Activities
Study groups
Small groups learning one subject together. You do not need permission to start one, and certification preparation works especially well this way.
What it is
A handful of people learning the same thing at the same time, meeting on a fixed schedule they set themselves. Study groups are run by members, not by the leadership team.
Starting one
You do not need permission and you do not need to be an expert in the subject. Wanting to learn it is the qualification.
- Pick a subject specific enough to finish something in it.
- Find two or three other people. Post it at the meeting or in the channel.
- Agree a time and keep it. A fixed weekly slot survives; finding a time each week does not.
- Decide what you are working through — a course, a book, a syllabus, a project.
Subjects people are studying
- Programming fundamentals
- Data science
- Web development
- Mobile development
- Cloud certifications
- Anything else with two or three takers
Why certifications work well in a group
Certification syllabuses are long, dry, and easy to abandon in week three. In a group the material gets split up, someone explains the part you did not understand, and there is a mild social cost to not doing the reading. That last part is doing most of the work, and it is the part you cannot get alone.
If a group stops
Some do. Exams arrive, interest moves, people get busy. A study group that ran for six weeks and then stopped was not a failure; it was six weeks of studying you would not otherwise have done. Say it has finished so nobody is left wondering, and start another one when you want to.
Come and build something with us.
Tell us who you are and what you are interested in. We read every message, and you will hear back from a person on the leadership team.