustrating sometimes, especially when I’m left to figure it out on my own. Despite this, I think purely from the struggling and solving that I had to go through to make it here it all makes it worth it. Looking back at my skills from day 1 to now, the change is astounding and I am proud to say my skills improved in every way.
  2. I need to work on the following to improve my programming skills: Some things that I need to work on is making my variables easy to read and understand. Throughout assignment 1, I had the same problem where my data was no referenced, or transfering from one page to another. Despite putting an href and linking the pages together, sometimes my data would go from one page to another and I realized it was because my variable was different. When every little thing makes all the difference, it is important to double check work and check every line to ensure that it is working.
  3. I have learned a lot from doing WODs and I can do them without copying the screencast: WOD’s have taught me a lot that I couldn’t have learned in class or in the readings. I enjoyed the WOD because I could move at my own pace and really figure it out for myself. When I got really confused on the WOD’s, I really liked the fact that I could return to the screencast and see what I did wrong, or what I was missing. WOD’s helped me figure out why I was doing what I was doing, and the reason for them. Instead of simply writing down code to finish the assignment, it gave me a chance to step back and really understand what that piece of coding was doing.
  4. The labs have helped me learn and I am able to complete them with confidence: The labs have been extremely helpful in guiding me to become a better programmer. In every lab, I will not lie that I struggled and was stuck on a lot of parts. Being patient with myself and slowly going through it from a different perspective helped me finish the labs. Now that I am in assignment 1, all the labs have been extremely helpful and I see each part of the labs in every criteria I need to finish in assignment 1.
  5. I learned a lot from my experience doing Assignment 1 and feel ready to work on Assignment 2: I believe that I have. While looking at assignment 2, it seems like a whole new concept and that we are currently going uphill on the hump. Assignment 1 was extremely exhausting but I am ready to continue and finish all the assignments up.
  6. I think the class can be improved to help my learning in the following ways: I think we should definitely move through things more smoothly. In some classes, we spent the whole 90 minutes talking about one section of one problem (which is helpful in figuring it out), but then we aren’t left with time for the other problems and are forced to figure it out on our own. Most times when spending all this class time on one problem, we go off tangent or talk about things related to the question, but are more so exploring different alternatives (such as what happens if we do this, if we do this, why doesn’t it work). I appreciate this type of slow, detailed pace but when the class is left with 5 on your own questions to finish instead of 3, it gets a little frustrating, especially when it is hard to complete.
  7. What helps me the most in class are (WODs, Labs, class website, screencasts, readings, quizzes, one on one help, working with classmates, etc.): I believe that working with classmates and the screencasts/WOD are most helpful. When working with classmates, we all have the same level of programming and knowledge on the subject so it is easier to understand when working with one. When I understand things that someone else doesn’t, it is easy for me to explain it in a way that is easy to understand because we all have the same level of knowledge. The WOD’s/screencasts are helpful because it helps you figure out and develop your skills at your own pace.