A Bit Arduous, This Course.

This is not a course for the faint-hearted!

Book wise, I've bought O'Reilly's JavaScript - The Definitive Guide, which looks like it covers everything one could possibly want to know about JavaScript. I bought this book in particular because I like the O'Reilly series and wanted a good reference book, rather than a teach-yourself type book. This is in addition to the course text book (provided), JavaScript for the World Wide Web (4th Ed), by Negrino and Smith.



I found the course book more of a "cookbook" (sorry no cake recipes, Roger!) rather than a good book for the beginner. It is reasonable to dip into to find a suitable script, but is not really a book to teach JavaScript from scratch. I feel I can state that the O'Reilly book is almost essential reading if you want to know more about how JavaScript works. The course book doesn't go into JavaScript in any great detail, and so you can get the detail you need from O'Reilly. A lot of people have recommended John Pollock's JavaScript a beginners guide.

There are other books on teaching yourself JavaScript out there; if you are planning to take this course, it may well be worth your while to get one before the course starts. This is because the course progresses very rapidly, and one can feel out of one's depth very quickly. It's also important to brush up on your HTML and CSS as it's assumed you are fairly fluent in these. I recommend Niederst's Web Design in a Nutshell as a very good companion book for the course; I've been dipping into it a lot for web-related questions, and it also has a section on JavaScript.

My JavaScript knowledge prior to this course was limited. I knew C++ from studying MT262 a year ago, which is of some help, however I have found the layout of the course is such that it makes learning difficult. This is just my opinion and others may find it suits them.

Other Resources

There are many good websites that people found useful during this course. I have tried to collate them and have listed them all on a separate page, TT281 Resources.

CMAs

The first CMA had four questions zero-weighted, so some difficulties still persist, as they did in TT280. The second CMA similarly had problems, although no questions were zero-weighted. There was some confusion over the sense of some questions. CMA 43 results seemed a bit better all round for people. Overall my CMA grades were 85% plus, but many people dropped to their lowest ever scores.

The ECA

Doing the ECA has been no easy ride. The subject is once again the pots and pans company, reminiscent of TT280, but this time we are to improve some sample pages by adding JavaScript to them. The site uses frames, there is no choice about this, so you would be well advised to revise the HTML of using frames prior to this course! The ECA involves a number of set things we have to do, each involving the use of JavaScript (for instance, producing a select-and-go menu, or using multiple rollovers). We can get the JavaScript code from anywhere, we don't have to write it ourselves, but the catch is you'll have to understand it, as part of the ECA requires all the JavaScript code you've written to be listed and the various bits of it explained. A 2000 word report is also required, which will involve explaining the improvements made to the site and the reasons why. Accessibility, usability and internationalisation are all important issues, too.

The conferences are very active with good support for students, both from fellow students and also from the moderators. They are proving to be a life-line for the less experienced, programming-wise.

Results

Very pleasing results - I got a Distinction (89%) overall, so am thrilled that all the hard work paid off.