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Welcome to Lambda School! We are so excited to have you as a student and begin this amazing journey with you as you launch your new career. Lambda Launch material is now updated and available in Canvas. As of August, all material shown in Training Kit is deprecated.
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
- know how to navigate and communicate using Slack.
- know how to access and participate fully and professionally in Zoom.
- know how to access and navigate Training Kit
- know how to access and navigate the Progress Report Dashboard.
- know how to access and ask a question in Frontdesk.
- know how to access and navigate Google Calendar.
- identify the requirements of the ISA.
- understand the I do, we do, you do structure of Lambda school curriculum and how it is valuable for learning.
- understand the difference between traditional grading and outcomes based assessments.
- articulate the academic expectations, attendance expectation and daily work routine of Lambda School classes.
Treat everyone with as much respect and integrity as you wish to be treated with.
Review each preclass resource before class.
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A video that introduces the Slack platform
Slack is an online communication tool used widely in the tech industry. For Lambda School, it is the most important and frequent way we communicate with students. If you’ve never used Slack before, get to know it well. Nearly every company in Silicon Valley uses it, and it’s rapidly becoming a point of competence across software engineering teams.
Slack is a collaboration hub where you will communicate with everyone at Lambda School. Slack is used because of the following benefits and features not provided by an email system;
- Organized conversations
- Searchable history
- Apps and integrations Slack can be used in a browser, as a desktop app, and as a mobile app. It is vitally important that you are on Slack every school day at Lambda.
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You will be placed in a Slack channel with the other students in your program. The instructor will interact with you in this Slack channel. They will post lecture links to their Zoom rooms, answer questions and post additional resources.
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Once you’ve filled out your confirmation form, you will be added to the student Slack workspace and assigned to a few main channels depending on your class and group.
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Example: You are a new student joining the WEB18 class (Full Stack Web, Class 18), your main Slack channels will be #WEB18 and #WEB18_help. You will be assigned to a smaller group with your Project Manager. For example, if your Project Manager is Alicia Jackson, that Slack channel might be named #WEB18_aj.
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Lambda School instructors and staff will generally have a Lambda shield to the right of their username.
When setting your Slack avatar, use a professional profile photo, just as you would for a job. Also, use your first and last name on your profile.
Your course channel (For Example #WEB18) channel is the first place you should post if you are confused or stuck. A PM or Instructor will jump in and help you work through the challenge at hand.
When it is time for a lecture, a Zoom link will be posted in your class channel with the @channel tag, which should send you both desktop and push notifications. Make sure to follow the schedule and be on time for those lectures, as your class may not wait for you.
Use a thread if your comments apply to a certain Slack message to make it easier to follow conversations. A menu will pop-up to the top right when you hover over a message. Choose the comment bubble to thread your replies.
Typing a message in Slack that includes “@here” or “@channel” notifies everyone in that channel. This sends an alert to their desktop, or, in many cases, their personal cellphones. As such, please use “@here” and ”@channel” sparingly in your cohort or local channels, and not in general channels. Thanks for helping us keep Slack usable!
Use formatting to add clarity and detail to your message when you need it. You can format text using symbols or keyboard shortcuts.
You can use bold, italics, strikethrough, quotes, inline code and lists.
Guide to formatting messages in Slack
There are some special commands in Slack that are useful to Lambda School students.
/frontdesk - gives you access to the student support services ticketing system.
/dashboard - gives you access to training kit and your dashboard.
/lambda-feedback - gives you access to a form to leave feedback for Lambda School.
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. While at Lambda School you’ll use Zoom to receive lectures, pair program, work on your group projects, and receive 1:1 support from the Instruction team, and more!
Download Zoom at https://zoom.us/download
- If you are not speaking set your microphone to mute. But, be sure to toggle it on when it is your time to speak.
- When your microphone is on be aware of distracting noises. If using an onboard microphone on a laptop using your keyboard will be very loud to other Zoom participants. Little things like cell phone buzzers, the noise of your microphone rubbing on your shirt collar or a squeaky office chair can be enough to distract your audience.
