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Whats the difference my pocket guides and the Vanilla JS Academy

I’ve had a few folks email me to ask what the difference is between my pocket guides and the Vanilla JS Academy.

My pocket guides provide tactical knowledge around specific topics.

They’re self-paced ebooks and/or video courses you can use to dig into narrow topics like DOM manipulation, or working with Ajax. Each one includes a project that focuses on that one topic, and I walk you through how to complete it. You can buy them individually, or save money by purchasing them as a set.

The Vanilla JS Academy is focused on teaching you to “think in JavaScript,” with a focus on experiential, project-based learning.

Unlike the guides, it’s not self-paced. It runs for 6-weeks. Each week, you’ll there’s a new area of focus that requires you to think holistically and apply what you learned the week before. There are a few lessons to introduce you to some core concepts you’ll need, but a bulk of your time is spent on project work.

There are two projects each week, and you’re expected to apply the concepts from the lessons and try to figure out how to do the project on your own.

The Academy also includes weekly video office hours and a private slack room just for you and others in the program to get support if needed. Unlike with the guides, I don’t walk you through the projects or give you answers until the next week, when I’ll show you how I would have approached the project.

The goal with this program is to help people better apply tactics strategically. I’ve found that for some people, the guides help them learn the tactics, but they still struggle with knowing how or when to apply them (and others don’t—a lot of it boils down to your personal learning style).