Workshop 8: Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series
1. Ruby is probably a language that once you "get it" it all falls in to place. The MVC and convention over configuration means that you dont have to go looking in obscure places to find the answers to error situations. It means that application maintenance should be made simpler.
2. Exposure to the Ruby way of doing things.
3. ?? Due to the frustration experienced with development and the lack of overall workshop focus I find it very difficult to find anything that would qualify as a strength. Although it is feasible that I could use my experiences in the workshops as a reason not to use Rails as an application development environment
2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series:
1. There was a distinct lack of focus throughout the workshop series. It seemed to be heading in a certain direction for the first 4 workshops, but then at workshop 5 a complete change in tack occurred. The first 4 workshops should be removed. If you start with workshop 5 and go through the RailsSpace book and develop the OTBS application in conjunction.
2. The development of the OTBS did not seem to have any real relevance to the rest of the subject matter. The Workshops should be redefined so that the development of the application corresponds to the learning outcomes being investigated in the topics.
3. Their was little scope for collaboration with other students within the workshops. As I mentioned in an earlier blog their is scope to include a project manager from a project management subject to cross pollinate the learning outcomes for students, and to improve the collaboration aspect.
3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.

Getting Ruby installed and operational. I found it hard to find any useful installation information initially. I am sure that there is lots of documentation in existence, but asking the right question proved to be difficult. Also the fact that i was trying to install in a windows environment proved frustrating. I resorted to creating a Windows XP VM to host my APTANA development environment. Once the software infrastructure was in place everything was OK.

4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series:

The workshop series should be redesigned so that:

• A VM should be developed so that all students start off on the same foot.
• The references to other frameworks could be removed.
• All the students have a programming background(?), and as such do we really need to compare looping structures or suyntax of different languages?
• It has a defined goal with some KPIs that need to be met as students progress.
• The workshop content should involve aspects of the topic being examined to more closely tie in with the subject objectives.
• their should be more of a project managed feel about the workshops so that we dont miss our targets
Free response and reflective questions:

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?

My immediate response to this question is what other frameworks? Did we actually use another framework. And if we did when? If this is referring to the few questions that were used in php, then I think it is simply irrelevant.

The experince could definitely be improved if a virtual machine was provided that had the framework already set up. I dont think that anything of real value is learnt by all students being in the dark and having to install and test various servers and hope that everything works. Everyones machine is different, and so they all have to spend a large block of time getting up and running. A VM would solve this problem by everyone starting off on the front foot.

6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.

There was little if any collaboration. This is primarily due to the time constraints imposed by the topic Q&A and the workshops. There is simply not enough time to get through the volume of work expected, and collaborate as well.

The forums were the best spot for eliciting information from other students if required.

7. Further comments to add?

It may not necessarily seem that I enjoyed the Workshop series. This is not actually the case. I did find that developing in Ruby was enjoyable to a point. However this was generally overbalanced by the frustration felt when things didnt work out correctly. Learning a new language and development paradigm is an experience to be savoured. But it is very easy to be turned off and things to sour when brick walls seemingly appear. The DRY principle is espoused by the Rails community, but that is probably what I failed at the most. I think that my final tally for creating the Online Taxi Booking System was probably somewhere upward of 20. That is I started from scratch in excess of 20 times.