FPB 2 Weeks Bootcamp Report
Hurray, my team and I trained over 20 participants and graduated over 15 students in the just concluded 2 weeks Bootcamp organized at the Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger State.
The program was aimed at targeting computer science students in the institution who do not know so much about getting started in web and software development as a computer scientist, we have among our graduates’ SALAAM YUSUFF ABIODUN, a final year student from the department of mechanical engineering of the school and ZAKARI MUHAMMAD from the prestigious Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai who traveled all the way down to Bida to attend the Bootcamp.
My team and I did a survey on why most computer science students do not know how to code even during their final years in the institution, we realized that apart from not being taught the latest languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript by the lecturers, most of them do not have access to good resources or someone to help them through when they get stuck, 75% of our respondent do not have access to a laptop, while 10% of 25% do not have a laptop that lasts for an hour, my team and I made our personal PC and extra PC from friends available for the participant while zipping each file to their phone or tablet after each class, to be run on their phone and study.
We exposed the participants to the terminologies in the technology industry, covering different job positions in web development, including who they call frontend, backend, full-stack, product managers, quality assurance, and more, in order to help them identify the various roles in web development and to make their career choice.
We were privileged to catch the attention of the TIIDELab Program Coordinator, in the person of Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju, who volunteered to travel down from Abuja to take the participant a soft-skill class titled “Beyond Coding”, where we all learned the importance of critical thinking, effective approach to problem-solving, good communication skills, decision making, and growing one’s team spirit.
“The Session with Mr. Aderoju Shamsudeen is a life-changing experience” — said one of the participants, as they engaged in critical thinking exercises and group presentations.
Mr. Aderoju Shamsudeen engaged all participant in a team work excercise, a task to provide solution to a real life problem faced by a company, in order to practicalize what they’ve learnt about the “6 thinking hats”.
The presentations of solutions by the 3 teams were encouraging even though most of the participants haven’t done a group task or presentation before the Bootcamp.
The Bootcamp curriculum was grouped into 2 phases, the general learning phase and the group learning phase, the first phase which was the general phase was where the participants were introduced to HTML and CSS by Adeyemi Buhari, a React JS frontend developer, he taught the participants the fundamental concept of HTML semantic tags and CSS which they advanced into building common components of a website such as the Navbar, Text, Button, Image, Form, and Footer.
After the completion of their HTML and CSS classes and practical with Adeyemi Buhari, covering the common components they can find on not less than 3 websites, they proceeded into Git Version Control with Ayodele Samuel Adebayo, as this will enable them to have the idea of working in a team, on the same project from different locations.
The next area that was touched during the Bootcamp was JavaScript, Ayodele Samuel Adebayo demystify the basic concepts of JavaScript including var, const and let Variables, Dom Manipulation, Functions, Json, data structure (array and object), local-storage methods, and control flows.
During this period the participants were grouped into 2 and made to select a team lead amongst themselves and to come up with a team name, this process was to help have a practical experience of leading and being led by someone while working together to achieve a common goal.
One core responsibility of every member of each team member was to ensure that their fellow teammates are up to date with what is being taught and they should be their accountability partner, which really works well as each team wants to be the savvy ones.
Soyebi Grace, a backend developer from Abeokuta provided virtual assistance to the participants in their various team breakout channels and ensuring they have effective communication among themselves for the success of their task.
The JavaScript class was advanced into developing a project which was to build a website using skills they had acquired during the classes, a website which has the following features:
A form to create a user profile
A profile page that shows the current user information
User should be able to update their profile
Protecting routes to certain pages i.e. profile and update profile
Dynamically rendering buttons based on the authentication status
These functionalities cover the basic features that we see on almost any modern website and also expose them to how seamless adding these features might be when they keep on practicing.
We know 2 weeks wasn’t enough to teach all the topics in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Version Control, and Web Hosting, that was why we came up with a curriculum based on the most common components and features that make up a website, we cleared the path to be self-reliant as they choose to continue in any of their desired careers, we also ensure to make it known that Google is their best friend even if we won’t be there 100% after the Bootcamp and using it isn’t a cheat.
Below is the link to the Bootcamp final project: https://2weeksbootcampfinalproject.netlify.app/
Visit the official #codemate website:
https://campusbootcamp.netlify.app/
My Team and I are grateful to everyone that makes this a success, may God bless you all, and to all the graduating participants, the Code-Mate Team is wishing you success in your career paths.
God bless you.
