Tutoring

An Overview

Welcome to Tutoring at Code Institute!
We're here to help you understand specific programming concepts, and to develop your troubleshooting skills.

Benefits of Using Tutoring • How to Prepare for a Session • Best Practices • Rules

Benefits of Tutoring

A tutoring session is an active learning experience in which you will not only fix your code, but learn new career skills while doing so.

Students who engage in tutoring progress more quickly through the course than those who don't, and are more likely to succeed.

Tutors can help you to understand course concepts that you're unclear on, interpret documentation and error messages, and develop troubleshooting skills that will prove invaluable in the industry.

Tutors will teach you how to resolve your issues, rather than fixing them for you. Please do not enter a tutoring session with the expectation of an easy fix - the learning process can be long and difficult, but will be worth it in the end.

With that in mind, tutors will frequently ask students to carry out various tasks. Students are expected to actively participate in these tasks as they constitute the majority of the learning experience (i.e. learn by doing). The active collaboration required in tutoring sessions means that tutoring will only be delivered through online IDEs, not local IDEs.

Preparing for a Session

To prepare for a tutoring session, you will need two things:

Your Problem Statement

A general statement like "my project isn't working" is not conducive to a successful tutoring session.
A good problem statement contains two things - a concise description of your issue, and the steps you've taken so far to try to resolve it.
Start by asking yourself why your project isn't working. The following is an example of a well-formed problem statement:
I have written a CSS rule which should make all of the images on my index.html 200px wide. I have imported the CSS file at the top of index.html, but the style is not being applied.
I have tried examining the page using the browser's dev tools in order to see what the issue might be, but I can't seem to figure it out. The styles aren't listed in there either!

Your Own Debugging/Research

At the simplest level, if your code doesn't work, and you can't fix it, the goal is to learn how to fix it.
However, as we've already seen, a well written problem statement is more detailed than my code doesn't work. A specific part of your code doesn't work, and it will involve its own specific troubleshooting process.
In order for us to ascertain what you have done so far, and where the gaps in your understanding lie, we need to see evidence of the research and debugging that you have carried out so far. This may include information on Google searches, Slack searches, or links to StackOverflow questions or other resources that you have found. You should never enter a tutoring session without having spent at least 15 minutes researching the problem by yourself.

Best Practices

Patience

Troubleshooting is a process. It is sometimes a very long process. It is always a very repetitive process.
In the software world, it can take days to track down and fix a single bug. You're unlikely to encounter anything quite so complex here, but on occasion, tutoring sessions can take longer than you'd expect or involve a considerable amount of drudgery. This is a core part of programming, and cannot be avoided.

Usage

The average student uses about 30 minutes of tutoring per week.
Your access to tutoring will be capped at 90 minutes per week, in order to ensure fair access to all students.
If you reach the cap in any given week, you will be assigned steps to help you continue with your work while relying less on tutoring.

Rules

Both tutors and students are expected to abide by various rules during tutoring sessions.

Students can expect:

A safe environment in which to ask well-thought questions about the problem they are trying to solve.
To be treated with respect and dignity by tutors at all time.
To be spoken to in a professional manner by tutors at all time.
That tutors will do their best to assist them as long as their question is within course boundaries and relevant to the problem they are trying to solve.
That tutors will push back when a student comes to the point where they need to pivot or persevere in their approach to a prolonged problem.
That no one student will be given preferential treatment over any other students. Please note that students with very high tutoring usage will be queued in order to allow for fair access to all students - queued students will always have their conversations picked up within two hours.

If a student feels that any of these have not been met, they may file a complaint with Student Care.

Tutors can expect:

That students will prepare for sessions. Sessions where students have not adequetely prepared may be closed at the tutor's discretion.
That students will actively participate in sessions, and will be willing to carry out any work provided, either during the session or after the fact.
That students are willing to take feedback from tutors.
To be treated with respect and dignity by students at all times.
To be spoken to in a professional manner by students at all times and that inappropriate comments are unacceptable.
That students will not harass, bully, intimidate tutors or use tutor sessions as an outlet to vent.
That students will not attempt to bypass usage caps, either by using another student's account, or by any other means.
That students will only reach out with coursework, not personal projects or interview questions/assessments.

If a student violates any of the above, they will be issued with a warning. Subsequent violations will result in an immediate suspension from tutoring.