Inside the Online Student Support at LearningFuze

Learning technical skills online can feel daunting, but in the online bootcamps at LearningFuze, online student support is prioritized. From office hours to community events, we caught up with Annalicia Anaya, President of LearningFuze, to walk us through the types of support available to online bootcamp students. Learn more about the differences and similarities between learning online versus in-person at LearningFuze, and Annalicia’s advice for incoming online bootcamp students.

👩🏾‍💻 Sign up for the next Remote Web Development bootcamp by February 9, 2024 for a $250 early bird registration discount!

LearningFuze is also offering a Prep Course that begins February 29, 2024. Students who pass the assessment following the Prep Course will be admitted into the remote or in-person full-time Web Development Bootcamp that begins March 25th!

Annalicia, as the President of LearningFuze, how do you support students?

I’m incredibly lucky that my role allows me to get to know and support all of our LearningFuze students from the time they enroll through landing a job and beyond! As President, I get to wear many hats but my favorite is that of student supporter and advocate.

Before LearningFuze I managed student success at another bootcamp and led a community of small business presidents at a start-up, so the bulk of my professional experience has encompassed supporting adult learners as they work towards advancing in their careers and reaching their personal goals.

With the exception of teaching technical lessons myself, I strive to be a core supporter of our students in every other way I can. This includes helping students navigate deciding which course is right for them, supporting them through onboarding, reviewing resumes, working with students on creating personal progress plans, gathering and implementing student feedback, and making sure students move seamlessly through their LearningFuze journey overall.

What are LearningFuze's goals for their online bootcamp students?

Our goals for our online students are dependent on what kind of outcomes each person wants to achieve: some students come into the program hoping to transition careers, some come in as entrepreneurs who want to learn how to develop skills to launch a start-up, and some come in hoping to upskill to get a promotion at their current workplace.

Because we’re an intimate school with small class sizes, we’re able to take time to speak with each student about their goals, before they enroll and throughout their journey to tailor our in-program and post-program support to help them achieve their unique goals. That can include things like sharing networking opportunities in their respective community or industry, connecting them with our 300+ hiring partners in the Southern California area, or helping them hone their professional presence.

Ultimately, we hope each student walks away confident in their abilities as a full-stack developer or data scientist, feels prepared to take the next step to advance their career, and makes connections with peers and alumni during and after the program.

How long has LearningFuze been teaching online/remotely? 

LearningFuze started our remote version of the bootcamp when the entire world went online in March 2020. We had a great response with extremely successful and engaged students, and we continued to offer our courses remotely after things moved back into an in-person setting. We’re proud to offer these remote options which allow for more flexibility for folks who are working, have family obligations, or who aren’t geographically close enough to attend our in-person sessions. 

Which bootcamps can students take remotely at LearningFuze? 

Currently, we offer three courses which are taught live online, each with a max student-to-teacher ratio of 10:1, which include: 

• Full-Time Web Development bootcamp which runs Monday-Friday from 9:00 am — 5:00 pm PST for 18 weeks (including 14 weeks of curriculum and 4 weeks of dedicated career services support)
• Part-Time Web Development bootcamp which runs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6:30 pm — 9:00 pm PST for 42 weeks (including 4 weeks of non-consecutive breaks throughout)
• Part-Time Data Science bootcamp which runs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6:00 pm — 9:00 pm PST for 24 weeks.

At a high level, what student support services can online students expect?

Our online students have constant support both in and out of our programs. We have intentionally designed our remote program around a very small class size so that during class students have ample opportunity to ask questions and get 1-1 help live from their instructor, in addition to building relationships with their peers. 

Outside of class, we offer teaching assistants who are available Monday to Friday to support students remotely. We also offer community events like hackathons where they’re able to pair program with their peers, alumni mixers where they can network with other graduate students in their community, 1-1 coaching sessions throughout the program with recent alumni, career services workshops (including resume, LinkedIn, networking, soft skills, etc.), technical and behavioral mock interviews, and more.

Who makes up the student support team at LearningFuze?

Students are supported by all LearningFuze staff which includes, their live classroom instructor, 3-5 different TAs, Alumni mentors, our Career Services Director, myself, the Vice President, along with outside career coaches and engineers who assist throughout the programs. 

In what ways is student support for online students different and similar to student support for in-person students?

Students are offered the same support both in-person and online, however, the biggest difference with the remote courses is the student-to-instructor ratio. The largest class size we have with our remote courses is 10 students, whereas our largest class size in-person is 15 students. Having smaller class sizes in our remote programs ensures instructors can give an unparalleled amount of time for one-on-one support throughout the class.  

