Updated Monday, April 26, 2021
This document is available at:
https://reskillamericans.github.io/info-2021/
Please report problems with this document at our Issue Tracker.
Front-End Node.js Python PHP Android Flutter Design
| Name | Slack Username | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Seyi Onifade | @xyluz | Educational Coordinator |
| Mike Koss | @Mike Koss | Board Member Head Cheerleader |
| Adejuwon Isola-Osobu | @Juwon O | Program Director |
Feel free to message us on Slack if you need assistance during the program outside of help from your instructors. You can also email us at info@reskillamericans.org.
If you want to reference past-completed courses, they may look like they disappeared on your LMS home page. Try clicking the Completed Courses button to see if they are there.
We are entering week 4 of the program this week. If you are keeping up you should:
- Be logging into Slack to check #announcements.
- Login to the LMS (Learning Management System)
- Selected a Track to focus on and entered the code from #announcements to join the LMS group for that track.
- Completed your 3rd week's assignments. If you are not done, you will have until Saturday, April 10th, to complete them.
NOTICE: It's very important that you complete the Courses assigned to you on time. New courses are usually added to your LMS each Saturday, and you should complete them by the following Saturday. If you fail to complete them, you will have a one week grace period. But after that time, you will no longer be able to participate in our program with unfinished assignments. If you do not get a passing grade in an assignment, you can take the test again until you pass.
In any event - you will always have a whole week from the time an assigment is given, to it being due. And you will be given 1 week after that as a grace period if you miss the due date.
Welcome to our program! The general outline of our course spans seven months. During that time we will be:
- 2 months: Course Work
- 2 months: Project based learning
- 3 months: "Virtual" Internship
We officially starting the program on March 15th, with a final registration deadline of March 7, 2021. We published a Syllabus Summary in early March.
We are working hard to make sure we are as responsive as possible to everyone's needs to get questions answered, and get help. There are different expectations about how responsive we will be able to be, depending on where you ask the question. This is our SLA (Service Level Agreement) for these different communication channels.
- Post to a channel called track-X. This is the BEST way to get a quick response. The reason being that your peers may be able to help you as well as our mentors and instructors. You can expect a response is under 1 hour by a peer, and under 5 hours by a mentor.
- Post to the #mentor-help channel. All mentors monitor this channel for general questions. Please only use this if your questions isn't specific to a track-X channel that has been setup. (e.g., please ask questions about CSS on #track-frontend-html-css instead of #mentor-help). You can expect a response in under 5 hours.
- If a specific mentor is helping you, you can continue to send them a dm (private message). But note that we do have some time-zone variance - so they may be sleeping when you are awake. Expect a response to dm's in under 24 hours. Similarly, you can use the messaging system on the LMS to communicate with your course instructors - be sure to select the "(Only Instructor)" option for the recipient. This list of mentors and instructors is in the track-specific course notes linked from https://reskillamericans.github.io/info-2021/
- Post to #help-desk if you have a problem with you login to the LMS, or some other administrative system giving you problems. Please don't post questions about the courses here as mentors may not see it. You can expect a response in 24 hours.
- If you have not gotten a response within the above time frames, please escalate to @xyluz. Especially for issues related to instructors or mentors not being reachable. It is possible that your message just got lost in the shuffle and needs to be prioritized. You can expect a response in 24 hours.
- You can escalate messages to @Juwon O or @Mike Koss if all the above have not been able to address your problem. If Slack is not available, or you prefer you can also send email to info@reskillamericans.org. We will respond within 24 hours.
Thanks for your help in helping us optimize your experience and get the quickest response possible.
All participants have been invited to join our slack channel:
Participation in the program is conditional on your adherence to our Code of Conduct.
We have set up the following channels on Slack:
- #announce: Announcements from organizers for any program information or upcoming events.
- #help-desk: Use to ask questions if you have problems accessing course material or other administrative questions.
- #introductions: Introduce yourself here to your fellow participants. Good place to seek our regional study partners, etc.
- #mentor-help: General questions about software development issues. E.g. setting up your computer, installing software, using Git, using VS-Code.
- #projects-feedback: Once we start implementing projects, this will be a place you can show off your work, and get your peers to give you feedback.
Feel free to join a smaller community of participants in your area.
-
#study-group-atlanta
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#study-group-austin
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#study-group-birmingham
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#study-group-boston
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#study-group-ca: California
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#study-group-chicago
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#study-group-charlotte
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#study-group-dallas
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#study-group-dmv: DC, Maryland, and Virginia
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#study-group-florida
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#study-group-houston
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#study-group-new-york
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#study-group-seattle
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#study-group-novices: There are no stupid questions anywhere. But, if you'd like to join a study group of self-identifying "novices" - here you go.
