Code Institute

The course started with the 5 day coding challenge it was made in the way, to make me think that once I pass it, will mean, that I am pretty skilled in this area “of thinking”. It consisted of tasks in HTML and CSS. For somebody who has never touched coding, and does not know that HTM and CSS are very simple tools to learn in coding it is easy to fall in this TRAP to think that you will be good at it. Why not create 5 day coding challenge in JavaScrip or Python, much more complex languages???? 

It started of well as with HTML and CSS, but the JavaScript and Python modules were intensely complicated, with badly laid out theory, with end module challenges often with elements not corresponding to the course material making the challenges even more confusing. Majority of the time I was left to research the subjects in other resources on my own to understand what I was being taught. 

The tutor support are not allowed to give you straight answers (I have been taught that many times) plus you have to wait for their support 30/40min to 1.5 hrs. There is a limit of how often in a week you can ask for the support. So, if you have used them twice in a week you are unlikely to be helped third time in the same week or may wait more than 3hours.  The flow of conversation is very slow as tutors (many recent graduates) are talking chatting to other students at the same time. I had to wait for my answers in conversations between 20min to 1.5hrs. 9 out of 10 times tutor’s shift ended during the conversation and I was told to wait for another tutor for help. 

Mentor support your have is between 30-60 min three time during your project. 1 when you talk about your idea. 2 when you are in the middle but expectation is that you should have at this stage completed 70% of your work. 3 before the submission and when project is completed. This is not a help really as ideally you need at least 1-3hr every week to discuss many aspects and problems as this is a completely new field for you. The mentor would often send me to research my queries anyway. This is simply some tick box exercise for the provider of the course to make it look compliant and encouraging. 

They say that you can use 24hr support in Slack, used by students asking questions that are drown in a despair slowly learning that they have had wasted their money. There are many bugs in the tutorial content and for that reason, the end challenges do not work but you are not able to know whether that is your error in the challenge or something else. No to mention spelling mistakes. Tutorials refer to Cloud9 but you have to use completely different GitPod … this list can go on, it is very depressing.  

If you struggle with the content there is nobody to help you. Student support just make calls to you to tick box as they do not actually listen to your struggles. They count their time on the phone making sure it is not extended and you end up with no substantial support to what you are asking for. 

For every late submission you pay extra fee, for every resubmission you pay extra fee. With the above support it could be an endless and costly experience. 

This course is for people with prior knowledge of coding in all offered coding languages. For a beginner is an absolute nightmare as you don’t know what you are doing therefore a lot of support is needed. You will be left completely abandoned with your issues the only real savior can be a developer friend if he/she has a lot of time to give you some attention. CI put a lot of careful attention into getting you into the course 5day VERY EASY coding challenge, with many email reminders, marketing and getting your money. I can give them 5* for the three areas. You will be better off studying on your own. Do not pay for this course unless you have a lot of previous coding experience or you are a beginner but a complete genius! Otherwise, you will pay thousands to learn how to google or use Stack Overflow.  I have chucked this course in the middle of it’s run, learning from free and better explained resources  and have never been happier since.  
 

This was my second time signing up for a Code Institute Hackathon in as many months, as I'd enjoyed the Pride-themed one back in June so much and found it had sharpened my coding and teamwork skills considerably. Once again, I got to work alongside fellow students of various experience levels and backgrounds in sprint-based collaborative bursts as we grappled with an unfamiliar topic/technology (game development on this occasion). And once more my biggest takeaway was that, while the learning content that makes up CI's Full Stack Diploma course is great, there really is no substitute for being brought out of your comfort zone and given a strict deadline to work against...

Over the course of five adrenaline-fuelled days, we pooled our skills and each played a part in building a pretty cool '80s-inspired arcade shoot 'em up. And although our project didn't end up winning, the competition aspect was eclipsed by the overall experience factor in terms of learning to coordinate group workflow and implement best practices around version control (etc.) - with the added bonus of gaining new connections and having lots of fun thrown in for good measure.

There's no doubt about it, remote bootcamp learning can be a solitary path at times, even allowing for the fact that we as CI students have access to several pillars of support (Slack, mentors, tutoring etc.). So to have these hackathons available as an extra-curricular outlet every couple of months goes a long way towards redressing this balance in my view. They've given me such a shot in the arm, in fact, that I've made reference to my hackathon experiences to date in a couple of recent job interviews!

TL;DR: If you're reading this and wondering if you should sign up for the next CI Hackathon, I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a great way of levelling up your dev skills and having something tangible and worthwhile to talk about with prospective employers ;-)

There are 4 practical projects that you can show up in your github and a lot of practising exercises on each of the 4 big modules. The course curriculum is really good and well structured it is including the latest real contents currently used in companies, I've seen many of the contents used in the start up tech company, where I used to work. 
The student portal used to have frequent errors, at least in the time I did the course, although is easy to use, (moving among lessons inside one module is easy) but very annoying when trying to move among modules to one specific lesson, I missed a more accessible/less-clicks/page reloads way to get to any point of any module.
Deadlines are VERY rigid for finishing the projects, if you are currently a full-time employee (normal 8h/day) is practically impossible to really learn everything from the course, you can finish the course and follow it yes, but you will finish with the feeling of not really learning, because you are constantly rushing to get to deadlines, moving to the next lesson without being able to go deeper as long you need in any specific topic.You will end up with a vague general understanding of each field, definitely not enough for the price of the course.I would recommend this course only if you are  not full-time employed and if you have money.
ProsThe course curriculum, and the students community in Slack
ConsWay too expensive for the kind of "support" you actually receive.Most of the time you end up asking among the other students community rather than getting actual support from mentors, as they are only there for general guidance in your projects, not to help you solve code problems.Your access to the portal and study contents is removed once you finish the course, which to me makes no sense at all, and forces you to take extra separate notes, using more time for notes that could be used to actually practice.
The interviews/job finding preparation is a joke, you can get the same advice and support anywhere free in internet as they don't communicate with you directly.The last module of the course corresponding to the last project, is way too long in content/complexity compared with the rest of the other 3 modules, which is normal but you still have the same time to complete it than the previous, which adds additional pressure.

The course is online and can be achieved in a year, the modules and material are easy to follow, the support teams are super pro active and provide really good information that helps you move forward. The videos are available for the full year, the assignments range from easy to challenging but achievable. The 4 projects assessed throughout your learning are up to standard. What you learn and put the time in is generally paid for.
Plus you get a mentor and the constant support of the tutors and slack community for any technical questions.

I gave them disclosures I was vulnerable yet they still gave me information encouraging me to take out loans to do their course with a completely unrealistic 'return upon investment' advice, including how I would earn roughly £31k as a junior developer. Even in London, without a proper degree and/or years of experience, you're not getting £31k from doing a course like Code Institute. 

I thought quite well of them and was genuinely considering trying to financially position myself to complete the course but given the months of being hounded by their marketing department and asking questions, when I made it clear I knew I was being manipulated in bad faith they, funnily enough, just stopped responding. I did remove myself from the mailing list but they made no effort to correct my interpretation of their actions when I made it explicitly clear I didn't think they had my best interests at heart and, as such, found it difficult to believe I'd be efficiently taught any skills I would be required to have upon taking a job after completion.