- Shut out your most distracting housemates. If you have a child, a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, or any other animal that can get loud or “needy” at times, they’re probably going to want to be involved in your conversations as soon as they hear you talking to the cool people on the other side of the monitor. It’s best to just leave them out of the room while the meeting’s going on.
- Be camera ready. If possible before the meeting have a look at yourself on webcam. You might notice that the webcam is pointed at your forehead, your lighting makes it difficult to see you or you have something distracting in your background. If your lighting is behind you, people will only see a silhouette. Make sure that any light coming towards your face is stronger than the light behind you. Wear a nice shirt. From your Mac or PC, just click “Settings” on your Zoom client, and then “Video” to see what you look like before you join the meeting.
- There’s a lot to be said about video meeting etiquette regarding eating and drinking. If you’re grabbing a cup of tea or some bottled water, that’s acceptable, or at least more acceptable than slurping spaghetti during your meeting. Along the same lines, it is not professional to be smoking or vaping during a video meeting.
- Before you share your screen, it would be wise to eliminate any possible occasion for distraction during the screen sharing session. This means closing social networks, messaging applications, and anything that pops up or flashes while you’re trying to present something.
- Use a webcam and allow your classmates to see you on video. Video conferencing is more engaging and allows you to make virtual eye contact with your classmates, project managers and instructors. Humans process visual information far faster than text or audio, so it will also increase your ability to communicate and learn.
The Lambda School Training Kit is the home for all learning resources at Lambda School.
The Lambda School Training Kit is the home for all learning resources at Lambda School. You can access Training Kit at learn.lambdaschool.com. You can also type ‘/dashboards’ into Slack to set up your login credentials to access this site. The curriculum is constantly evolving to ensure you’re armed with the latest technologies. You will always have access to the materials in this training kit, even after you graduate.
Each track is organized into sections with clearly outlined objectives. These objectives describe what you should be able to do after completing the lesson.
- The Prepare section will provide videos, website resources and text that should be read before the lecture.
- The Learn section is the content that will be covered in the lecture by your instructor and is also there as a resource when you are working on your projects.
- The Projects section which is where you will find information about the projects you’ll be working on in the afternoon.
- The Review Section that will detail the specific requirements to demonstrate mastery during your code review.
There are navigation buttons across the top of the Training Kit that will allow you to jump to each of these sections. These lessons are generally covered in one day during a full time track and over two days in part time tracks.
There are other resources included in Training Kit including Career Readiness and Principles for Success. Career Readiness focuses on preparing you to be employed in a professional position. Principles for Success focuses on the mindset and motivation needed to accomplish difficult tasks and grow as a professional.
Lambda School uses a Student Progress Report Dashboard.
The Lambda School uses a Student Progress Report Dashboard dashboards.lambdaschool.com/. It can also be accessed by typing /dashboard in Slack.
The same credentials you used to access your training kit can be used to access your dashboard.
The dashboard is where you as a student can find feedback from the team leader (TL) who reviewed your work. In the top header you’ll see your name, section and TL. You will see the sprint challenges that you have completed, the titles, how many attempts it took to pass the sprint and whether it was passed or not. If you need to take another try at a sprint challenge the green box will be red and have the word “resubmit” shown in the box. If you miss submitting a sprint the red box will read “missing”.
This dashboard shows you the feedback from your TL on your sprint challenge. It also gives Lambda staff a clear picture of units where you may need extra support.
FrontDesk is your way of contacting Lambda School staff with non-classwork related enquiries. This should be your main point of contact for all feedback and if you need support.
Frontdesk is accessed through Slack by starting a direct message to yourself and entering /frontdesk. This will open up a screen for you to enter a title and description of the issue you are experiencing. Click submit and a Lambda staff member will reply to your request in Slack.
Frontdesk in meant only for submitting feedback and support requests. If you have classwork related questions go ahead and contact your team lead or your class help channel. When asking a question try to give as much detail as possible. Remember to only reply to the threaded messages on your Ticket in the FrontDesk Slack App, that way you can refer to the answers given to you if you forget or have followup questions. Even if you are frustrated, be sure to be professional in all of your interactions with Lambda staff.
Google Calendar is a free time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It is utilized at Lambda School as the main calendar.
