I gone though a good portion of the new curriculum and would like to say what I currently don’t like about it so far. Feel free to correct me.
The lesson’s(what i call the steps) don’t seem to teach much.
They tend to tell you to add margin/padding and other properties.
Very few times I seen in-depth explanations for things.
And at worse, sudden properties/concepts not used before in the course but suddenly brought in expecting you to know it.
One example: Accessibility Form - Step 13
It never mentioned using > stuff in the course.
It explained inline elements.
It explained display flex.
It didn’t explain why this time we used flex.
In the typography course before this it was even using floats.
But also it explained justify-content but never space-evenly.
So when it words out it wants this, its hard to think of the value you never heard of.
Am i wrong here?
Are we expected to study elsewhere than here?
If so, how?
In my past experience there’s MANY css concepts to learn, many values, many reasons when to use a value over another, and to be fair not every resource on the internet would help, some may even contradict each other.
How do we efficiently find what this new course doesn’t cover?
As there’s many things the course sort of skips or skims over.
How do you guys feel? Am I alone in thinking a lot of the steps are more or less saying what to write rather explaining why to write a line?
Either way I thank you to who ever who took the time to read this, Happy Coding
I definitely agree that some things could be worded better or an explanation could be provided for some concepts introduced. For example, when you first encounter adding multiple classes to an element it does not tell you how to add them, just to simply to add them. It is expected that you already know the correct syntax for that. Another example that I just ran into is it has you use height: 100vh; but it does not explain what 100vh is or what vh even means.
I recently finished Legacy RWD and just started New RDW. Done first two projects and honestly, I like them both.
With Legacy I was introduced to html & css, and with new, I build up upon that knowledge. I find new a bit easier until first two projects. By that I mean, more steps are introduced compared to legacy. Latter on will be more challenging.
In any case, it is useful to help yourself using search engine to get a bigger picture.
The (New) Responsive Web Design curriculum definitely has more lessons and covers more topics than the previous legacy version. I love the overall feel of it and the new layout. My only complaint is it uses concepts that have not yet been introduced or explained.
I completely agree that searching for things helps you learn more because you are more engaged in the search. But as @demonstudios1123 said, it is kind of hard in some instances to search for what you don’t know. In the examples I provided both things can be found with a quick google search. But they shouldn’t have to be in my opinion. Even if briefly it should explain all concepts used in the curriculum.
I say to that, use a search engine and do your homework. In future, you will be asked to do certain things and only way to start is to do good research on the subject. There will be no hints, just you and your project.
to absorb all that is in RWD cert, will take time.
Thank you for your feedback
I have gone through a few sections of the new curriculum when I was testing it out in beta.
Here are my thoughts
One of the issues freeCodeCamp found with the old curriculum was that users were able to complete the individual challenges but struggled when it came time to build projects.
This new project based curriculum is to get users used to building projects right away and bridge the gap between lessons and certification projects.
So that was one of the reasons for the reduced text content.
IMO, I think it is healthy to have multiple sources to learn from.
freeCodeCamp can be your main one and then use other resources to supplement your studies.
Some of my favorites are MDN docs and CSS Tricks.
That was my personal approach when learning to code before landing a job.
CSS is something you can easily spend years studying because there is so much to learn.
When it comes to knowing when to use a css value over another, I think that is developed over time with personal projects and on the job through different use cases.
I would consider this as a good starting foundation to build from.
Once you start building personal projects, and possibly getting involved with open sources projects, then you will be exposed to more concepts and continuing your learning from there.
Also, the more you are plugged into a community, you will hear about other resources to check out to continue your learning.
Completely agree here. I had so much trouble to build tribute page and survey form so I had to use yt video to follow. Second time was bit easier bc I done it already, and I went trough curriculum once again, which is actually good to repeat and remember.
