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Table of Contents

Guided Pairing Sessions (GPS)

Purpose

Guided Pairing Sessions (GPS) were started with a few goals in mind:

  1. Give students exposure to pairing in a supportive environment
  2. Help students develop greater technical understanding by giving them access to instructors
  3. Prepare students for Dev Bootcamp (DBC) by placing them in a similar scenario to day-to-day life at DBC

Instructors use this time to see how students engage with one another, how they are progressing in terms of technical knowledge, and help students develop a deeper understanding of technical material.

Each GPS challenge is designed to reinforce the learning objectives covered in the unit up to that point. These are opportunities for you to identify and clarify concepts that are confusing as well as to get practice pairing.

Expectations

Each student is required to attend five Guided Pairing Sessions (GPS) during Phase 0. Sessions are based on units and follow a specific curriculum. For this reason, they are only offered during specific times in each particular unit.**

Unit 1:
 - Week 1: Introductory Session
 - Week 2: GPS 1.1
 - Week 3: GPS 1.2

Unit 2
 - Week 5: GPS 2.1
 
Unit 3
 - Week 7: GPS 3.1

Courtesy

  • Please connect to a reliable internet network in a quiet place
  • Wear headphones during GPS to reduce feedback
  • Cancel any sessions you cannot make more than 6 hours prior to your session.
  • If you have something come up last minute, email your instructor and pair to let them know you will not be able to attend the session.
  • Please note: We only create enough sessions for every person to attend one. Please bear that in mind and try to avoid missing or having to reschedule any sessions.
  • If you need to reschedule, but all appointments are booked, please make an announcement to your cohort through email or on your community page to ask someone to switch.

The Instructor's Role

Each instructor has a slightly different style when conducting GPS sessions. Some are more active in guiding you through a challenge and some are more hands off. It is up to you to ask your instructor to become more or less active in your sessions. Most instructors will watch your session and let you work through the challenge with your pair and ask you to pause if we feel you are getting off track or about to go down a rabbit hole. Instructors will also give you help with coding conventions, tips, style, and communication. They are also there to answer questions, help you ask good questions, and make sure you and your pair are on a similar page.

Although you have one hour with the instructor, the challenges often take longer than an hour, which means you will likely need to set aside time to finish the challenge with your pair. After the hour is up, the instructor will leave you on your own to finish the challenge. You can finish at any time you and your pair are able to meet that week.

NOTE: If you are paired with an instructor without another pair, the session will be slightly different since you will be pairing with the instructor. Please take a deep breath and have fun! Feel free to pick your instructor's brain and deepen your understanding.

Success Guidelines

These sessions are intended to help you become a better pair, have a stronger connection to DBC, and to feel more confident with the material. That said, they are also ways for us to track how you are doing in Phase 0 to this point and will be used as determining factors in whether you will continue through the program or not. Guided Pairing Sessions give us a better idea of whether you will be successful in the program. This is not meant to discourage you or make you think each session is a test. We guage your success based on the following metrics.

###Culturally we are looking for your:

- Enthusiasm for programming and solving challenges!
- Willingness to check in, connect, and share how you are feeling 
- Curiosity of how things work
- Showing your ignorance. If you don’t know something, speak up!
- Good balance of speaking and listening, driving and navigating
- Engage the Phase 0 instructor when you and your pair is stuck

Technically we are looking for you to:

- Transfer knowledge from previous challenges to a new challenge
- Identify concepts that are confusing and ask for help
- Demonstrate your comfort with reading and writing code
- Implement the technical skills you've learned

You will be successful in GPS if you:

- Express your opinions and ideas 
- Appoint a driver and navigator and swap roles with clear communication
- Seek out and create space for your pair’s thoughts/opinions
- Are considerate of your pair
- Ask questions when you don’t understand something
- Discuss various options with your pair as well as pros and cons
- Demonstrate your ability to research methods, use IRB, etc.
- Screenshare when appropriate to include your pair more fully
- Let your pair know when you need thinking time instead of going silent
- Experiment with the code and cultivate a spirit of play
- Display familiarity with learning objectives
- Use the knowledge you’ve gained to solve the challenge objectives
- HAVE FUN!

You will not be successful if you:

- Let your pair take over completely and “coast” through the session
- Act like you understand something when you don’t
- Do not contribute to the code
- Do not ask questions
- Expect yourself to be perfect
- Expect your pair to be perfect
- Prioritize completion or speediness over understanding

##Feedback and Transparency

You will receive feedback for the GPS sessions in two ways: 1) verbally in the final 5-10 minutes of each session and 2) via email. The verbal feedback will address immediate impressions from the session whereas feedback via email will be tailored to you. Email feedback will also include a summary of whether we believe you are on track for success at Dev Bootcamp.

We are sharing this information with you for a couple of reasons:

  1. We believe that information we collect pertaining to you and your progress should be transparent and easily available (to you)
  2. We want you to know whether you are on the track for success at Dev Bootcamp
  3. We believe that you will be able to better tailor your preparation and progress in Phase 0 with this information

*Please Note: If you receive a message that says you are not on track, we will contact you to discuss your progress.

You should feel free to respond to your instructor if you have questions, comments, or concerns regarding your feedback.