Google Calendar is a free time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It is utilized at Lambda School as the main calendar. You will receive an invite to the Google Calendar for your track. Lambda School operates on California time (Pacific Standard Time and Pacific Daylight Savings Time) and takes U.S. holidays. Check the Google Calendar on a regular basis to be sure you are in attendance every day that there is class.
Sync Calendar with a Mobile Device
The income share agreement allows Lambda School to provide an education that usually costs tens of thousands of dollars upfront for no upfront cost. The US and UK/EU ISA agreements have different requirements, so be sure to read the section pertaining to your location. Important Note: This page explains certain ISA features and terms, but it is not a substitute for and does not override any terms in the Income Share Agreement contract itself. You should read the contract carefully to understand its terms.
Important Note: This page explains certain ISA features and terms, but it is not a substitute for and does not override any terms in the Income Share Agreement contract itself. You should read the contract carefully to understand its terms.
Students can elect to pay tuition upfront. Or, instead of paying tuition upfront, many Lambda School Students choose to sign an Income Share Agreement (ISA). ISAs allow us to provide an education that usually costs tens of thousands of dollars upfront for no upfront cost.
Paying tuition upfront for any Lambda track will cost $30,000. Instead of paying tuition upfront, many Lambda School students choose to sign an Income Share Agreement (ISA). Students can’t switch from an Income Share Agreement (ISA) to upfront payment after class begins. If you do not qualify for an ISA due to citizenship or location, then paying upfront tuition may be your only option for attending Lambda School.
Income Share Agreements are not a form of debt, nor are they a loan. There is no interest or fees charged on a Lambda ISA agreement. An ISA is a legally binding agreement representing a responsibility to pay Lambda School a portion of future income. The use of an ISA aligns Lambda School values with your best interests. If you don’t find a well-paying job, you don’t have to pay.
Under Lambda School’s Income Share Agreement, students agree to pay 17% of their post-Lambda School gross income with 24 monthly payments, but only when they are making more than $4,167 per month (that is, $50,000 per year). For example, if a student gets a job paying $60,000/year, they’re earning $5,000 per month. 17% of $5,000 is $850, so they pay $850 per month under their ISA.
As long as a Student is earning above the minimum income threshold (the $4,167), and is working in a qualified industry or position, they will make monthly payments of 17% of their income for 24 months. If a Student’s income ever drops below $4,166 per month, they won’t make a payment in that month. Our ISA is also capped at a maximum of $30k. Students will never pay more than $30k under any circumstances. If a student reaches the $30k maximum payment amount prior to the 24-month terms, their ISA will be considered complete.
Your ISA payments are based on your income so your total cost can be between $0 and $30,000.
- If your income never reaches the $4,167 monthly threshold, you will be in deferment. You have 60 months of deferment and if you do not have qualifying pay or position during that time you will end up paying $0 for your education.
- Important note: there are cases where, because payments stopped and started due to deferment, the total 60 months of deferment could be more than 5 calendar years from the date the Student completes Lambda School.
- If you’re making good money (congratulations!), you could pay up to the $30,000 cap.
- You’ll never pay more than $30,000.
Anything you pay is spread out over 24 separate monthly payments.
The 17% is a percentage of a Student’s gross income, i.e. before taxes.
What types of jobs require that I pay on my ISA?
- Positions in software, data science, full-stack web, iOS/Android development, cybersecurity, information technology, UX, and web and app development and design.
- Any position that leverages your Lambda School education
- Any position obtained due to Lambda School job placement efforts In general, expect to repay your ISA based on getting a position after attending Lambda School.
refund policies may vary by state, please refer to your Enrollment Agreement
We offer a refund policy for people who leave Lambda School:
- If you decide to withdraw in the first 4 sprints, your tuition or any installment payments will be returned in full. Your ISA will be canceled.
- After completion of 4 sprints, you become responsible for 40% of the tuition.
- Each week thereafter you become responsible for another 10% of the tuition
- After 10 weeks, you are responsible for tuition in full.
If pro-ration occurs, its made on the ISA Cap, not the Income Share percentage. In other words, if you withdraw early and are 50% vested, you would still owe the 17% for 24 months, but the cap would be reduced to $15k from the original $30k.
