I have given freeCodeCamp a go a few times. The contents on the Responsive Web Design Certification are clear and well explained.
However, I am not sure what’s the goal with the Javascript Algorithms and Data Structure. The content is a mess of instructions with no clear explanation. Some of the challenges have over 170 steps with instruction after instruction that gets you lost. You are creating functions that you don’t even know the purpose.
It would be helpful have a chart for example, so we know the goals of the project and the steps to do it.
I considered becoming a supporter but I am autistic and I don’t think your curriculum is inclusive, in special when you throw dozens of steps with no explanation. It makes us (people with learning disabilities) to feel stupid because we can’t get the hold of it. In the end we are just filling the gaps with help from ChatGPT.
I appreciate we can ask for help from the community, but if that was the case, it probably would take us a year to finish some of the projects. The replies take time and by the time we get them we already forgot what generated the query.
freeCodeCamp is a brilliant initiative. I like it. I would love to support it and make it a step towards learning to code to everybody. But you seriously have to consider inclusivity and assume less about your public. Some of the instructions make us feel like idiots and the feedback is poor and not helpful. Things need to be explained properly.
I am considering stopping with freeCodeCamp again and come back in a few months or so to check whether you made the JS curriculum accessible to all.
As you want to be the gateway for people’s better future, you should not let disabilities uncovered. We deserve consideration too.
I personally have similar feelings about the new js beta curriculum and I am not autistic so I believe your comments have merit and are applicable to many here. I personally have given feedback that includes comments like: people need to know why they are doing things so the steps make sense.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to make a curriculum that is specifically tailored to every learner, and massively overhauling the curriculum however you’d like it isn’t something that can be done in a couple of months.
I will note, learning is hard and programming is hard. Programming involves a lot of being frustrated. No matter what resources you use, there will be frustration.
I would come here and ask questions: this forum and our Discord exist specifically because it’s impossible to create a curriculum that nobody will ask questions about.
Also note, I recommend being careful about anything ChatGPT says, as it will happily give wrong information in a convincing way, so it’s difficult for learners to tell when it’s truthful or misleading.
I have completed the legacy JS course and I’m currently working through the new beta course, so have a little perspective on this, as a fellow student.
The major shift from the legacy course to the new course is that the new course is more project-orientated.
Whilst the legacy course works through JS fundamentals in a structured, linear, lesson-based (and generally very well explained) fashion, the new course is designed to be more representative of real-world JS in the sense that you’re always building something practical or purposeful.
The projects are designed to cover JS fundamentals but also to introduce practical concepts and norms, which can be applied in real-world coding. That’s the upside. The downside is that a project-based curriculum can be a little hamstrung by the need to introduce many differing concepts simultaneously, which can be confusing, even when the project as a whole may have a consistent thematic idea.
Perhaps the new course can be refined a little, to give instructions and explanations more clearly (yet still being concise).
As @hbar1st suggests though, perhaps the legacy course might be more suited to you. I certainly found it a really solid and easy-to-follow guide to the fundamentals of JS.
I think you are biting the wrong side of the stick in here. Being autistic doesn’t mean I am stupid. I know coding is hard and I know there is a thriving community out there that is willing to help be in Discord or in the forums here.
I am also aware that ChatGPT is not accurate. But neither are some of the interactions here, hence your perception of disability.
Nobody asked to a change in the curriculum. A flow chart for example would make the projects easier to understand. Should we throw all the platforms and raised all the curbs as the number of people on wheelchairs can not have their needs met?
A lot of developments have been made to help people with disabilities: ARIA is one of them. It didn’t take changing the web. JavaScript is supposed to assist some of those disabilities.
Perhaps you can engage in learning a bit more about disabilities before replying to questions of the type. It’s a bit easier to understand than the current JS curriculum from freeCodeCamp.
If all the replies from requested meet answers like yours, I am probably better off going to learn JS somewhere else.
I never said you were stupid. I tell just about everyone that the curriculum will not be perfect for them and that they will have lots of frustration learning and working in programming. That’s just how learning from any resource works for anyone, and its just how programming is.
I think you should maybe not assume so much about the people you are talking to
Humans on this forum tend to be far more accurate than GPT - I’d still recommend you talk to humans before GPT.
