- Task/Goal
Teach students to be fullstack developers in 24 hours
A small explanation:
Not long ago, I started building a course for 13 asylum seekers and this is how it went.
- How it went
stage 1: optimism
"All I need is to teach them the technologies needed! I got this" A few moments later..
stage 2: realism (that was quick.)
"Oh wait, there is html, css, js, node,js, express, mongoDB, react, mobx... thats alot to learn! Ok, so I will start with the basic html/css afterwards ge to the back end and then teach them the react framework because it is comparily easy to understand. sounds logical. I have only 2 hours a week for three months.
stage 3: optimism!
thats ok, because who can not learn how to build a fullstack application in 24 hours right?
stage 4: back to realism, yet again.. pretty quick huh?
Ok, maybe this wont be so easy after all. I start teaching in two weeks and 24 hours is not really enough. so what do I do? Google it! The correct answer to all the questions."
I found out about an awesome learning platforms called lms, or lxp. the problem is that the course is run by a non-profit organization so buying an lxp is not in the budget.
stage 5: Rationalism
"Well.. maybe I could build a simple lxp in one week and write the content on the second? that sounds rational!" I know.. I tend to think that a lot of things are rational.
-How does it work?
There are 3 important pages
"lessons" - which in it you can learn about each technology."projects" - After every subject you need to complete the project as well, because I believe in learning through projects.
"Links" - for whenever you just don't get it, or want to exercise.
The students started using it on tuesday and its a hit :)
I hope you enjoyed being in my mind for a minute :)
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Strategy
- Approach
Since I had only a sum of 24 hours to be with the students, the approach was to help them learn by their own.
Dont worry, I didn't leave them hanging with just the tip "learn by yourself" because,
that won't be very smart or nice or "me doing the job I was paid for".
I built an e-learning platform with material that covers everything they need.
With a project based on each set of materials learned, exercises and helpful links.
Along with the e-learning platform was a mentor attached to each student.
I can surely say, this approach was a success
Technologies/notable dependencies
- React
- Python
- Self-made Api
- Material-Ui
- Styled Components
- Color Palette
The site was meant for long reading at day or night so I took that into mind with the design,
deciding that it would be best to keep a simple but arousing palette with, of course, a dark theme(For night time) and a bright theme(For day time).
This would allow The students to learn throughout the whole day and not get bored.
The navbar is on the side with an option to expand or collapse for better reading.
Ideally, users would be able to navigate through the site and use it without any instructions.
- Purpose/Pages/Screens
The back-end offered a rich self-made api with all the material, lessons, projects, important links, students and mentors.
The course was intended to be very ease to use, with this in mind I created the flow as Lesson > Project > Links (for help and exercises).
every lesson and project has a date, lessons for starting and projects for finishing
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