Group Instruction · CSS Grid · Front End Nanodegree · Udacity
Career & Technical Instructor —
Udacity & OneTen Scholarship
Met weekly with a cohort of OneTen scholarship students throughout their Front End Web Development Nanodegree — covering technical curriculum, career development, and the full arc of what it takes to transition into tech without a four-year degree.
The Program
Free front end training for career-changers
The OneTen Scholarship — a partnership between OneTen, Accenture, and Udacity — provides free Nanodegree training to learners without four-year degrees, focused on opening doors into tech through skills-first pathways. The Front End Web Development track covers the full foundation of skills needed to build modern web experiences.
As a Career & Technical Instructor, I met with the cohort weekly throughout the program — not just as a subject-matter resource, but as a sustained presence across both the technical curriculum and the career development side of the journey: job search strategy, professional identity, and what it actually looks like to break into tech without a degree.
The program's students were career-changers and early-career professionals: motivated adults balancing learning with real competing demands, who needed consistent support from someone who understood both the code and the path forward.
2024
Udacity & OneTen Scholarship
Career & Technical Instructor
Front End Web Development Nanodegree
Group Cohort Instruction
The Work
What weekly sessions covered
A consistent weekly presence across both tracks — front end technical curriculum and the career development journey of breaking into tech without a four-year degree.
Front End Technical Curriculum
Guided students through the intro to front end content — HTML, CSS, layout fundamentals, and CSS Grid — using live coding in the browser to make abstract concepts visible and approachable.
Career Development Coaching
Covered the career side of the transition: job search strategy, professional positioning as a non-degree candidate, how to frame a portfolio, and what hiring managers in tech actually look for.
Live Coding Walkthroughs
Demonstrated concepts live using tools like freeCodeCamp's CSS Grid challenges and a GRID visual cheatsheet — working through problems in real time so students could follow the thinking, not just the answer.
Group Q&A Facilitation
Created space for the cohort to surface questions, work through confusion together, and learn from each other — turning individual blockers into shared insights across the group.
Study Strategy & Habits
Coached students on how to learn effectively under real-world constraints — including techniques like the Pomodoro method for managing focus during intensive self-paced study.
Sustained Cohort Presence
Met with the cohort weekly throughout the duration of the program — providing continuity and building the kind of trust that only comes from showing up consistently over time.
In a Session
CSS Grid — from concept to code
A typical session opened directly in the browser — freeCodeCamp's CSS Grid challenges provided a live coding environment where students could see code and rendered output side-by-side, the same way they'd work on a real project.
One key concept in these sessions was the fr unit — a CSS Grid-specific fractional unit that divides available space proportionally, and behaves differently
from fixed units like px or relative ones
like %. Mixing units in grid-template-columns — auto, fixed, percent, and fractional — is where most learners need to slow down and build real understanding.
The group format made these moments richer: one student's question often unlocked understanding for others, and the shared screen meant everyone could follow along at the same point in the code.
freeCodeCamp — CSS Grid Challenge
.container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 100px 2fr;
}
/* fr = fractional unit — divides remaining space */
.container {
grid-template-columns: auto 50px 10% 2fr 1fr;
}
Session Recording
See a Group Session
A recorded group instruction session covering CSS Grid fundamentals with OneTen scholarship cohort students, 2024.
Reflection
Group instruction as a force multiplier
The OneTen program is built on a core belief I share: that the ability to do technical work shouldn't be gated behind a four-year degree. The students in this cohort were proving that every week — motivated, curious, and showing up consistently despite real competing demands on their time.
What made this role distinct from other teaching I've done was the dual mandate: technical and career. The students weren't just learning CSS Grid — they were learning how to position themselves, how to talk about their work, and how to navigate a hiring landscape that wasn't built with them in mind. Being useful on both tracks meant showing up week after week and building real continuity with the group.
Group instruction also adds something 1:1 sessions can't replicate: the moment when one student articulates their confusion in a way that reframes the concept for everyone else. That kind of peer learning is worth facilitating deliberately.
Career & Technical Instructor, Udacity & OneTen Scholarship, 2024.
OneTen
Udacity Scholarship
Career & Technical Instructor
Front End Web Development Nanodegree
Group Cohort · 2024
Interested in working together?
I'm open to remote opportunities in instructional design and technical learning experience design.