Students who withdraw or are withdrawn will have their income share agreements prorated as described above in our refund policy.
Your ISA is activated and your payments start if you;
1) Withdraw 2) Are withdrawn by Lambda School for any reason 3) Complete 32 Sprints (32 weeks FT, 64 weeks PT) 4) ISA fully vested and you accept a qualifying position
Lambda School currently utilizes a service provider called Meratas that handles all of the collecting, reporting, and other administration related to our ISAs.
The Income Share Agreement requires Students to do a few things, including (but not limited to):
• Reporting their monthly income
• Reporting their job status
• Submitting their tax returns
Meratas will contact students to remind them to report their income, but it’s important to understand that the ISA contract obligates students to self-report their income and job status.
ISA payments are collected on the 1st of the month, and Meratas gives a 28-day starting grace period to Lambda Students. For example, if you start a job on August 15th, the 28-day grace period would bump you past the September 1st payment. Your 1st payment would then be the next month, October 1st.
If your income is less than $4167 a month, your account will be placed in deferment status. You will not be required to make payments. You have 60 months of deferment, then your ISA will end and require no additional payments. Your payment term will be extended for every month your income is below the threshold. This could potentially extend your agreement up to 83 months if you are coming in and out of deferment.
*Important Note: This page explains certain ISA features and terms, but it is not a substitute for and does not override any terms in the Income Share Agreement contract itself. You should read the contract carefully to understand its terms.**
Students can elect to pay tuition upfront. Or, instead of paying tuition upfront, many Lambda School Students choose to sign an Income Share Agreement (ISA). ISAs allow us to provide an education that usually costs tens of thousands of dollars upfront for no upfront cost. Tuition can be paid before classes begin for any Lambda track and the cost is £25,000 or €27,500. Instead of paying tuition upfront, many Lambda School students choose to sign an Income Share Agreement (ISA). Students can’t switch from an ISA to upfront payment during class. By day 1 of class you must have either a signed ISA or paid tuition.
An income share agreement is not a loan. There is no interest or fees charged to the student in relation to the ISA. It is an obligation to make payments based on your future earned income. It does not give Lambda School any rights to dictate your employer, career choices or location in the future.
Under our ISA you agree to pay 10% of your pre-tax income with 48 monthly payments, but only when you’re making more than £2000 or €2291 per month (that is, £25,000 or €27,500 per year).
For example, if you get a job paying £30,000 a year, you’re earning £2,500 per month. 10% of £2,500 is £250, so you pay £250 that month for your ISA.
You make 10% payments on your income every month until you’ve made 48 monthly payments. If your income ever drops below £2,000 or €2,291 per month you don’t make a payment that month. Our ISA is also capped at a maximum of £25,000 or €27,500. You’ll never pay more than £25,000 or €27,500 under any circumstances.
Your ISA payments are based on your income so your total cost can be between £0 and £25,000 or €27,500.
- If your income never reaches the £2,000 or €2,291 monthly threshold, you’ll pay 0.
- Your monthly payments will vary based as your income and may fluctuate over time.
- If you’re making good money (congratulations!), you could pay up to the £25,000 or €27,500 cap.
- You’ll never pay more than £25,000 or €27,500.
Anything you pay is spread out over 48 separate monthly payments.
An ISA contract can be payed off early by paying the full payment cap amount of £25,000 or €27,500 at any time.
If your income is less than £2,000 or €2,291 a month, your account will be placed in deferment status. Your payment term will be extended for every month your income is below the threshold. You have 48 months of deferment. Important note: there are cases where, because payments stopped and started due to deferment, the total 48 months of deferment could be more than 4 calendar years from the date the Student completes Lambda School.
We offer a refund policy for people who leave Lambda School:
- If you decide to withdraw in the first 4 sprints, your tuition or any installment payments will be returned in full. Your ISA will be cancelled.
- After completion of 4 sprints, you become responsible for 40% of the tuition.
- Each week thereafter you become responsible for another 10% of the tuition
- After 10 weeks, you are responsible for tuition in full.
