Starting a Course
Steps needed before starting a new SDC class.
Note: This guide is used by Volunteers and Programme Managers to setup a new class. If you are a trainee, you do not need to use this guide.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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. [email protected])
To do so, make sure you have admin rights to the CodeYourFuture Google Admin page.
Next, navigate to this link
And click "Create Group".
Name the group and invite all of the trainees to it using their email addresses.
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.
You should use a Trainee Tracker spreadsheet to track the students progress through the course.
The Programme Manager 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.
7) Setup Google Classroom
We use Github Teams to release coursework to trainees and to give them access to the work they need.
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.
First, check we are using Google Classroom. Then, join the Tech Ed Tools course for Programme Managers and read the Google Classroom topic.
When you have created the class, invite all of the trainees using their email.
First, login with the Admin account on the Class Planner here (you can get the password from a CYF staff member):
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.
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.
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.
Finally, send an email to all new Trainees with an overview of
- Any final Setup Details they need to do
- Confirm the date and time of the first class
- If online - send a link to the Zoom where the class will happen
- If in person - send the address where class will be taking place
It can be useful to attach a Google Form and ask the trainees to confirm their attendance of the first class by completing it - this is how you can tell who hasn't received the email.
Last modified 5mo ago