Course Outline

For the entire 24 weeks, we are in session Tues-Fri 4:30 - 6:30pm. The classroom Zoom is always open for students who want to work together. Office hours will be listed weekly by the instructor.

Class & Assignments

Weekly

The class website will be updated for the week by EOD Friday. The site will show videos and exercises for the upcoming week and a suggested minimum pace. You are expected to fill out a video form for each video you watch. Earlier in the class, the exercises will be meant to do in one day. Later in the class, as the exercises become more complex, they may take multiple days. Due dates & times will be included with the assignments. Work is “turned in” when it is pushed to GitHub.

Benchmark Assignments

Periodically you will have assignments meant to help you and the instructor assess your progress. You will be given feedback and will be asked to respond to that feedback. Completed benchmark assignments can go in your online portfolio with GitHub Pages.

Getting Help

Instructors are also available to meet with you on Zoom during office hours times, individually, in groups, or in the co-working Zoom.

The Slack channels where you can get help from instructors, alumni, and classmates are:

• #code-help (alumni & instructors)
• #pt-team-three (our class)

You can reach out to us on Slack by using an @ symbol followed by our name in the team channel (for instance, “@Rebecca Conley, when I run git push origin main, I get the following error…”).

Topics by phase

Phases last 8 weeks. The exact order and schedule is subject to adjustment by the instructor.

Phase 1: Python & Django

• Version control with Git and using GitHub
• HTML & CSS
• Responsive web design
• Programming basics and introduction to Python
• Python basics
• Lists and tuples; dictionaries; functions
• List comprehensions
• Objects, classes and inheritance
• Working with files
• Django basics
• Django models and migrations & databases
• Django views
• Templates & context variables
• Users and authorization
• Forms in Django
• Debugging in Django

Phase 2: Programming for the Web with JavaScript

• Intro to JavaScript and comparison with Python
• Using JavaScript in the browser
• Event handling in JavaScript
• Manipulating the DOM with JavaScript
• Forms on the web
• Debugging in JavaScript
• JavaScript objects
• AJAX and using APIs
• HTTP requests and methods
• Using JavaScript & AJAX with Django

Phase 3: Agile Development

Students work on small teams to design and build a complete, real-world software product using the practices of professional software developers. You’ll be working independently under the close supervision of your instructor to meet tight deadlines. You will learn and implement at least one new technology that we didn’t learn in class. To graduate, you will present your project to members of the local tech community.