Assignments
Coding Assignment
During the final week of your course, you should compare your work with the Final Project Rubric to make sure you meet all of the requirements.
Spend this week collaborating with classmates to get feedback from them as “users” of your site. Perhaps there was an area that was hard to click, colors are hard on their eyes, or maybe something breaks when they’re using the Leave a Message section, for example. Getting user feedback can help you decide where you want or need to make adjustments to your site before submitting your completed work.
Also be sure to attend your mentor sessions this week to get similar feedback on your site’s functionality, appearance, accessibility, and responsiveness. You are welcome to practice your final project presentation (more information below) during your mentor sessions, if there aren’t students in your session who need assistance with their code. If you would like to practice your presentation, you can always get on a call with classmates and take turns practicing/sharing as well!
Mindset Assignment
Welcome to your final week! This week we’ll be talking about accessibility. Take a moment and think of a time when there was something you wanted or needed but didn’t have access to it for some reason or another. Being denied access to something you want or need can feel beyond frustrating.
The internet is a very powerful tool. So many businesses give extra discounts to people with accounts on their sites; government offices keep forms on their sites now instead of keeping paper copies; medical offices now use client portals for people to be able to access and pay their accounts, and schedule appointments and services. Not being able to get around and use any of these sites can make something that was supposed to be a better/easier alternative seem like a huge stumbling block.
Accessibility focuses on making sure that those of us who are helping build these structures build them in a way that EVERYONE can use them easily. Read the information at the WebAim site then check out the A11y Checklist. These should give you an introduction into the challenges some people face when trying to use and interact with websites, and the ways in which we can assure our web creations are accessible to everyone. We strongly recommend bookmarking a tool you can run your code through to help check for accessibility compliance (Wave from WebAIM) or a simple tool you can add to your code to help you check accessibility features on your site (like totA11y from Khan Academy).
Accessibility is a way bigger topic than we can cover here, but hopefully this starts your wheels turning about how to be sure that the awesome things you build throughout your career can be easily used by everyone.
– When you’ve had limited or no access to something, what did you do? Were you ultimately able to get
what you needed? If not, how did your lack of access impact your life?
– Now that you’ve read about accessibility, and hopefully considered some of the challenges others face
using the internet, are there things you can/will do differently in your current/future project(s)? Give
examples/specifics.
| When you’ve completed your Final Project, and have read and thought about the mindset questions above, be sure “Final Project Completion” is the lesson in your Homework Assignment Submission Form. Your final project submissions are handled a little differently, so you’ll see additional options than you’re used to seeing! The additional options are choice rankings so you can let us know your preferences of what next steps you want to take in our program. |
Final Project Presentation
In web development, you may be asked to demonstrate how your work functions for a client, team member, or employer. We want you to get a small taste of that experience now by presenting your final project to your peers, some of your mentors, and the class coordinator. Presentation night is intended to celebrate everyone’s hard work. You are NOT graded/evaluated on your performance during your presentation. Talking about your work will come more naturally to you with time and practice – the presentation is just meant for you to start practicing so you won’t be nervous the first time you have to present a project to a future employer or client.
ALL STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO PRESENT THEIR FINAL PROJECT. Exceptions will only be provided under certain circumstances. There already has been, or soon will be, a final project presentation sign up sheet posted in your class’ Slack channel. If you have not signed up for a presentation night, please check your class’ Slack channel and do so now.
During the presentation night
The presentations will be held on the same Zoom link you have been using for mentor sessions throughout the course. All participants are encouraged to have their videos on if they are able, and everyone but the speaker should have their sound muted.
We will ask students to present in the order in which they are signed up on that sheet, so if your name is at the top of the list, expect to go first. Students only have to attend the night they are presenting, but are encouraged to attend any/all presentation nights they are able, to show support for their classmates.
Each student will have a maximum of 3 minutes to present their work, and then we will allow participants to ask questions, or provide praise or helpful feedback for a minute after the presentation is complete.
During your presentation
Share your screen so we can see your final project in your browser. Be sure to demonstrate:
- Your navigation links that direct you to the different sections of your page
- Your working links in your Projects section that redirect you to your GitHub repository/ies
- Your working Leave a Message section by entering name, email, and message information and click ‘submit’. Then show us the ‘edit’ feature on that message (if you have it, it is not required) and/or the ‘delete’ feature to remove the message.
- Your working footer social media links that redirect to your social media accounts
- The responsiveness of your site (you can either use the browser inspect feature/developer tools OR you can just resize your browser window).
- We always like to know:
- what was the biggest challenge you faced during your project, and
- the part that you’re proudest of!
- OPTIONAL: show your code/file structure in addition to the above items.
The types of questions you may be asked by other participants would be how you built/made a great feature or graphic on your site, why you chose to design something the way you did, or what you might like to change or do differently as you continue to build on your portfolio site.
After Presentations are done
It may take a couple of weeks for our reviewers to look over all your code and assess if you’re prepared for an advanced class, so please be patient. During this time we will ask you to complete a post-class survey about your experience throughout the class. Please answer fully and honestly. Your answers will NEVER impact whether or not you advance to the next class, they are ONLY intended for Code the Dream to determine how we can improve our classes. Once you’ve completed the survey (which will be emailed to you the last week of class or shortly after the end of class) AND your final project has been reviewed, we will send your certificate of completion to you by email.
THANK YOU!
We’ve enjoyed having you a part of this class, and a part of the Code the Dream family! If you have any questions or need any assistance, you can always reach out to the Program Director or Class Coordinator for Code the Dream at any time throughout your coding career!