My programming skills have greatly improved in the following ways: To begin, I don't think I can say that my skills have greatly improved as the prompt says still to this day. In fact I'm doubting if MIS really is for me. However, I do think that some areas saw some major improvement. I came into this class initially with crash course knowledge on programming from my high school. I am still struggling to understand the many functions and tools that this class uses. I do think that I have a better understanding of said functions that I did before. While I may struggle with placing these into actual code, I am coming away with a basic idea of what each thing does. Another area that I think saw some minor improvement is my ability to cope. I struggled very much early on with articulating what I needed to do and being able to adapt and solve problems that came up. While I am far from perfect, I do think I am somewhat better.
I need to work on the following to improve my programming skills: I believe I have major areas of improvement to go. First, I am still far too slow in working through code and understanding it. My coding speed and pace is also very slow. My WODs proved this as it often took more than a few tries to achieve a respectable time. Another area that needs improvement is that I need to continue improvi[ng my knowledge and application of coding in general. As stated above, I believe I am struggling deeply in this class and worried about passing this class. I believe that last area of major improvement is that I would have wanted to dedicate more time for me to learn the course concepts and coding in general more thoroughly. I just want to pass this class with a C-!
I have learned a lot from doing WODs and I can do them without copying the screencast: This is another area that I struggled deeply. The WODs were the bane of my existence and hate them. While I did improve, I don't think I meet the course expectations as well as my own in speed, ability to work through problems, and the actual application of the code. Finally near the end, I was able to go somewhat without the screencase and only used it to double check my work. But I remained heavily dependent on the screencasts throughout the class. This improved this semester as I am retaking the course however still needed to double check them to ensure I was doing things correctly.
The labs have help me learn and I am able to complete them with confidence: Since the instructor walked through a good portion of the labs during class with a small portion left at the end, the labs were somewhat understandble. I did okay and the labs were the main reason that I will be walking away from the class with the majority of the learning coming from labs. Would I say I would be able to complete them with confidence, still no. I would need to continue doing them multiple times to be able to somewhat maneuver through them.
I learned a lot from my experience doing Assignment 1 and feel ready to work on Assignment 2: Assignment 1 grade was wasn't good to say the least. I don't think I submitted my best work from last semester and that was a mistake grade wise. I am taking this breather between Assigments 1 and 2 to regroup and fix and improve the code that I have. This Assignment 1 was again another wake-up call for me. I am scared for Assignment 2 and am extremely concerned. I intend to reach out for help multiple times.
I think the class can be improved to help my learning in the following ways: I still think the amount of content that this course has in 16 weeks is a little much for a beginner coder. I came into this class knowing barely nothing at all and was blown away from the very beginning. I wish the pace was a little slower and allowed for more opportunity for better understanding of topics introduced in labs and readings. Perhaps through group projects. I understand that there is collaboration allowed but a formal group project would be appreciated.
What helps me the most in class are (WODs, Labs, class website, screencasts, readings, quizzes, one on one help, working with classmates, etc.): I think what helped most in this class are the labs and class intructor's openness to the use of ChatGPT. The labs as stated above were walked-through by the instructor and did a somewhat good job in explaining concepts. The instructor was a little fast paced at times and was hard to follow. I hope they take this into account in future classes. In terms of ChatGPT, yes, while it was helpful in starting something off or inspiring you or providing some basic code, it would struggle and became less dependable as the class went on. However, I think the biggest takeaway from this class for me is persistance and to keep trying. Never giving up was extremely difficult in this class and often found myself throwing my laptop to the ground in anger and frustration often. But, there is extreme importance in persistance and the final satisfaction of partial if not complete success is satisfying.