Students who are removed from Lambda School due to violations of the Code of Conduct will have their income share agreements prorated as described above in our refund policy.
Any income earned in a job counts whether it is as an employee, contractor, self-employed, temporary or second job. You are required to report to EdAid your monthly earned income by providing pay stubs, a letter from your employer, a self-employment contract, a consulting agreement or other verifiable source. EdAid will recalculate your monthly payments based on the information provided. Your repayment of the ISA allows Lambda School to continue to serve future students.
The ISA begins on your last day of school. But once you’ve made your required monthly payments, the ISA is complete.
ISA payments are collected the first full month after your graduation or withdrawal. Your first payment is due on the first business day of the following month.
- On or before April 30th each year you will submit your tax return and year-end pay stub.
- We will use this information to determine if you underpaid or overpaid on your monthly payments. If you overpaid, we will credit that towards future payments. If you underpaid, we will bill you for the amount owed.
- Updating income changes throughout the year, when they occur, will help you avoid overpaying or underpaying.
The ISA begins on your last day of school. The life of the ISA is 5 years, meaning we have 5 years to collect payment. But once you’ve made your required monthly payments, the ISA is complete.
ISA payments are collected the first full month after your graduation or withdrawal. Your first payment is due on the first business day of the following month.
Learn to understand the I do, we do, you do structure of Lambda school curriculum and how it is valuable for learning.
The IWY (“eye-why”) loop is the basis of instruction here at Lambda School. It breaks down to three steps: ‘I do’, ‘We do’, and ‘You do’. Everything we do is based on this concept and will reinforce the concepts taught over time.
A requirement is to spend at least 30 minutes outside of class for each lecture watching the pre-class videos and studying training kit. Then you will spend the first 15 minutes of class on lecture days doing the same. This allows you to have a ‘first pass’ at the content and allows you to move right into the guided project. This also allows you to be a better prepared student and ask better questions and get more out of the lecture as a whole. This is the ‘I Do’ part of the IWY loop.
As mentioned before, you will be required to watch any pre-class videos and study the training kit before you attend the live instruction. The instructor will be guiding you through a preset project while explaining what they are doing along the way. Remember that this is the ‘We Do’ part of the IWY loop, so you should be joining in as much as possible. Your instructor will be asking lots of questions and asking you to make predictions about what will happen next.
Once the guided project is over, you will move into an independent project. It is here that you will be applying the content of the lecture/guided project demo on your own to a project with detailed guidelines. You will work on this during class time for 3 hours total. This is fairly non-strict as we want you to use all the tools and support offered to complete the project. Team Lead support is given during this time. TLs will field most questions about the projects, but will escalate those questions to the instructor if they are unable to answer them. This will be your 3rd (at a minimum) pass at the content and is the ‘You Do’ part of the IWY loop.
The whole Lambda program uses this same concept. The “I do” section is the core curriculum, the “we do” is labs and the “you do” is Lambda X.
The IWY method is a tried and true teaching method and is especially useful when learning new difficult content. The way Lambda school uses it, it makes the most of precious direct instruction time. It is a very different model than is used by most online schools, where you spend a majority of time reading and taking content level tests and very little time doing real world projects, working as a team and receiving useful feedback.
Lambda school utilizes outcomes based assessment. There are no multiple choice tests, worksheets or essays at the end of a module, sprint or unit. There is a project to complete and the solution to that project assesses whether you understood the material taught. The assessment asks “did you complete the project?” and the answer is either “yes” or “no”. If “yes”, then great and continue on. If “no” then try again.
In a standard school grading system a percentage is calculated and you earn a letter grade. There are some challenges with this system that makes it ineffective when training a technical employee. In one scenario you have a straight “A” student who just naturally gets the material and they meet the outcomes but aren’t pushed or motivated to work up to their own potential. Then you have a “C” student who is only meeting about 70% of the outcomes but just keeps continuing on to half understand material in the next topic. Finally, you’ve got a student that is doing the bare minimum and getting the 59.5% required to not have to redo the class. They are getting some credit for showing up and probably not meeting many of the outcomes. All these students graduate with the same high school diploma.
