(Non-UZT learners)Time tracking changes & Virtual Classrooms

We are making changes to our educational model so that it would allow learners to maintain as much flexibility studying as possible. Some of the changes will affect all learners, which we would like to share here.

The main change for non-UZT learners is that instead of stand-ups, they will have access to more than 100 hours of Virtual Classrooms each week. A non-UZT learner will be able to attend any of these hours, whenever it’s the most convenient for them. Similarly to the requirement of 1 stand-up per week previously, the new requirement will be to attend at least 1 Virtual Classroom, Stand-up or Open Session per week (for at least 45 minutes).

Virtual Classrooms

A Virtual Classroom is a learning activity that makes it easy to study at your own pace while getting even more individualized support from your peers and Turing College mentors in real time.

Virtual Classrooms are specific voice channels on Discord that you join whenever you are studying. Learners of your program and a Turing College mentor, ready to help you, would be joining as well. While in a Virtual Classroom, you can either focus on studying on your own or engage in discussions with others to get any kind of help that you need.

For each Virtual Classroom, there will be two voice main channels: Study Room and Discussions Table. Furthermore, you will see additional channels called “Individual Conversations” which are meant to allow you to have more private 1–1 or smaller group calls with mentors or peers and get the learning time tracked.

Open

• Study Room is the default room which you should join. The goal of learners here is to study the topics relevant for them with minimal interruptions. Once a learner encounters a question that they want to discuss with others, they should announce it in the Study Room and move to the Discussions Table voice channel to discuss the question in-depth. A Turing College mentor may also start some of the Virtual Classrooms by asking everyone to give stand-up-like updates about their progress, to ensure that everyone is progressing without issues.

• Discussions Table is where learners and Turing College mentors discuss specific questions without interrupting those in the Study Room. The format is similar to open sessions, where those trying to help will primarily try to guide the learner towards the answer. Similarly to other events, we will always encourage other learners to try to help before the mentor does, as that lets more people benefit from peer learning. The mentor would then try to answer the question as well or, if their specialization is different than the question asked, would let you know that they will find a mentor who specializes in that specific topic. This is another benefit that Virtual Classrooms provide - a Turing College representative that would help you to more connect with someone specializing in a specific topic more efficiently.

• Individual conversation tables will have a smaller limit of people, in case you want to have a private discussion with a mentor or a peer. Similar to the Discussions Table, these should only be attended for active discussions and not for silent work.

Since the number of Virtual Classrooms per week is expected to be very large (up to 118 hours of virtual classrooms per week), they will not be separated by batches (i.e. someone from DM_2024-02 batch would be able to join the same Virtual Classroom with someone from DM_2024-06). Furthermore, due to similarity of topics in DS, DA and DE programs, learners from these programs will share Virtual Classrooms as well. This should result in more active Virtual Classrooms and more opportunities for connecting with a wide variety of fellow learners - whether it’s for learning together or simply networking.

Changes to stand-ups

Since Virtual Classrooms cover many of the same aspects that stand-ups do, we will be reducing the amount stand-ups. The most popular ones will be made accessible to all batches that have been already learning for 1 month or more.

New learners (those starting in September 2024 and further) will have stand-ups for the first month (4 stand-ups in total) only within their batches to get acquainted with their peers in a more personal environment. Afterwards, the batch standups would be replaced with access to the general ones available to all other learners.

Exceptions:

• Digital Explorers II project and Digital Explorers Iraq Edition batches will continue to have stand-ups as before, since their groups do not contain any learners financed by UZT.

FAQ

• How will the learners know who is running the virtual class and what their expertise is?

  • We will share a schedule of who is running the classrooms on Confluence together with the areas of expertise for the mentors. Our suggestion is to prioritize choosing the hours that best suit your learning schedule, rather than basing it on the mentor. Even if a mentor in your Virtual Classroom cannot help you themselves, they would support you finding an STL or JTL who would be able to help you with your question.

• Should a learner join a different Virtual Classroom if they do not receive the needed answer immediately?

  • No, the mentor of the Virtual Classroom, even if they cannot answer the question immediately, will find another STL or JTL who can help and reach out to the learner personally.

• Will the learner be able to see a specific mentor’s schedule, and who from STLs will be active at different times?

  • Only the mentors leading the Virtual Classrooms and open sessions will have a specific schedule. Other mentors will be available based on their own schedules which can be flexible. However, if needed, the mentor leading a Virtual Classroom can reach out to the relevant mentors to assist with a specific question from a learner.

• Who will be the mentors in virtual classes?

  • They will be a mix of current STLs, JTLs, TC staff and new contractors, all with relevant industry experience.

• Are further changes to the education model expected?

  • This is likely the biggest change we have introduced since the start of Turing College. For the near future, we expect to focus on collecting feedback and refining this new model, instead of introducing any other major changes.

• What are the differences between Virtual Classrooms and Open Sessions?

  • Open sessions will become even more topic specific. If a learner wants to have an in-depth discussion with an STL or JTL that definitely specializes in that given topic, they would be advised to join a specific open session. Virtual Classrooms are topic-agnostic. When a mentor in a virtual classroom is not specialized in a particular question that you have, they will look for someone else who can help you instead, while in the meantime, you would be able to continue learning other topics in your sprint.