Virtual Classrooms
- Giedrius Žebrauskas
- Dominika Szulc
- Sebastian Prieto
What is a Virtual Classroom?
A Virtual Classroom is a flexible learning activity that allows you to study at your own pace while receiving real-time support from your peers and Turing College mentors. You participate in a Virtual Classroom by joining specific voice channels on Discord that you join whenever you are studying. You can either focus on your studies quietly or engage in discussions with others to get the help you need.
UZT (Lithuanian government-financed) learners are expected to join Virtual Classrooms whenever they are studying outside of other activties (such such as stand-ups, project reviews or open sessions). Other learners are free to join whenever they want.
Virtual Classroom Channels
Study Room | This is the main channel where a mentor will be present to answer questions and perform check-ins. It can have many people present, so using the ‘deafen’ function is useful when you want to focus and not get interrupted. |
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Discussions Table | This channel is meant for longer in-depth voice discussions with mentors and peers. It’s similar to open sessions, where the goal is to guide you towards answers, often with input from other learners before the mentor steps in. |
Individual Conversations (voice channel) | These channels are meant for smaller groups of people to have discussions, e.g. 1-on-1s or small group discussions. It is better to use these for such conversations compared to direct voice calls, as they can be used for tracking study time. |
Check-in | Keep track of mentor check-ins, ask questions, and provide updates on your progress. If you prefer written communication over voice, this is the place to do it. Make sure to set up notifications correctly for this channel so you don’t miss important updates or opportunities to ask for help, while not being disturbed by a large amount of messages. |
If you want to discuss uzt time-tracking system-related questions, please post these in uzt_learners Channel of your program. It is more private and does not contain all STLs and non-UZT learners.
The Discussion Table, Individual Conversation, and Study Room all track scheduled UZT hours.
The Open Session Discord voice channel tracks scheduled UZT hours only during official open session events. Learners should not use this channel unless an official open session event is taking place.
Confirming your activity (check-ins)
A check-in is a mentor messaging you to ask if you have any questions and also to make sure that you are present and reachable within a Virtual Classroom. You need to respond in a reasonable amount of time to confirm your attendance. Check-ins are not optional - repeatedly missing them will result in being disconnected from the Virtual Classroom. They are essential to ensure that learners are actively engaged and present in the voice channels when their time is being tracked.
Learners who started before 2024-10 can choose between chat-based and voice-based check-ins, while learners starting in 2024-10 or later are required to check-in via voice.
How to respond to check-ins:
Virtual Classroom mentors will tag you within the #check-ins text channel, asking how your learning is going and whether you have any questions. This is also called a ‘ping’.
Once pinged, your first step is always to reply in the #check-ins channel with a text message. You can choose between two options:
(Only possible for those starting before 2024-10) Give a short text update regarding what you are learning and any questions you might have in a text reply. This immediately concludes your check-in.
(Possible for all learners, required for those starting 2024-10 or later) First, ‘undeafen’ yourself in the #study_room voice channel - this enables you to hear those speaking in the voice channel. Then reply with a text message that you are ready for a voice check-in, e.g. type “Ready for a voice check-in!”.
A mentor will then call your name in the #study_room within the next 10 minutes and ask some check-in questions, e.g. what you are currently learning and what questions you have had so far.
You should respond to the mentor via voice and your check-in will be marked as completed.
If a mentor does not immediately get a voice response, they will message you directly.
During voice check-ins, learners may be asked questions related to their current learning material. This approach actively engages learners in conversation, reinforces their understanding, and enhances retention by encouraging them to articulate their knowledge.
Missing all mentor’s voice and text messages after your ‘ready’ message would result in absence being marked.
In the rare case when a mentor does not reach out to you within 10 minutes after your ‘ready’ message, your check-in will be automatically counted as successful. This means you only need to listen to a voice channel for 10 minutes at most before going back to focused studies.
To add further clarity, an automated message will be sent to you directly whenever a mentor marks your presence or absence during a check-in.
A check-in is not required for UZT learners' time to be tracked. I.e. if you do not get pinged while in a Virtual Classroom, your time would still be tracked as long as you have joined a Virtual Classroom voice channel.
Responding promptly to check-ins via voice is an important criteria for selecting new JTLs.
Number of Pings: The number of pings per day depends on how long you stay in Virtual Classrooms and on your previous check-ins. I.e. the number of pings can increase if you are active in a voice channel for more than 3 hours or if you miss check-ins. In many cases, a learner will get up to 1 ping per day.