This system doesn’t work in the real world. An employer wants to know that you can do the tasks given to you at near 100% accuracy. They are looking for a motivated individual that will go beyond the bare minimum requirements. The employer wants to be able to train you quickly on new technologies, so your ability to learn matters. Finally, they want you to be able to take critical feedback and use it to improve. If you’ve always been the straight “A” student, critical feedback can be crushing and demoralizing.
At Lambda school we use a standardized scale of 1, 2 and 3.
This means that you did not meet at least one of the outcome expectations of the project. You may have done very well on other outcomes. If you receive a “1” it means you get an opportunity to do it again and will receive more support on the outcome you didn’t complete.
This means that you met all the outcome expectations of the project. This is the level you are aiming for at Lambda school. It means you understand the material and are ready to move on.
This is a “special” category for those that are able to go above and beyond the outcome expectations of the project. For those of you use to earning “A’s”, this is not equivalent. This is for stretch goals that have been met because you find this particular project easy and had time to do a lot of extra work.
The focus on outcomes creates a clear expectation of what needs to be accomplished by the end of the lesson. Students will understand what is expected of them and instructors will know what they need to teach during the course. Clarity is important in strategic programs like Lambda school where there are many teams working across a track. Each team member has a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished in each sprint. Those designing and planning the curriculum are expected to work backwards once an outcome has been decided upon; they must determine what knowledge and skills will be required to reach the outcome.
With a clear sense of what needs to be accomplished, instructors will be able to structure their lessons around the student’s needs. Instructors are free to teach their students using any method. Instructors will also be able to recognize diversity among students by using various teaching and assessment techniques during their class. Outcomes based assessment is a student-centered learning model. Instructors guide and help the students understand the material in any way necessary. Group work is one of the methods instructors can use to help students learning.
The articulated outcomes allow Lambda school to assess the student’s achievements rapidly, leading to increased amounts of feedback to students. These outcomes also work for school to work transitions. A potential employer can find what outcomes a Lambda school student has achieved. They can then determine if the potential employee has the skills necessary for the job. At Lambda school the entire focus is on meeting employers expectations for educational outcomes.
Student involvement in the classroom is a key part of outcomes based assessment. Students are expected to do their own learning, so that they gain a full understanding of the material. Increased student involvement allows students to feel responsible for their own learning, and they should learn more through this individual learning. Employer partners are asked to give input to Lambda School to uphold the standards of education and to ensure that students will be prepared for employment after school.
Learn to articulate the academic expectations, attendance expectation and daily work routine of Lambda School classes.
The Lambda School day is going to differ from any school day you have participated in before. Every day you will have measurable objectives to meet. Lambda School uses the instructional method - I do, We do, You do. So you get the support upfront that you need to learn. But, by the afternoon you are working on a project with real-world applications.
The Lambda school tracks follow a specific curriculum with the framework of I do, You do, We do. All courses have a universal schedule with four units of focus track, eight sprints of Labs, two units of track-specific curriculum, and then Lambda X. Each unit consists of four sprints with the last sprint being a Project/Build Week.
A sprint is a timeboxed iteration of a continuous development cycle. Within a Sprint, the team completes a planned amount of work to prepare for a review. The term Sprint comes from the Scrum Agile method but the basic idea of Kanban continuous delivery is also in the essence of Sprint Scrum. At Lambda a sprint is one week for a full-time cohort and two weeks for part-time.
There are four units in the Core Curriculum which correspond with 4 build weeks.
Labs consist of eight sprints which give you time to polish your project with your team and make it a central portfolio piece. Lambda X consists of eight sprints per iteration. This time allows students to continue polishing their portfolio pieces. This ensures they are ready to move on to employment.
You can find the schedule for the day on the Google Calendar for your program and cohort. All Lambda School classes follow the same general format.
Monday thru Thursday;
8:00 am - 9:00 am Warm-Up
This is your chance to get the intellectual juices flowing and provide a structure for the rest of your day. You will look over the material in the training kit, watch any videos shown in the pre-work and prepare for the guided project. In some tracks, you will do a code challenge and in Data Science you may do a “walkie talkie” where you practice explaining data.
