This week marks the beginning of an exciting new adventure - the maiden voyage of the Viking Code School.  I had a fantastic experience as a TA with Omaha Code School last spring, and I’m excited to play that role again with a new group of students in a whole new format.

Viking Code School is an online program with students from across the country, but it’s not like any program I’ve seen before.  Developed by Erik Trautman of The Odin Project, VCS brings together a small cohort of eight carefully selected students for a highly intensive, highly interactive bootcamp.

Instructors will be available to field questions via HipChat throughout the day as well as having daily teaching hours and group Q&A sessions through video conferencing.  Students will use HipChat to help each other as they go through the readings and individual assignments; then they’ll pair up with a new person each weekend to build a project together using video calls and screen sharing for remote pair programming.  We’re gonna get to know each other really well over the next twelve weeks!

We had our kickoff session last night, and these students are amazing.  I’m a little intimidated, to be honest.  They are bright, dedicated, and passionate about building the web.  Each one has a unique background and brings different strengths and experience to the team.  I look forward to helping them in their journey, and I know I will learn a ton from them along the way.

Check out the prep work they’ve already completed.  It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you’re curious about this whole web development thing, it’s a great place to start.  Caution: contents are highly addictive.  You may even find yourself joining the Odin Project or applying for the next round of Viking Code School.