January 18, the second week of my spring 2019 semester comes to a close and with it the first week working with Javascript. Past programing languages like C and Java made the basics of Javascript an easy learning experience, but the gap in my programing experience has also had its effects, the spring of 2018 being the last time I have programed seriously. To be brutally honest my first two weeks here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have been more stressful than any other experience I have felt at Kapiolani Community College, with ICS 314 arguably being the most stressful of my four classes. But just because it might be my most stressful class doesn’t mean it won’t be my most enjoyed, and I do hope I will be able to say it’s my favorite class by the end of the year.
I would be lying if I said that learning Javascript over the first weekend of this semester wasn’t stressful. It felt like a review of Java, yet declarations felt to simple, the formatting style was different, and these changes alone put me on edge. The introduction of the Workouts of the Day(WODs) haven’t helped. The WOD’s presented in class so far have been simple and as such i’ve second guessed myself on all of them, which isn’t much of a confidence booster programming again for the first time after 7 months. What I can say is that this approach to reinforcing the basics of Javascript in one weekend has been successful if nothing else. Each question I’ve had about Javascript and how it differs from Java has almost immediately been answered in the next WOD.
This class gives everything a student needs to succeed. All the tools for each section of this course is all in one place, neatly organized and available, and it’s up to the student to follow along and keep up or to do the bare minimum and try to skate by. The learning style in this class is simple, use the tools presented on the course website for inclass work and discussions. I personally disliked the change between class work and homework work, being as I’m used to class work introducing topics and ideas with the homework reinforcing them, but this change has started to grow on me. This learning style requires students to learn at home and understand the topic before the next class, in conjunction with the tools needed to seek help, this reduces the time wasted asking simple questions in class. This style has helped me focus on understanding the basics of new topics in my time and using in class time for more specific topics I struggle with instead of general ones. This is a simple idea in nature but it’s something i’ve appreciated so far and I hope will continue, and if it does I believe this style will make this course that much more enjoyable.