Take Courses
Does your project brief talk about concepts or methods that you’ve never heard of before? Good news! You can learn them easily by taking the courses associated with each project! They are listed on the Coursestab.
Each project is paired with a list of courses that are designed to help you develop the associated new skills and concepts. The courses contain videos, exercises, and step-by-step guides. If you already know a skill, keep in mind that the courses are optional and you only have to take them as you need them for learning. You might consider reading through each course as a refresher before starting the project! And your mentor may also have more suggestions for practicing or developing an individual skill.
Feel free to take the recommended courses when you start your project, then go back to them from time to time to brush up on certain methods. Usually, the method explained in the course can be applied directly to your project!
Explore the Suggested Resources
In the Resources tab, our team has assembled a list of articles, videos, and documents you’ll find most helpful for your project. These external resources were selected when the project was created with the help of experts who are well versed in what students need.
In this tab, you’ll also find links to resources created by OpenClassrooms to guide you, such as:
FAQs, where you’ll find answers to students’ most common questions.
Webinar recordings on subjects related to your project. These webinars are led by experts in the field and provide a more in-depth examination of specific methods, which can be helpful when you’re stuck on a project.
the OpenClassrooms Knowledge Library which contains more general resources and webinars.
Again, using these resources isn’t required, but we highly recommend it—you’ll usually find some useful nuggets to help you move forward!
Seek Out Supplemental Resources
With project-based learning, you learn by working on a realistic professional brief. And in the professional world, there’s one step that no one can skip over: research. The same goes for your projects. Even when you have a clear brief and key resources to get you started, you’ll still need to go further by doing your own research.
The good news is that the internet is a gold mine of information, with resources aplenty—sometimes far more than we even need!
So when you’re feeling stuck, one of your first reflexes should be to find out whether others have solved this problem before, or to find articles or documents that will help you better understand the root cause of the problem.
When doing research, it’s best to take a systematic approach:
Identify what you need. What information are you looking for, what subject does it relate to?
Set a time limit (trust me—if you don’t, you could end up spending entire days going down a research rabbit hole).
Use a search engine, like Google, or search on websites specializing in the subject matter.
Verify that the information source is trustworthy. If you need to, you can cross reference the information you find from different authors and websites.
Let’s Recap!
To help you complete your project, you can use these resources:
OpenClassrooms courses
Project-related resources (articles, videos, FAQs, webinars, etc.)
Search engines and specialized websites, for your supplemental research
You’ve learned all about the resources you have at your disposal. Now let’s go to the next chapter and see how your mentor can help you complete your project!
