A Leap from the comfort zone — MY ALC EXPERIENCE
#ALCwithGoogle
PRELUDE
ALC 2.0 is the second ‘miracle’ that happened to technology and programming enthusiast in Nigeria and Kenya in late 2017 and 2018. It was kicked off in high ecstasy and the expectations were great from the students and cannot be toiled with. It’s like signing into the military, if you follow the instructions and adhere to the rules, without skipping any; you will definitely come out been a blessing to yourself, family and country.
I am writing with excitement, but before I go off track, to some readers that will be “what is this ALC”
ALC stands for Andela Learning Community, which as the meaning reads is a community fathered by Andela Nigeria to build quality Engineers in Mobile and Web technology, capable of building apps, solving problems using the best of tools and technologies, following industrial proven standards and practices.
The ALC 2.0 was created to raise the second generation of tech military capable of fighting both and Android and web tech wars in the nearest future.
MY PART
In middle of that “war” I served as a facilitator to some learners in my region, my goal is to make sure everyone do their part as expected and timely in other to beat deadline attached to each project. My role extends to arranging physical MEETUP as slated by Andela team. And making sure everyone having issues and needs attention is helped and put back into track with the other learners.
THE MISSION / OBJECTIVE
The mission is more like a military one without code name, why military? Because many applied and those selected were counted as lucky, but it does not come without a set objectives.
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Each student has a dedicated online class room stuffed with well-crafted video lectures and projects with each milestone attached to a project and its deadline. Each lesson was designed to make a practical impact on the student’s part.
The Android track of which I majored was spectacular starting from understanding the building blocks of Android UI and the Object Oriented design using JAVA.
Using best practices and following industrial standard for efficient and readable codes. Each project is geared to making the learner better by applying the skills gained so far in the lesson.
ALC 2.0 was more than fun and amazing for me as a facilitator, I got to learn more working with people: by making sure anyone that need help can get it.
As the journey gets tough: as you progress as we all know it doesn’t feel good when your mates leave you behind, it takes a lot to make them brace up and quit quitting. As the students knew the expectation is a high one, I’m meant to remind them so they don’t give up, of which more than 80% beat the project deadline, and that made me happy.
Our MEETUPS were always very fun and exciting as any long term bug must go as your mate will tell you secrets to fixing the challenges he or she encountered and you can’t help but to take a breath of relief and know ‘you are not alone’ to us its always like a family reunion after long social and faceless talks.
CHALLENGES
Every good thing that has ever been achieved has always been clustered with “exceptions” for technical readers. The challenges came in different forms, to learners it came in form of bugs; especially those doing it for the first time, time constraints, PC issues and power
The road was not smooth; but the passion and the sight of the goal, we have to forge ahead. Some met challenges out of their control, most people in school and people with poor internet as I reached out to them, though some still willing to forge ahead despite constraint they have.
I cannot forget one of my student during the xmas celebration, he’d already traveled with the bliss of the season; hitting home there is not light and internet wobbles in the village he knowing submission of the first project is imminent, we have to arrange for urgent escape, go to maybe a eating center of a shop and do the submission.
It was a mixed feeling, but with no regrets but to us a great sense of responsibility and achieving each goal at all possible cost. Relating that to my experiences in “Harvard CS50” course; while in school is a risk worth taking.
ACHIEVEMENTS
We were not left out with some self-acclaimed trophies, what we’ve learnt so far is a treasure we are jealously guard, we passionately on each MEETUP analyze each challenge and the students by themselves can help from the knowledge gained so far, from the secret of laying out views to object oriented concept, and how to apply that to personal project in the future.
ALC 2.0 was to ALC Enugu an experience unforgettable as we all have memories to take with ourselves anywhere. We had more than 80% success in number and 100% course completion for those that fought to the end.
WHAT NEXT?
The question I’ve always get is “Phil so what’s next after the last MEETUP, since we are done with the lectures” they are very eager to know what is in for them, whether they advancing to intermediate or if they are to learn on their own.
And my response has been: learning and practicing is infinite, learn practice and apply what you’ve learnt so far, if there will be advancement to intermediate the team will communicate via email. So it was an experience here in Enugu’s ALC 2.0.
