Starting a Course

Steps needed before starting a new SDC class.

Note: This guide is used by Volunteers to setup a new class. If you are a trainee, you do not need to use this guide.

1) Send Acceptance and Rejection Email

As soon as possible after Fundamentals selection, send the trainees either their Acceptance or Rejection emails to the Software Development course.

You can find the template emails in the CYF Drive.

2) Slack

2.1) Invite Trainees to Slack

Up until this point trainees will only have been using the "Intro to Coding" Slack workspace.

You should invite them to the main CodeYourFuture workspace now.

The easiest way to do this is to create an invite link and to send them it in an email.

2.2) Create Slack User Groups for Class

When all of the trainees have signed up to Slack it is useful to create a Slack user group so you can tag them all at the same time. (e.g. #north-west-class-4)

To do this, navigate to "People & User Groups" in Slack

Then click "New User Group".

Give the group a name and then invite all the trainees.

2.3) Setup Class Channel

On the main CodeYourFuture Slack, setup a new channel for the class (e.g. #north-west-class-4) and add all trainees to it.

You should also invite key volunteers to the channel.

Be sure to write a nice welcome message for people when they join (and reminding them to complete the Getting Setup Guide)

4) Setup Google Group Email for Class

It can be really useful to have an email address for all of the trainees in a class so that you can bulk email them (e.g. [e-mail])

To do so, make sure you have admin rights to the CodeYourFuture Google Admin page.

Next, navigate to this link

https://admin.google.com/u/1/ac/groups

And click "Create Group".

Name the group and invite all of the trainees to it using their email addresses.

5) Confirm Trainee Agreement

All of the trainee should by this point have read and signed the trainee agreement - you should remind all students that it essential they do so before starting the course. Check again on Induction Day and make time to answer questions.

6) Create a new Trainee Tracker

You should use a Trainee Tracker spreadsheet to track the students progress through the course.

A CYF admin will facilitate this. Trainees must enter their data, such as their GitHub username, for their work to be tracked. It is essential they complete this before class.

Trainees need to load their data on to the trainee tracker and when all Github usernames have been entered, a team will be created. Check the Tech Ed Tools course for more on this.

8) Setup Class Planner

First, login with the Admin account on the Class Planner here (you can get the password from a CYF staff member):

Class Planner

Navigate to the city that you are in, then click "New Course".

Setup the course name and the dates that it will be running.

When the course is setup, add each of the classes as they will be happening in the course.

When the course and classes are set up, share the class planner with the trainees.

9) Confirm Trainee's Hardware

During this time, trainees will need to make sure they have a working laptop. It also needs to run a UNIX OS. This means trainees cannot run Windows on our course.

To request a laptop, should complete the steps in Requesting a Laptop or Support.

It can be helpful to have a quick ten minute call with each trainee to confirm that their webcam, microphone and internet connection are working properly in the week leading up the first class. Another option is to make a troubleshooting area and sort this out during the first class.