Self-Directed Study: Angular 2 - Introduction

For my self-directed studies course I have decided to learn Angular2. As someone looking to pursue front-end web development this framework seems like integral part of my learning if I am to succeed in the industry.

Many companies in Nova Scotia develop using AngularJS, because of this I will spend the duration of this course working through tutorials and projects to demonstrate my Angular 2 learning. By the end of the semester I hope to have many new additions to my portfolio written in Angular 2.

For my introductory session I began a PluralSight course "Angular 2: Getting Started". As can be seen in figure 1, on January 18th I took a quiz to assess my knowledge of Angular2 and scored a 3/10. I expected to score low on this quiz because I had not yet had experience with Angular2 and what answers I did get right were from my knowledge of AngularJS.

Figure 1. Initial Assessment

I then began the PluralSight course. I completed the first 3 sections and 8/9 parts of section 4(figure 2) on January 25h & 26th(see figure 3 to verify) but found I was blindly typing and not actually learning as I worked through the course.

Figure 2. Sections of course that were complete

Figure 3. Days in which I participated in the course

On January 26th I decided it would be beneficial to alter my learning plan and complete the CodeSchool course for learning Angular 2 rather than the initially intended course. The CodeSchool course was including as a resource in my learning plan and nearly equal in terms of length of course.
Below in Figure 4. you can see the course was officially completed on February 3rd, 2017.

Figure 4. Completion of CodeSchool Course in Angular 2

You'll notice the course was not officially completed until February 3rd, indicating I am a week behind schedule. I caught a cold which developed into a chest infection that was an unforeseen setback. To compensate for this setback I had originally designated 2 weeks to work on Project One and will be cutting that time back to 1.5 weeks to complete the project.

After completing the CodeSchool course on February 3rd I began the program "Learn Angular 2 Development by Building 10 Apps" at https://www.udemy.com/learn-angular-2-development-by-building-10-apps/. As outlined in my learning plan I will not be completing all 10 applications but a selection meant to teach me the most I can learn in the course period. Figure 5 and 6 demonstrate that I reached a level of knowledge that would allow me to advance to the next stage.

Figure 5. Beginning Quiz 1 at completion of first section

Figure 6: Proof of adequate knowledge level to proceed

In figure 7 below you see a screenshot of my first Angular2 application. It has a navigation menu, complete with routing as well as a header, jumbotron and content on the pages. This simple application is composed of 2 page components as well as a jumbotron and navigation component. The source code will be available in a private repository for my instructor to see.

To date I have found the most difficulties with unforeseen setbacks such as illness and a course that, in spite of prior research, did not match my learning still. I also had a lengthy delay when I could not figure out why my webpage was blank. The result? I spelled jumbrotron instead of jumbotron. What I learned? Spelling is crucial!!!

Currently I am enjoying Angular2, I find the class structure much easier to use and have enjoyed the many improvements over AngularJS to date. Over the weekend I will be starting my second challenge in an effort to get back on schedule so that Monday I can begin Challenge 1: MEAN Stack TODO App.