Missed Pings: If you do not respond to a ping, you will receive additional check-ins. If two pings are missed in a row, you would get removed from the voice channel to avoid tracking hours without active participation. Furthermore, repeatedly missing pings may result in tracked time being removed during hours when check-ins were missed. If removed from a channel, you are welcome to join again once you are back. You would be notified directly whenever you are removed from a Virtual Classroom.
Choosing Your Notification Preference: Set up your Discord notifications to alert you only for mentions.
Use of the “Deafen” Function: To avoid distractions in the #study_room channel, you may use Discord’s “deafen” function which mutes all other speakers for you. Remember to “undeafen” yourself when checking-in via voice!
Mute yourself when you are not speaking. In case you join a Virtual Classroom and leave your microphone on by accident, you will first be informed to mute yourself so that you do not disturb others. If you do not do that, you may get “server muted” - meaning that you will need to ask a mentor directly to unmute you.
❌ This Will Not Count as a Check-In | ✅ This Will Count as a Check-In |
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Self check-ins without a mentor’s prompt: Posting a message at a time of your choice (without being pinged by a mentor) does not count as a successful check-in. While these messages are great for showing engagement—and we appreciate them—they don’t allow us to track real-time learning, so they won’t be counted as check-ins. Example learner’s message: “Hey, working on module 2 right now, no help needed, please don’t ping me.” | Responding within 15 minutes after being pinged by a mentor. Example mentor’s check-in message: Hey! Quick check-in. How are you doing? Is there anything I can help with? Response 1: Hi! Doing good. Currently studying A/B testing and working on the hands-on project. Got a quick question regarding how the A/B test calculator works. Would you be able to help with that? Response 2: Hi! Doing good - ready for a voice check-in. |
Asking questions in Virtual Classrooms
Don’t wait for a check-in if you have a question Here’s what to do:
Where | Action |
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In the Study Room via voice | If a mentor recently finished a discussion with another learner, you can unmute yourself and share your question immediately within the #study_room channel. |
In the Check-In Channel via a message | Describe your exact question and send it in the #check-ins channel. If your question is task-specific, start your message with the module name and task name or number. This helps ensure clarity and a quicker response. You can then return to your studies, while the mentor will look into your question and prepare a response or find another mentor who can help you. The response will be sent as a reply, ensuring that you get notified about it. The mentor may also ask you to copy the message to the relevant module channel so that they could answer it there and so that it would be easier for other learners to find the answer in the future. Even if you started your question as a text message, if you wish to have a voice discussion, you can ask the mentor to continue the conversation in a voice channel. |
Note: The #check-ins text channel should not contain long questions or discussions about content. Instead, use the relevant module channels for those purposes. #check-ins channel can be used to inform others of your pending questions in module channels.
Setting Up Discord for Virtual Classrooms
We very strongly recommend using the downloadable Discord desktop or mobile app, instead of the browser version. Among other benefits, this avoids the issue of browser tabs sometimes getting “asleep” and disconnecting you from voice channels without you noticing.
Discord has different types of notification bubbles for generic messages, and messages tagging you individually. If you have been tagged or someone replied directly to you message, instead of a simple red bubble, you will see a number as well (indicating how many individual messages you received). For better visibility and more reliable functioning, we recommend using the desktop app for Discord instead of running it in the browser.
If the notification bubbles are not showing up for you at all and you are using a Mac computer, you should check system notification settings for Discord - the “Badge application icon” should be enabled:
If the notification badges are not showing up and you are using Windows 11, you need to enable the “Show badges on taskbar apps” setting. This can be accessed through Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Taskbar Behaviours:
If you want to fully minimize distractions while in the “Study Room” channel, you may choose to use the “deafen” function, which mutes all the voice channel sounds for you. If you use this function, be ready to respond promptly in the text “check-ins” channel so that we can confirm your activity if needed.
A notification setup that many learners prefer is hearing and seeing message notifications only when they are pinged directly, instead of being notified of all new messages in all channels. The settings below help you achieve this:
First, set the whole Turing Server Notification Settings to “only @mentions”. This is accessible by right-clicking the Turing Server icon on the left side of the screen.
Next, go to Discord Settings (cohwheel icon next to your icon in the bottom left corner) → Notifications → make sure you have “Message” sounds enabled:
As seen in the screenshot above, you may also choose to disable the “User Join” and “User Leave” sounds. This is particularly useful if you want to keep listening to the Study Room voice channel, but do not want to hear a notification sound every time someone joins or leaves.
Virtual Classrooms Schedules & Mentors
Exact mentors might change in specific weeks
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