Javascript: 101

1. We used blogging in this course as a way to build on online portfolio, and knowledge base for the participants and also as a way to create learning conversations. Do you think making course participants blog their notes and 'questions to ponder' is a good idea?

Well, the students' answers have to be submitted somewhere, so I suppose a blog is a good a place as any. Personally, I was not thrilled with blogging because there seem to be too many blogs to try to keep track of (one for each student, one for Javascript 101, one for p2pu, etc.). It may just be my ignorance, but I found it very hard to figure out what postings were in which blog. Lucky for me I kept the mailgrams, which of course have the pointers in them. You might consider having only one blog (or even a mini-wiki) for everyone to use in posting answers as well as questions. I know that in online college classes there is exactly one place to post things, and I've had far less trouble communicating in online college classes than I've had during this course.

2. From this course, what are the three most important things you would change, if you were to run this course yourself?

a) I would be more available to answer student questions. (I personally had no problem, but it seemed to me that some questions from students went unanswered.)
b) I would ensure that I supplemented the Crockford videos with additional information needed for a student to succeed in the programming assignments.
c) I would create better programming assignments than what's in the Eloquent JavaScript book. The programs in the book build on each other, so if you get lost early, you're lost forever. Assign programs just like in a college course: go over a few concepts each week (e.g., I/O, functions, arrays, inheritance, the DOM, etc.) and then give an assignment that focuses on whatever concepts were presented that week.

3. From this course, what are the things you found very helpful, and would probably emulate if you were to run a course yourself?
a) Having the email of the facilitator is good, since I couldn't follow the different blogs and therefore wasn't sure where to post what.
b) I would consider having the entire syllabus posted at the beginning of the course so that if folks get done with one week early they can start on the next week's assignments without having to wait.
c) I doubt that I'd use the Eloquent JavaScript book at all. Instead, I'd invent my own lessons (perhaps based on material out of the "Rhino" book).

4. Any other feedback you may have about the course.
a) Most important, I learned a lot more about Javascript than I knew before, so the class was a success as far as I'm concerned.
b) I think it could be improved as follows:
- don't have so many different blogs scattered all over
the web. It's very confusing to me to even
figure out where someone is posting something, let
alone go searching for people's posts in order
to look at them. and if someone is asking for help,
someone else may never even see the request
if they don't think to look at all the possible blogs
that exist for the course. I did not do the
RSS feed (never did one before), so I don't know if
that would have helped or not.
c) There should be more interaction with the facilitator.
Posting a question and having it go unanswered
leaves me stuck and demotivates me.
d) All Reflections and homework assignments should be posted
at the same time (and when the week starts)
so that we don't have to keep checking back to see if
more homework as been assigned.
e) Perhaps we should all agree to use the same browser so
that the problems we come across aren't
attributable to the different browsers being used.

1. We used blogging in this course as a way to build on online portfolio, and knowledge base for the participants and also as a way to create learning conversations. Do you think making course participants blog their notes and 'questions to ponder' is a good idea?

I think there is definitely value in making course participants blog their notes as a way of building a knowledge base and for readers of those blogs to see different approaches to solving a task, but I would have to agree with some of the other comments that it was a bit confusing with the large number of blogs (as dysert says "one for each student, one for Javascript 101, one for p2pu, etc.").

2. From this course, what are the three most important things you would change, if you were to run this course yourself?

2.1. Rather than leaving the examples of Javascript code at a purely theoretical level as many of them were in the course, I would have examples of how the code actually works in a web page, and have homework that involved creating javascript that was embedded in a web page that actually did something in that web page. A prerequisite for doing the course would therefore include a working knowledge of HTML and CSS.

2.2. While initially enthusiastic about Eloquent Javascript, I gradually became discouraged because once you didn't get a concept, it seemed impossible to move on. Eloquent Javascript didn't focus much on Javascript application in web pages. I would use a resource that slowly built up an understanding of Javascript concepts and then demonstrate at each stage how those concepts can be combined to create a practical example of code that will actually do something in a web page. I would provide homework that was able to be tested in a web page so that participants can see a practical application of Javascript code and can therefore more easily determine if the code they are creating is capabale of doing what they intend it to do, rather than relying only on 'reading' the code and using a Javascript validator to validate it.

2.3. There is a huge amount of jargonistic terminology which the authors (both Crockford and Haverbeke) assume that Javascript novices already are familiar with. Sure it's possible to google these terms and find out what they mean but I would have a central resource that explains all the terminology and programming lingo, a definition of terms that would clearly explain the term (eg. "parseInt"), when it would be appropriate to use it, and an example of the use of that term in context.

3. From this course, what are the things you found very helpful, and would probably emulate if you were to run a course yourself?

I found other participants blogs helpful and would certainly retain blogging if I were to run the course myself. The course coordinator (Parag) attempted to help participants with their questions and homework and this would also be something that I would emulate.

4. Any other feedback you may have about the course.

I think the philosophy that underpins p2pu of "an open community that enables learning with and from each other" is a wonderful concept and has great potential.

I agree with most everything that's been written.

I've got one exception and then I'll underscore a few points:

- I found Parag to be very responsive whenever I posed a question. I wasn't able to keep up with all the comments/blogs/posts (more on that below) so can only speak for my experience.

- Too many blogs/forums/discussion areas. Like others, I too often got lost and didn't know where to go to pick back up on an existing thread.

- Even if everything was singularly located, there's still more that could be done to keep people engaged. I would've preferred receiving some kind of dashboard that, at a glance, helped orient me as to where I was in the discussion. e.g. # of messages by day, most active threads/topics, most active posters (excepting the mods). Implementing a credentials system, like that at StackOverflow.com would encourage participation.

- Also agree that "Eloquent Javascript" was a poor text. Since discovering Crockford (thanks to this course) I bought his book "Javascript - The Good Parts". I found this to be a perfect supplement to the videos. Where I think it lacks is in real-world examples, e.g manipulating the DOM. So, if I were teaching this course I would use these as reference material:

- the Crockford videos
- "Javascript - The Good Parts" by Crockford

I'd then complement this with a series of examples and exercises using the DOM, so we can try out what we've learned.

Hope that helps,
n