I had a difficult time getting started with ITM352, since I had no experience in developing applications. Initially, my mindset was to just get through the semester with a passing grade. However, I found myself enjoying the challenge and found ITM352 very interesting. I wanted to figure it out, to do more than just a mediocre job. It was kind of like a good book that you can’t put down. It was incredibly intimidating, difficult, and frustrating. I probably lost a lot of hair and developed many bumps on my head from pulling my hair out and banging my head on the desk because I couldn’t get it right (figuratively). But when it finally clicks, it was incredibly satisfying!
Initially, I didn’t understand why I was required to take this course because I was not pursuing a career in programming and development. As the semester progressed, I discovered why it is important for MIS students to understand and gain hands on experience in programming skills. Once I began to understand the data structures and honing my logic skills, I realized the foundation I was building in navigating syntax and algorithms, working with loops, arrays, objects and command line code.
This semester I took 15 credits. My courses were intensely immersive in the fundamentals of Information systems and technology. My other subjects in Security, Networking, Linux and Cloud technology made me realize just how interlocked and important programming was to the other subjects in information systems.
ITM352 required me to grasp the concept and strategically think about the steps I was taking to accomplish the tasks with each expanding assignment. I think the exercises throughout the semester were good building blocks to set you up for what was to come in the end. It was fast paced and difficult for a person who has never done programming before. This isn’t the type of class you can skate by throughout the semester, and then cram at the end. It required you to be engaged and retain all the skills and knowledge from the beginning to be able to follow through and be successful in the course.
I am not an expert, but I have acquired the ability to maneuver through html, js, json and css code with ease. I gained a foundational understanding of the logic behind what each of the commands were executing and how to declare and connect the code. Also, working on the server, the DOM, console and terminal were useful skills that I parlayed into my other classes. I could never have imagined that I would be able to understand what codes did and that I would be able to acquire these programming skills in an IT context.
Assignment 1 was more creative where you were mapping out what you wanted to develop. It also presented many technical challenges. Assignment 1 was where I realized I was able to flex my knowledge from the labs and WODs. I admittedly used ChatGPT to get ideas on what code to use. However, I think it may have caused me more grief. Relying on ChatGPT takes you down a rabbit hole where you end up getting lost.
Assignment 2 was far more challenging. I realized the importance of taking things slow, writing out comments, and making small reversable changes in developing software applications. My biggest learning lesson in Assignment 2 was that you cannot use too much code from ChatGPT. It was only helpful if you understand that you can only take small nibbles of ChatGPT code. You also need to know which nibble to take. The best example I can give is when you ask Chat GPT a simple question. It gives you an excessively wordy response. It does the same if you ask it to write code. You will receive a lot of unnecessary parts that would inevitably break the beautiful code you spent days working on.
Some of the other elements of the course that provided growth were WODs, labs, quizzes, and creating the professional portfolio. The WODs were probably what made things stick in my brain the most because I kept having to redo the same task over and over. Watching the screencast may have been perceived as a crutch, but I think they were helpful getting the correct answer and continuously repeating them for the purpose of the video recording.
I have certainly lost a lot of sleep this semester. However, this experience taught me problem-solving skills, perseverance, confidence and lessons that I can carry over to my career in Information Systems.
Overall, ITM352 was a very challenging but rewarding experience. I got stuck many times, but I am very thankful to have had help from my classmates, Lui the best TA, and especially Professor Port who took a lot of extra time to help myself and many of the other students who got stuck, even in the late hours of the night.