🔁 Improving semester over semester
Before
⏰ Last minute projects
Several students waited until the last few days of the bootcamp to do the bulk of their semester-long case study project work.
The case study required user research, low-fi design, usability testing, and a final high-fi design...none of which could be effecitively rushed into 2-3 days of work.
After
✅ Multiple project check-ins
This set-up check points to keep students on track, accountable, and completing their projects in a timely manor.
Before
🗣 Lecture-heavy classes
A piece of feedback we recieved from students during the first semester was that many of our bootcamp sessions were too lecture heavy.
After a long day of Georgia Tech classes, students are too fatigued to stay engaged for another 2-hour bootcamp lecture in the evenings.
After
✅ Engaging interactive compontents
Incorporating the student feedback into my semester planning, I decided to cap bootcamp sessions at 30 minutes of lecture time and to fill the rest of the time with critiques and hands-on activities.
This intiative proved to be a huge success in increasing student engagement and allowing students to practice course concepts while recieving guidance from instructors.
Before
💬 Scattered communication
Between multiple Slack channels & DMs, Notion pages, Figma, and Bluejeans video calls, students expressed being overwhelmed about where to look for information about about bootcamp sessions, events, projects, and homework.
After
✅ Course hub
The implementation of the Bootcamp Hub was a success and has been replicated in newer additions of the bootcamp.