I feel frustrated and I don't feel like I'm learning properly. I'm so confused.

[altea]

I am doing Softdev via the VSV.  The course seems to just be chunks of text that have been copied and pasted. We then have a few activities which we have to fill out and submit by the end of the week.

I'm not having difficulty with learning the programming language (PHP), but the content is what's bothering me. The course just consists of slabs of text. I don't know what definitions or terms or things I am meant to memorise - because it would just be impossible to memorise the content there. There aren't really any quizzes or anything. There are no practice assessments. There isn't much communication from the teachers. I have been doing the course for about a term now and have never received any feedback on anything.

I also find the programming activities we have to do really unhelpful. It would be a lot easier to have something like Grok or Codecademy because I have to spend 15 minutes every time I want to do the activities waiting for xampp to set itself up, setting up Atom, making sure I'm in the right file, just making sure the code can actually run, and it just means that what I'm doing doesn't stick in my head very well at all.

Now I have to submit a Gantt chart of my project. I am so confused. I don't know what tasks I have to do for it yet, or when they'll be completed by, or what resources we'll need. I thought that we were going to get told what we were meant to do, what order we were meant to do things in, etc. I don't know how I'm going to implement the website yet. I thought we were going to learn how to do that. But it just says 'submit gantt chart'. There are no instructions or details. That's the only information I've been given. What am I supposed to do?

I don't know what to do. I'm worried I'm going to get to the exam and have no idea what it's talking about. The teachers take a while to respond and during the online lessons it's really frustrating, because other students are mucking around and making irrelevant jokes, and one of the teachers doesn't really answer questions, he just makes jokes, tells stories, and goes on tangents, so very little information ends up being gained.

I just feel frustrated and lost. I wish I could do this with a normal teacher. I need someone I can sit down and talk to about everything I'm confused about.

[Stormbreaker-X]

I am doing Softdev via the VSV.  The course seems to just be chunks of text that have been copied and pasted. We then have a few activities which we have to fill out and submit by the end of the week.

I'm not having difficulty with learning the programming language (PHP), but the content is what's bothering me. The course just consists of slabs of text. I don't know what definitions or terms or things I am meant to memorise - because it would just be impossible to memorise the content there. There aren't really any quizzes or anything. There are no practice assessments. There isn't much communication from the teachers. I have been doing the course for about a term now and have never received any feedback on anything.

I also find the programming activities we have to do really unhelpful. It would be a lot easier to have something like Grok or Codecademy because I have to spend 15 minutes every time I want to do the activities waiting for xampp to set itself up, setting up Atom, making sure I'm in the right file, just making sure the code can actually run, and it just means that what I'm doing doesn't stick in my head very well at all.

Now I have to submit a Gantt chart of my project. I am so confused. I don't know what tasks I have to do for it yet, or when they'll be completed by, or what resources we'll need. I thought that we were going to get told what we were meant to do, what order we were meant to do things in, etc. I don't know how I'm going to implement the website yet. I thought we were going to learn how to do that. But it just says 'submit gantt chart'. There are no instructions or details. That's the only information I've been given. What am I supposed to do?

I don't know what to do. I'm worried I'm going to get to the exam and have no idea what it's talking about. The teachers take a while to respond and during the online lessons it's really frustrating, because other students are mucking around and making irrelevant jokes, and one of the teachers doesn't really answer questions, he just makes jokes, tells stories, and goes on tangents, so very little information ends up being gained.

I just feel frustrated and lost. I wish I could do this with a normal teacher. I need someone I can sit down and talk to about everything I'm confused about.

You are not alone in this, have you tried asking someone on atar notes?
Btw my school is moving to online learning now due to shutdowns so therefore we are all on the same page.

[QuinnJLi]

I am doing Softdev via the VSV.  The course seems to just be chunks of text that have been copied and pasted. We then have a few activities which we have to fill out and submit by the end of the week.

I'm not having difficulty with learning the programming language (PHP), but the content is what's bothering me. The course just consists of slabs of text. I don't know what definitions or terms or things I am meant to memorise - because it would just be impossible to memorise the content there. There aren't really any quizzes or anything. There are no practice assessments. There isn't much communication from the teachers. I have been doing the course for about a term now and have never received any feedback on anything.

I also find the programming activities we have to do really unhelpful. It would be a lot easier to have something like Grok or Codecademy because I have to spend 15 minutes every time I want to do the activities waiting for xampp to set itself up, setting up Atom, making sure I'm in the right file, just making sure the code can actually run, and it just means that what I'm doing doesn't stick in my head very well at all.

Now I have to submit a Gantt chart of my project. I am so confused. I don't know what tasks I have to do for it yet, or when they'll be completed by, or what resources we'll need. I thought that we were going to get told what we were meant to do, what order we were meant to do things in, etc. I don't know how I'm going to implement the website yet. I thought we were going to learn how to do that. But it just says 'submit gantt chart'. There are no instructions or details. That's the only information I've been given. What am I supposed to do?

I don't know what to do. I'm worried I'm going to get to the exam and have no idea what it's talking about. The teachers take a while to respond and during the online lessons it's really frustrating, because other students are mucking around and making irrelevant jokes, and one of the teachers doesn't really answer questions, he just makes jokes, tells stories, and goes on tangents, so very little information ends up being gained.

I just feel frustrated and lost. I wish I could do this with a normal teacher. I need someone I can sit down and talk to about everything I'm confused about.

Hey! I have some resources from my own teacher that I could share with you. I'm not doing that language of coding so I can't help there, but I do have some due dates that can guide you and with that comes a structure and order to do things in for the SAT. If you had an email or something, I could probably email them to you

[Bri MT]

Hey,

Welcome to the forums

When I did DECV (now called VSV) I was also frustrated by not getting much feedback and feeling like there wasn't enough guidance. One thing I should've done more was actually reaching out to the teacher and asking them questions - if you haven't tried contacting your teachers yet I recommend you do as they might not be aware of how unclear instructions are.

[Failingvce]

I’m in the same boat as you! Doing biology via distance and I’m struggling HARD. I get what you mean when the lessons are just slabs of writing copy and pasted!!

[stantheman1]

I am also learning it via distance ed. I would suggest looking it up on youtube to learn php instead and the same thing for data structures, etc. For PHP i strongly suggest PHP front to back by Traversy Media.

[altea]

Update: I did really well, despite this insanity! All thanks to a kid I got to tutor me. He's been through the rodeo himself so he was able to clear all this stuff up for me.

To anyone in my position, I strongly recommend getting someone as a tutor - either a former student who has done VCE SoftDev themselves (the new study design this year isn't too different from the old one), or a teacher who is experienced with teaching the subject and knows what the examiners want.

Thank god it's all over. 

[lm21074]

Congratulations, altea!