For participants that have chosen a track, the best place to ask questions is in one of the track specific channels (if you're having a question, it's likely others in your group are having a similar one).
Your instructors and mentors will be monitoring these channels for questions.
If you know the answer to another participant's question, please feel free to help out and answer it - there are many more participants than mentors so it is very appreciated when others can fill in with timely advice.
- #track-backend
- #track-backend-javascript
- #track-backend-php
- #track-backend-python
- #track-design
- #track-frontend
- #track-frontend-html-css
- #track-frontend-javascript
- #track-mobile
- #track-mobile-android
- #track-mobile-flutter
Each week, we host a live
Town Hall - every Monday morning at 8 am PDT
(9 am MDT, 10 am CDT, 11 am EDT)
on YouTube. Town Halls will usually feature a guest speaker from industry or organizations providing additional support services.
Instructors may also upload content to YouTube for you to use as part of your Track. Links to these videos will be posted in Slack or the LMS.
The primary course material, schedule, and assignments are all on
Each Track will be assigned a Group Code (published in #announcments). Use this code to Join Group in the LMS. This will then unlock a set of additional Courses specific to your track.
New assignments will be released each Saturday and due the following Saturday. There is a one-week grace period if you fall behind on completing assignments.
If you have any issues that you cannot resolved with the above tools please email us at
We will try to repspond to you within 24 hours.
| Week | Start Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Week #10 | May 16 - 22 | First week of Projects (projected) |
| Week #9 | May 9 - 15 | Eighth week of courses (catchup). |
| Week #8 | May 2 - 8 | Seventh week of courses. |
| Week #7 | April 25 - May 1 | Sixth week of courses. |
| Week #6 | April 18 - 24 | Fifth week of courses. |
| Week #5 | April 11 - 17 | Fourth week of courses. |
| Week #4 | April 4 - 10 | Third week of courses. |
| Week #3 | March 29 - April 3 | Second week of courses. The first week's assignments need to be completed to remain enrolled in the program. |
| Week #2 | March 21 - 27 | First week of courses on LMS. Choice of Track made. |
| Week #1 | March 15 - 20 | Orientation. Explaination of tools and tracks. |
Our program has 6 distinct tracks. Click the links below to see track-specific course information.
Look for the "group code" for your chosen track in #annoucements on Slack. Enter into the Join Group dialog on reskillamericans.us in order to enroll in that Track.
There are a few General Courses that have been assigned to all the programming tracks. They are listed in in reverse chronological order.
There are currently no General courses assigned this week. See your individual track course notes to see what has been assigned.
NOTICE: You will have to have all Week 2 course completed by the end of this week in order to continue with the program (these will already be one week past due). Thank you.
-
Introduction to Cloud Computing
Note that the test may require doing some independent research to answer all the questions. Feel free to use Google to help. -
Basic Git for complete beginners.
Explains the Git version control system and Github (in more depth than last week's Introduction to Programming course).- Git 01 - Introduction - 11 minutes
- Git 02 - Pushing to GitHub - 16 minutes
- Git 03 - Cloning and Pushing to GitHub - 15 minutes
- Git 04 - GitHub Desktop - 8 minutes - a graphical user interface option to the command line git.
Assignment: Create a github repo the same name as your github username (this will later be your online portfolio).
Supplemental Content
Here's a really nice github cheat sheet you should keep by your computer when using git.
Mike created a couple of videos demonstrating Git and GitHub if you are still feeling unsure about it.
Git Demo - 28 minutes - Walk through creating a GitHub account, making a repo on GitHub, and doing some commands on the command line to update it.
Git Demo Office Hours - 45 minutes - Going through the excercise of connecting to the same repository on github and making and merging two branches.
This week participants begin working with the Learning Managment System (LMS).
-
Talent LMS - Gettings Started. This is the basic introduction to using the learning managament system.
-
Software Development Life Cycle. Video and short quiz explaining how software teams organize their work.
Supplemental Content
Some people have trouble with the English accent of the video on the LMS. This video has pretty much the same content and you may find it easier to watch.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) - 9 minutes -
Introduction to Programming. Explains computer programming essentials.
The first week of class was devoted to orientation and describing the content of the different tracks available to participants. The goal being for everyone to make a decision about which track to focus on.
- Orientation Design (UI/UX) and Backend Tracks
- Orientation: NodeJS, Front-End, and Mobile Tracks
- Orientation: Introduction to the LMS