Record playlist JS1 Week 1

[Dedekind561]

Assignees can add a plan here!

[Dedekind561]

Feedback for first recording @gregdyke

• Good introduction
• Really nice and slow talking
• Love the context note at the beginning of the video
• Super clear explanations, very nicely broken down
• Good connection to prior knowledge and experience with different environments
• Creating the need for a variable greeting - very good 💯

Changes

• Update context to Topics covered: on sticky note.
• Keep mention of distinction between frontend and backend and browser runtime. Think you should drop use of term full stack as we're trying to remove the expectation that they're going to become full stack devs by the end of the course.
• Make more of a deal of CMD + Save and the little black circle and then also show what happens in Github Desktop when you've done the save.
• Trainees might be thinking: "Where does node come from? or "Why do we need to use node?" when you invoke the node command in the terminal.
• Function not defined at any point in the video - is this on purpose?
• Think we're trying to avoid + operator for strings and jump straight to ES6. Aware this might not be an official ticket / something we've documented in Global syllabus.

[gregdyke]

2nd recording (much less successful than the 1st, but a better version would cover similar material): https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/mArU3XrM2h9DYR_ers6K_aLqr-TdNIpVcVgUXpQNeHht1uEs8hozmEy9Y96NTfz7.aSoXbMr0RffxT84n
Passcode: FdT7TT8^

• expressions vs statements
• REPL
• String expressions
• Number expressions
• MDN as documentation

If we're avoiding + for strings (sounds like a good thing), does that mean we go for

`${greeting} Greg` ?

I agree with all your points. Except maybe github desktop as I'm not sure they are working in a checked out file at this point?

Function is intentionally deferred to a later video on functions (though it's a word that is used so it should go on the sticky note)

[gregdyke]

BTW, other videos in the series would be:

• defining and calling functions
• npm install + running tests
• non-directly-essential things (briefly covering the non-used version for concatenating strings, const vs let, possibly typeof as it's kind of useful to reflectively explore stuff, but otherwise not something needed)

[Dedekind561]

Yes please, let's use

`${greeting} Greg`

Yeah I guess GH Desktop isn't that useful at this point. Just hoping to get Git reinforced/referred at some point during the flow of the recordings.

[shieldo]

I like these a lot, especially the clarity given by using the REPL - that seemed very successful. I had the same issue with the explanation for what node refers to - trainees may remember back to the program that they would have installed in preparation for the module, so it would be nice to refer back to that when making an explanation.

It might be nice to mention you can use the up arrow in the terminal to bring up the previously-entered command to run again, rather than typing out the exact same command repeatedly. I expect there is a good argument for encouraging a sufficient fluidity in the terminal/ not needing to feel like it's a slog (especially as people will very often make typos when retyping!). Using a program like Keycastr might be useful here for displaying the keys you are entering for the screencast - I haven't experimented with this, though, and don't know whether you can filter the keypresses that show up.

I think I noticed a few possible errata on the micro level but some of these are likely slips of the tongue that wouldn't happen in a new version!

[gregdyke]

I forgot to mention that I purposefully left out the up arrow + tab completion for week 2, letting them do a tiny bit of terminal typing to get familiar. But could also include here

[Dedekind561]

Hello folks,
Excellent work here - you've done a fantastic job putting this together in a short period of time! Thank you for your efforts! 🙌 🎉
In summary, I think videos 1, 2, 3 are ready to go in the playlist ✅
I think Video 4 could be edited now if you've got time and I'll explain why in the feedback below
I've left additional feedback for all the videos but to repeat any critiques for 1 to 3 are not blocking at this stage.

@shieldo @gregdyke

[Dedekind561]

Video 1

Runtime: 17 mins
Link
Passcode: H3w#FRCF

Positives

• Asking questions and prediction workflow works so well here. This is an excellent exemplar for volunteers who are going to record in the future.

Suggestions ( for future)

• When terminal is first opened, run pwd and ls commands to introduce/recap some basic CLI commands. Super useful for trainees to orient themselves in the terminal.
• Clarification that = means assignment operator and not equals as in maths

[Dedekind561]

Video 2

Runtime: 14 mins
Link
Passcode: H3w#FRCF

Positives

• Good links back to prior knowledge
• Good extra detail on side effects/expressions/statements

Suggestions ( for future)

• Maybe use word "input" instead of "argument" before section on function calls and declaring functions.
• Word "evaluate" used without definition
• Show REPL before the script as trainees can see expressions evaluated and printed without running console.log or executing a script
• let greeting = 'hello' executed in REPL without a ; - something some trainees may notice
• At one point, you said all statements are expressions. Is this strictly true? A for loop is a statement but if it was also an expression then that implies the for statement evaluates to a single value, which could in turn be passed around.

[Dedekind561]

Video 3

Runtime: 26 mins
Link
Passcode: H3w#FRCF

Positives

• Excellent consultation of docs
• Excellent reference to Math.round - super intuitive function
• Great moment when you asked what would happen when there were no function calls in the script
• Made good use of the ReferenceError for add when using the REPL

Suggestions ( for future)

• Show Math.round in the REPL first; then Math.round() and then finally Math.round(8.7).
• Word "interpolation" used without definition
• Consider invoking add1(100) but not putting a parameter in the function declaration at first. Ask what problem this presents us with?
• Emphasise that Math.round is in-built in contrast with add1 or that Math.round can be referenced without any declaration or something along those lines