9:00 am - 11:00 am Guided Project
For your guided project you will follow a link to Zoom and meet your instructor in a live session. For two hours your instructor will take you step by step through a project. You will be able to see their computer screen and exactly what code they are typing in. You’ll be able to interact through chat or microphone with your instructor. This is the “I do and We do” part of the curriculum.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Lunch
Step away from your computer and take a break. Eat a wholesome lunch, get a little exercise and give your brain a break.
12:00 pm - 3:45 pm Project/Assignment Time
Now it’s time to work on the project for the day. Write the code, learn more, troubleshoot the code, research answers, ask for help, and finish writing the code if you’re in development. Replace “code” with “analyze the data” for DS and “design” for UX.
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm Project Wrap and Report
It is time to submit the project you have been working on. You will reflect on your day and fill out your daily retrospective form.
4:15 pm - 5:00 pm StandUp Meeting Time
It has been a long productive day and now its time to touch base with your team lead and your small group. You will get feedback on your project, get questions answered, and know that you are not alone on your educational journey.
Friday;
8:00 am - 11:00 am Sprint Challenge
Now it is time to take everything you have learned in the past week and put it into action. This is a little bit longer project with a wider scope. You have all morning to code.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Lunch
You’ve been working all morning, now it’s time for a break.
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Sprint Q&A
An hour set aside to ask questions about the Sprint Challenge. Maybe get some help on reaching your stretch goals.
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm 1:1 Sprint Reviews and Flex Time
Your team lead will meet with you 1:1 to go over your Sprint Challenge and assess how you did. This is also time to get help with any concepts you didn’t comprehend during the past week. This is a time to go back and look at the material again.
Part time Web tracks also have earlier starts every other cohort to accommodate students in other time zones, these times are denoted in parenthesis and italics in the schedules below
Part time students cover all the same material as full time students but it is spread out over two weeks. For that reason, part time has “A” weeks and “B” weeks. Part time also has a choice of days for their 5th day to better meet their schedule.
“A” Week;
Monday, 6 pm to 9 pm PT (4 pm - 7 pm PT) 1:1 Review and Training Kit Prep.
You will review the Sprint Challenge the Monday after it was due. This is also the time to look over the week’s material ahead in the training kit and prepare.
Tuesday and Thursdays, 6 pm to 6:30 pm PT (4 pm - 4:30 pm PT)Training Kit Review. This is the daily time to look at the pre-work in the training material and prepare for the guided project.
Tuesday and Thursdays, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm PT(4:30 pm - 6:30 pm PT) Guided Project. For your guided project you will follow a link to Zoom and meet your instructor in a live session. For two hours your instructor will take you step by step through a project. You will be able to see their computer screen and exactly what code they are typing in. You’ll be able to interact through chat or microphone with your instructor. This is the “I do and We do” part of the curriculum.
Tuesday and Thursdays, 8:30 pm to 9 pm PT (6:30 pm - 7 pm PT) Project Time. Enough time to get started on the project by reading the requirements and getting the coding started. Don’t worry, you have most of the evening tomorrow to finish it.
Wednesdays 6 pm - 8:30 pm PT (4 pm - 6:30 pm PT) Guided Project Now it’s time to work on the project for the evening. Write the code, learn more, troubleshoot the code, research answers, ask for help, and finish writing the code.
Stand Up Meeting It has been a long productive evening and now its time to touch base with your team lead and your small group. You will get feedback on your project, get questions answered and know that you are not alone in your educational journey.
Flexible Day 6 pm - 8:30 pm (4:00 pm - 6:30 pm) Guided Project
Flexible Day 8:30 pm - 9 pm (6:30 pm - 7:00 pm) Stand Up Meeting
“B” Week;
Same as an “A” week except for two exceptions-
Monday 6 pm - 6:30 pm(4:00 pm - 4:30 pm) Training Kit Review (don’t need to do a Sprint 1:1)
Flex Day 6 pm - 9 pm(4 pm - 7 pm) Sprint Challenge Now it is time to take everything you have learned in the past two weeks and put it into action. This is a little bit longer project with a wider scope. You have all evening to code.
