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Evauluator Guidelines

  • Always check the criteria for the badge that's in play for the criteria.
  • Evaluations are pass/fail and require 100% mastery. Don't pass a student unless they confidently pass 100% of the criteria from the badge.
  • Excessive fumbling around and problems during the eval session should necessitate a failure.
  • Students can be evaluated multiple times for the same badge, no problem.
  • If an evaluation can't be completed in the time allotted, the evaluator can make a decision on whether or not the student needs to start from zero or pick up where he/she left off in another eval.
  • If the student is struggling with one piece and it seems like they might be able to nail the rest, give them the option to skip the struggling piece. (See "on_failure" below).
  • Students often say they are nervous. Try your best to put them at ease.
  • You may see a student working from notes. There's no problem with notes at all. BUT, try to ask them some probing questions to make sure they are capable of working apart from their notes as well. For example, ask them to do something different from what they are demonstrating.
  • You should consider yourself a master teacher and mentor. If you have wisdom to share with the student, you have the authority and experience to do so. Go for it! You will enrich the student's experience by doing so.

On_Failure:

When a student fails an eval, I try to let them down easy and not make them feel like it's a big deal or a character flaw. This is HARD STUFF and they should be okay with failure here and there. I usually tell them I want them to go back and study X, Y, and Z. Then come back and re-take the eval. If they only struggled with few things, you can ask them to come back in a few days and get re-evaluated for just those things. There are other times when it might be a better idea for them to start from zero. Given most evals are only 30 minutes long, it shouldn't be a big deal to start from zero anyways.

Badges:

  • Have the student start at the top of the badge criteria and work their way down, explaining and/or demonstrating each point.
  • Live demonstration is preferable but some pre-made demos are acceptible if the evaluator feels it doesn't hide a lack of mastery.

Projects:

Project evals are slightly different and last longer (50-60 min) than badge evals. This is where they send all the relevant urls so we can try out the project application and see the code. I also have them walk me through the app functionality, pointing out details they think are important, and also telling me how the code works.

We need:

  • Url to public git repository where code is stored
  • Url to deployed front-end web application
  • Url to deployed back-end (if applicable)

Steps:

In a screen share:

  • Tour of the front-end application
  • Tour of the back-end API (if applicable)
  • Tour of the code (both front-end and back-end)
  • Ask the student some questions along the way to probe their decision-making process.

Look for:

  • Working without major bugs
  • The developer's own work (copy-pasting allowed only for template code)
  • Application of skills taught in the same level (check project badge for details)

What happens when a project doesn't pass?

The student has put their blood, sweat and tears into this project. So, it's important NOT to make the student feel bad about their project if they don't pass. If the project doesn't meet the requirements, the student can go back and fix the issues or add functionality in order to implement a missing technology. Then, when they are ready, they can schedule another project evaluation.

What happens if we run out of time?

If you feel the eval ran over for legitimate reasons, have the student use your personal calendly link to schedule a new eval If they use the badge calendly link, the round robin selection might give them another evaluator.

Extra Credit

If you feel like the project would be a good part of the student's professional portfolio, give them some pointers on how to make it better as a true portfolio piece. Some common suggestions:

  • Add some features to make it really useful for people
  • Some small bugs to fix
  • Add the public application URL to the readme.md
  • Try to keep the application on and available as a demo project.
  • Turn the readme.md into a tutorial on how to build a site like this.
  • Write a blog article to showcase the application/how to build it