While our remote students are not able to walk up to the instructor for questions like our in-person students, our remote students have every opportunity to connect with staff, their peers, and alumni via Zoom breakout rooms and our online Slack Community where they can chat one-on-one or in groups with any one of the 2,000 plus members!

When does student support begin for online students at LearningFuze? 

Online support begins for students as soon as they are enrolled in our Prep Course. Once they’re enrolled, students get access to our Slack Workspace where they can speak with the admin team, instructors, TAs and peers to work through onboarding before the start of class. Even ahead of the Prep Course, we offer students self-study materials to practice to get the most out of their experience. 

What does student support look like inside the live online classroom?

Because our class sizes are so small, with never more than 10 students in our remote courses, the instructor provides individualized help that’s truly best-in-class within the industry. As a junior developer, having that amount of one-on-one support from a professional engineer reviewing every single line of code is an amazing learning opportunity.

As far as the in-class structure, we teach in a flipped classroom style where students are introduced to a concept, given an exercise with resources and instructions to guide their learning on the concept, and encouraged to ask questions as they work. Once they have completed the exercise and built context around the concept, a Q and A is performed to review the concepts, code, and answer additional questions. 

If a student is struggling with a concept more than others in the class, the instructor can pull them into a private breakout to work with them one-on-one while other students work on individual exercises. This allows the instructor to ensure the class is progressing at a stable pace while not leaving students behind.

During class students also have the chance to get support from their peers, especially during paired programming exercises.

In addition to learning core concepts, we value teaching students how to be successful in their careers. Both during and after class students are encouraged to practice asking technical questions to Senior Engineers via Slack just as they would in the workplace. Learning how to ask for help and receive support in this virtual format can take some adjustment, but we encourage every student to learn this skill so they can continue to learn and grow outside of a traditional classroom setting.

What does student support look like outside of the live online classroom?

We have a wide range of support outside the classroom, from one-on-one TA support to custom career services support. 

We encourage the students who are struggling or falling behind with program material to attend the Teaching Assistant hours which happen from 6:00 pm — 8:30 pm Monday through Thursday and 5:30 pm — 8:00 pm Friday where they can get one-on-one support. Additionally, instructors are available outside of class hours for additional support on exercises when students get blocked on a hyper-specific problem. Instructors can also offer students additional practice material if a student struggles with specific concepts.

Beyond the curriculum, we have robust career services support including formal 4 weeks of post-course engagement where students attend job search workshops, technical and behavioral practice interviews, whiteboard sessions, and one-on-one mentoring with LearningFuze alumni.

For a student who is excelling in the bootcamp, do you offer a different kind of support to challenge them further?

Yes! Throughout the course, if a student is excelling their instructor can work with them individually to add additional complexity to their projects. The instructor also recommends supplemental learning material that will complement the core concepts being taught to push them further in their development.

In 2024, we’re launching optional quarterly Hackathons in conjunction with different people in the Southern California tech community. The event offers paid prizes for the winners and was specifically designed with our remote students in mind to get more experience with paired programming and additional professional experience that can be added to their resumes.

Students who are excelling toward the end of the curriculum may also have additional time to complete 100+ practice technical interview problems or take on a personal project to enhance their skills. 

Are there opportunities for online students to support one another during the bootcamp? Can they also interact with in-person students?

Remote students are given opportunities for paired programming throughout the curriculum to level up their skills and practice coding in a group setting. 

Both the in-person and remote students present their final projects together on the final day of class.

Many of our LearningFuze students build strong and long-lasting relationships with their peers during their time in the program. For example, some students will set up time to study together outside of class or help each other ideate about their projects.Our community and alumni events are open to all LearningFuze alumni, regardless of program type or location, and many of our remote students get the opportunity to interact and continue to build their network at these events. 

A lot of the remote to in-person interaction happens during our weekly job search webinar where alumni join to share updates, tips, and advice while discussing their experience.

What is your advice to incoming students on how to make the most of student support in the online bootcamp?

Ask good questions! Especially in a remote setting, it can be daunting to ask questions. Most of the time, the questions asked during class are questions your peers have as well, so it benefits the entire cohort when there’s more interaction.

Lastly, take advantage of the LearningFuze-sponsored in-person and remote networking events! We host a number of these each month, and students who attend gain a larger professional network along with lifelong friends.

Find out more and read LearningFuze reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with LearningFuze.