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General Discussion

Posted by Alex John
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Alex John
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 8,844 Points

Best way to learn? (Web Development Techdegree)

I was just wondering what ways people have found the best to learn and absorb the information from the course. I'm going through the videos and I feel like I'm picking up everything and I'm passing all the tests and quizzes easily but I still don't feel like I can go and create projects on my own with a range of the elements. It's almost that I feel like I'm learning bits of things but am unable to piece them all together.

I did have a bit of HTML and CSS knowledge prior to starting but I am only on unit 2, so am I getting ahead of myself? I feel like maybe I need to take myself out of the course and try to apply a few things to my own projects. I guess I thought that I could just watch and take part in the techdegree videos/activities and pick up what I need mostly from that. Or will I start to do so in the later units?

2 Answers

Henrik Christensen
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Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 Points
Henrik Christensen
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 Points

In the beginning I would say it's not easy to go create your own projects, but this might be because people are thinking "oh no, this is too hard" or "I can't do this" etc., and what I've learned is a great technique to create your own projects to apply what you've learned is to pick a project and then slice it into smaller more digestable pieces

  • First I want to do this
  • Then I want this
  • And this

and before you know it, the project is done :-)

Alex John
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Alex John
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 8,844 Points

Thanks for the reply :) Well I'm glad to know it's not easy to create your own projects initially. I guess, maybe like others, I always have so many visual ideas running through my head and it can be frustrating to not be able to execute them when you think you have the knowledge to do so.

I will take your advice on board and try to split up what I want to achieve and apply them to my own project. I actually think it might just be that I have to apply myself and go out of my way maybe a little bit more than I thought to really learn and absorb certain things.

Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points
Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points

What Henrik said is great. I will also add take a lot of notes, even if you already know it. Reinforce what you already know and taking notes is a great habit to have. Beyond that, if you have an idea, build a little mock page and try to implement your idea. For me that was the best and fastest way I learned. Getting my hands dirty in the code and coding, ya know. Even if it hasn't already been covered in the TechDegree, don't be afraid to look up stuff on stackoverflow or w3schools and just try some stuff out.

Alex John
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Alex John
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 8,844 Points

Hi there, thanks for the reply. I will take notes also, I haven't been doing so as sometimes you just feel like you remember until it actually comes down to needing it.

I think I need to change my mindset too, I probably looked at the techdegree as something I could just work through and have the required knowledge come the end of it but I think I really need to apply myself outside of what I learn on here too and like you have both said, also apply what I learn to my own work as I go along. I'll start doing that tomorrow and see how I get on.

Even though I was fully understanding what I was going through in the techdegree, it didn't feel right just going through each of the steps and almost racing through yet still struggling to create simple but visually appealing header/navigation and a layout of main content that was clean and organised for instance. I don't know if I'm expected to do such at this stage but I at least feel like I should be.