Each unit consists of four sprints, the last sprint being Project/Build Week. Labs consist of eight sprints. This gives students extra weeks to polish their projects with the team and make it their central portfolio piece.
All tracks have a universal schedule: four units of focus track, eight sprints of Labs, two units of additional track-specific curriculum, then Lambda X. Lambda X consists of eight sprints per iteration for the students to continue polishing their portfolio pieces and prepare for the job search.
Don’t forget to refer to the Google calendar for your cohort. This is especially important around US holidays, as the schedule may change.
Students must attend. We track attendance during video lectures and from time to time we’ll check in on your group or pair programming work as well. Attendance is critical to success in the program.
Students may miss no more than eight hours per month and are required to connect with a Team Leader and a Student Success team member about missing hours. Missing more than eight hours per month may result in deferment to a later class or removal from the program, determined on a case by case basis. Let your team leader know if you’ll miss class for any reason.
We understand life happens and emergencies arise, yet be sure to connect with your Lambda School points of contact.
If you live outside of the US and take a US-based class, it’s taught live on the Pacific time so it’s important to think about how you will adjust according to your time zone. You will also only get US holidays off. If you take an EU-based class, it’s taught live on GMT, and you will only get EU holidays off.
The Lambda school assessment process will state when you have achieved mastery of each goal and act as a signal for when you need extra support. Lambda is based on objective mastery and not grades. Future employers want you to know how to perform certain tasks and we don’t waste time on unnecessary concepts. For this reason, regular assessment is a cornerstone of our educational program.
Daily 1:1 Review
You will meet with your assigned Team Lead daily for 10 minutes. Besides providing you with a verbal code review, your TL will work with you to assess your understanding of the current module. Your TL will indicate if you need extra support to master the objectives. If indicated by your TL, you will be required to attend two hours of TL Hour to target the objectives you need more time to understand.
Sprint 1:1 Review
Following the completion of your sprint challenge, you will meet with your Team Lead to discuss your performance. The Team Lead will submit a review of your Sprint Challenge as well as verification of performance in the following areas;
- Technical skills
- Teamwork/Collaboration skills
- Career Readiness
Students who are unable to meet the objectives on any of the evaluation points above will be required to attend Support Hours for that sprint.
Sprint Progression
Students will attend Targeted Support hours, also repeating units as needed. Every student stays within the same sprint group with instructor-led guided projects. Support Hours and content repetition are available during the Core Track Curriculum, Labs, and during the Additional Track Curriculum
Accumulation of two sprint challenges rated at a 1 will show if you need to repeat the unit.
During your time in Labs, you’ll work as a team to build larger-scale portfolio projects. Your adherence to the designed structure is crucial to your success and the success of your team.
We will assess your participation in Labs in three areas:
- Daily Assessment
- Form submissions
- Attendance
- Sprint Assessment
- Weekly Retrospective
- Four meaningful pull requests to the repository
- One on ones with instructor
- Assigned Trello cards are complete and updated
- Labs Exit Assessment
- Satisfactory project code review (2 or higher = passing)
- Technical Interview
Your project sometimes needs extra time to be at the level expected. Assessment of your progress and ability to collaborate as a team may result in the need to repeat a unit.
To receive a badge and move into Lambda X, students will have to pass a final assessment. The exact process includes more details, but here are a few highlights:
- Summative formal technical assessment
- Rigorous technical Interview
An endorsement is synonymous with graduation at Lambda School. There are many checkpoints for students to keep them on track towards full endorsement; rather than having one final endorsement checkbox, there will be milestones in each unit. Students know how they’re tracking towards full endorsement.
There are technical, career and teamwork expectations to meet endorsement requirements.
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These tasks are to be completed during the project time for your track. For full time these tasks will be completed in the afternoons after the lunch break. For part time these tasks are completed every other day, on the opposite days of the guided project instruction.
You can use class recordings to help you master the material.
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Learning at Lambda for LS200803FT w/James Pacheco
An overview of Lambda School’s tools, Student Journey, Learning Environment, and Daily Workflow.
To demonstrate mastery of this module, you need to complete and pass a code review on each of the following:
- Project: LL Module 1 Project