QCMerge: Intro To Rails
If you haven’t heard, QCMerge has put together a Ruby on Rails training course to bring aspiring devs up to speed, 0 to 60 style. By the end of the class, each student will have a basic knowledge of the the frameworkfrom which they can spring off to educate themselves further. Now that we are about a month into the class, things seem to be going very smoothly for the 13 students; 6 of which are women. So far, we’ve covered an introduction to Ruby methods and syntax, MVC architecture, test driven development and FactoryGirl, Active Record Relationships, validation, and secure passwords, and pair programming amongst other things.
At Gaslight, most of my development training has been through jumping on client projects and fixing bugs with a combination of singular and paired programming (which isn’t a bad thing — I actually learn best this way) and independent study, but the Intro to Rails class has offered a much more involved learning environment. When you are learning on the fly, sometimes finding someone who isn’t busy to clarify a concept or give an in-depth explanation can be kind of tough. In the class, there are 4 instructors (2 of which are teaching assistants) who are there solely there to make sure you are up to speed and understand the material, which can be very different from learning on your own or in a fast-paced environment. Personally, this class has been highly beneficial to my development education, even if it’s only the fourth week.
