Do you need a second monitor?

The importance of organising yourself on a daily basis 

Sticking to a regular daily routine is vital for succeeding when doing home office and our students got that right. They start their day with breakfast or coffee, then log in on Zoom for classes that take place as usual: morning workout, stand-up, lecture, practice. They also remember to take frequent breaks during the day to stretch, do a bit of sport or get fresh air. In late afternoons, evenings, and weekends they might schedule additional practise and reading or get rest. 

Besides having a good routine, it is important to organise your workspace in an efficient way. 

“External monitor, tv or tablet is strongly recommended. Or at least use a smartphone as a second device. On my smartphone I follow the instructor or my teammates, and work on my laptop at the same time”, Vladimir.

The main goal is to avoid any distraction and to feel like being in a classroom instead of a bedroom. Keeping your workspace clean, organised and functional will help you be productive.

How we make sure that our students have the best assistance

Organisers of online workshops and classes often find it challenging to provide immediate support to their students. As our aim is offering the very same experience, our task is to make the best use of tools such as Zoom, Slack, and our own environment where we share materials and solutions. Thanks to such tools, our mentos can be reached easily and address the students questions as soon as possible, often also outside of the teaching hours.

“In the beginning, I was a bit anxious whether I would be able to catch up but everyone is nice and I have enough support, even on evenings“, says Anna who studied from Georgia.

We make sure that everything is structured and running smoothly. There is always the possibility to ask for help in breakout rooms and to share screens. Students can ask any question any time, there will always be someone to answer, whether it is a mentor or another student. 

“The mentors are doing their best to give attention to everyone and I think that I am receiving enough attention from them!”, Marian, who studied from the UK.

“Mentors are being extremely helpful now and whenever we get stuck, we can easily ask them to join our private team rooms on Zoom for advice,” says Lyuben. 

Staying efficient for team work

In the second half of their bootcamp, our students work intensively on their Final Team Project. Brainstorming, planning, and organising their work while putting into practice their freshly acquired programming skills is a challenge whether you study in person or online. So how did our remote students deal with these challenges? 

Each team had their own virtual room, open all day long, where team members could discuss and help each other. In this private space the students can share their screen, and talk without any distractions from the rest of the class. The mentors would join their rooms regularly on their own, or whenever the team asked for help on our dedicated chat channel. 

For the Final Team Project we recommend our students to use a collaborative app where they can schedule their tasks for their upcoming sprints. A good project management is key for succeeding at delivering a nice working product by the end of the Bootcamp. 

“We have a well established connection through Zoom and we are posting notes as daily tasks on Trello for our sprints” says Lyuben. 

Both remote and in person studies can provide excellent educational results. Thus, think for yourself what you feel works better for you or go for the hybrid model as many of our bootcampers. Either way - make the best out of it!

Our last hybrid batch