Bootcamp Visual Programming - Ideas

Questions
1

Hi! In a couple of weeks I’m trying to hold a Bootcamp where I plan to teach people to use Bubble. I’m expecting 15 – 20 persons, so far the audience that have signed-up is highly diverse, everything from traditional developers to musicians, but for all of them it will be the very first time using Bubble.

It will be held on a entire weekend (Sat & Sun) from 8am to 8pm, each day. My ending goal is to make attendees to build a simple prototype of their/any app idea.

I’m looking for ideas on how to outline this in terms of ‘best practices’, schedule, activities, etc. First time doing this, so I’ll also appreciate any feedback and advise you might have from similar experiences.

Thanks!

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I would have thought that your bootcamp itinerary and roadmap would have been set in stone long before an invite even gets warm. However I credit your desire to build awareness as bubble is the best in its class for what it does.

Going back to your original Q and from past experience, the material presented is only as good as it’s tutor knowledge. This again has to come natural and cannot be forced. I would go back how you started in bubble and build on your current strengths. Try not to swerve into areas of unknown, after all… bubble is still evolving and we are all still learning (tutors and students alike).

Best of luck :clap: :clap: :clap:

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I’m not sure about best practices but here are my thoughts:

  1. Are folks paying for this bootcamp? If they are, their expectations will be very different than if it’s free/very cheap.

  2. 8am to 8pm is quite long. You may lose people as folks get tired, tune out, etc. Now, if you take many breaks, 45min to 1 hour for lunch and maybe 1.5 hours for dinner, where people get time to talk and share their ideas, it could work out. But I think you can accomplish a lot from 8am to 5pm.

  3. Are you catering lunch and/or dinner in? Our all going as a group? This will save time and ensure that some folks aren’t late coming back from meals. There’s always that person that’s 5-10 minutes late…

  4. I would make the first day 8am to Noon a “You watch, You do” follow me session. Maybe 30 minutes on “what is bubble?” and some demos of bubble apps and existing templates. Zeroqode have templates that you can demo.

Then have everyone watch you build a feature, then they do it. You show how to do something, then walk around the room as they do it:
a) build landing page (index.html) show groups, text placement, images.
b) add a header on the page with logo, title, and Sign Up/Login button or link.
c) create the site’s Sign Up/login popup and login functionality. Introduction to Workflows here.
d) put conditional on the “Sign Up/Login” link that changes this text to “Log Out” if the user is logged in. Maybe also show the User Name if logged in.
e) Now maybe talk about data and the database. Explain “Things” and fields. Create a new Thing for “Products”. Add “Product Name”, “product description”, “Photo” and “price” fields.
f) Create a new page that allows user to add a product. Place the input fields on page, then a Save button.
g) Build the workflow to “create a new thing”, getting the field values from the input fields. Make sure they really understand what’s happening here.
g) Now add a Repeating Group to display all the Products. Add in fields for the photo, name, description and price fields into the RG.

everyone should now have a landing page, a working signup/login, and a page to add and display their “Products”. Even if their project doesn’t deal with “products” they should all be able to see how this relates to what they want to build.

You have covered basics of workflows, conditionals, UI/UX design, the database, adding items to the DB, reading the database. Good foundation to build on.

I’m really not sure how you structure the rest of the time. But I would recommend something from agile development–product demos. Have the attendees demo what they have so far. This is a great way to get feedback and ideas. So maybe at the end of day 1, folks demo and then midway thru day 2…

Good luck. This sounds like a ton of fun.

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Thanks, man! Yeah, I got you, I have -lets say- my own “guide” for short sessions of 3 hours, more like an intro. But this time is much longer, which is why called ‘Bootcamp’ and why I wanted first to get other ideas from others

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Thanks for this great feedback and for mentioning such important points.

First, yes, it will be free. I’m just interested in keep growing local Visual Programming community, for now.

Based on your reply, it seems I’m not for away for the initial part of the ‘Bootcamp’. My main concern, as you mentioned, is to keep people interested, so it is the reason cuz I was looking for new ideas.

Usually, I start explaining

  1. How I started five years ago, you know: the ‘Story Telling’ part.
  2. Then I begin with explaining briefly what is Visual Programming: why does exist, how you can being more efficient or make money out of it (Here is when they start to pay attention)
  3. Finally, I introduce Bubble and other similar tools (just to keep an open-impartial perspective). Here, I show how to build an app, using all elements in the editor.

In order to try to keep them ‘into it’:

a) I select a person that will be the one working on the on the room’s screen, and rotate this person with other one every 15-20 mins.
b) I try to come up with quite stupid business ideas, just to make fun out of what is perceived by many as boring topic (programming). Things like: “Shit Brokers” (Feces intermediaries), or “XXX Teddy Bears” (Plushies without clothes).
c) I try to encourage girls to attend because, for some reason, they are 3x faster picking up how to use Bubble. They also make more and smart questions, so they keep the class active. And… they also make guys pay much more attention to try to keep up the group’s pace

Now, as I said, my main issue will be to keep the dynamics of the group going on, while they’re building their apps right there. In all my previous experiences, I just got to finish the app, and that was it. This time, I want them to start building a prototype -and hopefully get it done- of their own idea.

So, I was thinking to maybe:

i) Walk around answering questions while they are working
ii) Let them work for 15 mins sprints, followed by short Q&A session, and then a mins break.

If possible, give me your thoughts about all these points, and if you have some other ideas, I’ll appreciate it!

Thanks again!