Glad you asked. Each lesson starts by listing the lesson objectives. These are short statements that indicate what you'll be learning throughout the lesson.
In addition to listing objectives, each lesson provides a brief TL;DR so that you can glance through, get a sense of what the lesson covers, and decide if the lesson is for you or not.
If you decide to continue your journey, you'll then encounter three sections:
- Overview - the overview contains explanatory text, examples, and code snippets. You are not expected to code along with any of the examples shown here. The goal is to simply read through and get initial exposure to the lesson topics.
- Demo - the demo is a tutorial-style project. You absolutely should code along with this section. This is your second exposure to the content as well as your first opportunity to dive in and do the thing.
- Challenge - the challenge contains a similar project to the demo only instead of walking you through it, the lesson leaves just a few simple prompts that you should then take and implement independently.
This structure leans into a pedagogical technique call IWY loops. IWY stands for "I do, We do, You do." Each step along the way increases your exposure to the topic and reduces the amount of handholding you're given.
Again, glad you asked. The lesson structure is pretty great, but everyone comes into this with different backgrounds and aptitudes that can't be taken into account by static text. With that in mind, here are three recommendations for how to get the most out of the course:
- Be brutally honest with yourself - this may sound a little vague, but being honest with yourself about how well you understand a certain topic is essential to mastering it. It's really easy to read a thing and think "yeah, yeah I get it," only to realize later that you actually didn't. Be honest with yourself while going through each lesson. Please don't hesitate to repeat sections if you need to or do outside research when the lesson phrasing doesn't quite work for you.
- Do every demo and challenge - this supports the first point. It's pretty tough to lie to yourself about how well you know something when you make yourself try to do it. Do every demo and every challenge to test where you're at and repeat them as needed. We provide solution code for everything, but be sure to use it as a helpful resource rather than a crutch.
- Go above and beyond - sounds cliche, I know, but don't just stop at what the demo and challenges ask you to do. Get creative! Take the projects and make them your own. Build past them. The more you practice the better you get.
Alright, that's it for my pep talk. Get after it!