Bit Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to making tech equitable by providing free open source education. We believe lack of accessibility is a prominent issue in the technology industry and we’re aiming to solve it.
Top schools provide their students with access to countless educational resources, student organizations, and networking opportunities outside of the classroom. Additionally, the “brand” of these schools alone can open doors for their graduates. But what about the majority of schools that don’t have these resources? Their students are left trying to find their own ways to stay marketable in a competitive industry. With their heavy course loads and busy schedules, students are not easily able to supplement their education by themselves. Non-traditional paths, like software engineering bootcamps, are often expensive and inaccessible to underserved communities. To help bridge this gap, we offer a free open source alternative, called “Bit Camps”, to teach beginner students a variety of topics relevant to the software engineering field. These programs can serve as a jumping off point for students who want to improve their tech skills or make their own side projects, but lack the appropriate resources or don't know where to begin. At their core, our programs are intended for anyone who is eager to learn new technologies. Whether you are already a tech student looking to improve your skills or someone who has never programmed a day in your life, we welcome you to join a Bit Camp and start learning! And if you are already confident in your skills, we are always eager for new contributors to help build our program curriculum!
This repository includes folders of curriculum for each of our Bit Camps. Our Bit Camps consist of weekly livestreams and homework assignments and conclude with a final project. Student volunteers act as livestream hosts and TAs to teach the curriculum and conduct office hours. For those of our Bit Camps sponsored by industry partners, a developer advocate often co-hosts the livestream and engineers serve as mentors to help students understand concepts and complete their final projects. Although mentorship and feedback on homeworks/final projects are only available to students who apply and get into the bootcamp, the curriculum is free and open to all.
In the past, our curriculum has been created by student developers, sometimes in collaboration with industry partners for our sponsored Bit Camps. As an open source organization, we want to increase community involvement and encourage more developers to contribute to our content. Each Bit Camp directory includes a readme describing the program syllabus, as well as folders for livestreams and homeworks. If you think any of our existing content is confusing to understand for beginners, too easy, too hard, etc., open a PR and let us know! We welcome all suggestions and edits to our repo.
1. GameDev
In this 8-week Bit Camp, you will learn how to make your own video games using Unity, a standard game development platform in the industry. You will start off creating a basic game, and then advance to include audio design and user interface.
2. Javascript
In this 4-week Bit Camp, co-hosted by Twilio, students will learn the JavaScript programming language by navigating through TwilioQuest, an educational video game created by Twilio. Students will be introduced to using the terminal, setting up a local development environment, and basic programming concepts throughout the course.
3. NoSQL
This 8-week camp will be focusing on Atlas, which allows MongoDB to be developed and deployed in the cloud. Students will begin with the basics, setting up a database and then branching out to discover ways to analyze, filter, and create data. The last few weeks of camp consist of time to develop apply their newfound expertise and create a Web App with a MongoDB backend.
In this 8-week Bit Camp, co-hosted by Microsoft, you will learn about serverless architecture and functions, and why they are useful. You will utilize Microsoft Azure serverless functions, JavaScript, and external APIs to build and deploy your own app from end to end.
5. Slack-Apps
In this 6-week Bit Camp co-hosted by Slack, students will be introduced to the Slack Platform and learn how to create Slack apps using Bolt for JavaScript. After setting up a basic Slack app, students will continue to add new features each week, including implementing third-party APIs and making use of Webhooks.
This folder contains documentation for creating a Github Learning Lab, guidelines for creating pull requests, and documentation for how Bit Camp subdirectories are structured and templated.
We encourage open-source contributors like you to help improve our curriculum! You are more than welcome to start making contributions and join us on our mission to make technical education more accessible. Please refer to this to get started, whether you are a first-timer or a seasoned pro.
Think you've found a bug in this BitCamp repository? Bugs can include problems with code, unclear directions in instructions, and suggested improvements to camp curriculum structure. To report this problem, create a Github Issue. When doing so, select the [BUG] template and follow the guidelines included in the description so that other contributors clearly understand your bug.
Website: https://www.bitproject.org
Blog Posts: https://www.bitproject.org/blog
Current Program Offerings: https://www.bitproject.org/programs
Youtube (has past livestreams and all other recorded Bit Project content): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV20hvrYZrgCf458R8cJWag
Open Positions: https://www.bitproject.org/contribute#positions
Join Our Discord: http://join.bitproject.org/