Virtual Camp Playbook

Virtual Camp Playbook

Comprehensive guide covering all aspects of running a virtual camp, from Zoom structure to facilitation to house management. Reference this throughout camp for virtual-specific logistics, best practices, and strategies for building community and supporting learning online.

Virtual Camp Structure

The Cloud
When all ~80 scholars are together in the main Zoom room, we call it the Cloud. The Cloud is where the majority of direct instruction happens, led by instructors.
Houses
Scholars will be placed into smaller groups (~20 scholars) called Houses. Each house is designated with a letter (i.e. House A) and each house is led by 2 IAs. The scholars in each house will get to know each other really well. This is their go-to group of friends and instructional leaders that they can lean on get support, both technically and socially!
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Both IAs are responsible for managing all the scholars in each house, with the support of the camp’s instructors and camp coordinator. Co-IAs in each house will work together to build community, respond to scholar challenges, and manage logistics for all scholars in their house. Scholars typically break out into Houses during these key moments:
  • Opening Circle
  • Brain Breaks
  • Culture of Tech sessions
  • Practice sessions during instruction
  • Closing Circle

Ad Hoc Small Groups

Throughout the day, scholars may be broken into even smaller groups within their House: pairs for partner coding, groups of 4 for community activities, or differentiated groups when IAs observe varying levels of comfort with the material.

Capstone Project Groups

During the capstone project phase, scholars work in groups of 3-4. IAs serve as the primary project managers for these groups within their House, while Instructors provide camp-wide support and oversight. For detailed guidance on managing capstone project groups, refer to The Capstone Project guide in the IL Resource Hub.

Deciding Where Instruction Happens

Instructors make the call on when scholars should be in the Cloud vs. their House. A few guiding principles:
  • Have scholars break into Houses at least once per lesson, typically during the practice activity
  • Limit Cloud → House transitions where possible (each transition takes roughly 2 minutes)
  • Be explicit with IAs about what their role should be in each House session before releasing scholars to breakouts

The Three Core Responsibilities

Every member of the instructional team shares responsibility across three areas. The balance of who owns what shifts by role, but all three areas require everyone's attention throughout camp.

Core Responsibility #1: Build Community

Fostering community is important for all Instructional Leaders to keep in mind, but there are some unique considerations for the virtual camp experience. Here’s the role that each instructional leader plays in building community in a virtual camp:
Instructors
  • Create opportunities for your instructional team to build connections with one another
  • Decide when and how you want to structure key community building moments (i.e. Opening Circle, Closing Circle, Brain breaks)
  • Provide oversight and guidance to IAs as they plan community-building activities
  • General encouragement and support of scholars
Virtual Camp Coordinator (VCC)
  • Build a warm and supportive team culture by planning team activities
  • Monitor and support scholar engagement across houses
  • Actively contribute in all Slack channels and breakouts
  • Support IAs in feeling heard and connected
  • General encouragement and support of scholars
Instructor Assistants (IAs)
  • Build “House Pride”
Houses give scholars a sense of identity and belonging within a smaller community, which matters a lot when you're one of 80 people in a virtual space! Here are strategies Co-IAs can use throughout camp to build House pride:
  • Zoom Chat: Use the Zoom chat to acknowledge and celebrate your scholars in the Cloud — a simple "Good morning, House B! 🎉" at the start of the day goes a long way. Cheer your House on when scholars answer questions or win activities: "Let's go House B!!" builds House identity and makes scholars feel seen.
  • Music: Music is a surprisingly effective community-building tool. Create a House playlist inspired by your scholars' tastes. If you have Spotify Premium, make it collaborative so scholars can add songs. Play it during independent work time, transitions, or any moment that doesn't require listening.
  • House Name: Giving your House a unique name ("House B Bosses," "House F Froggies") creates an extra layer of identity scholars often embrace enthusiastically. On Day 2 or 3, invite scholars to suggest names in Slack or over Zoom and take a vote. You can also incorporate your House letter into theme days: House Boo for ghost day, House Blooms for flower day, etc.
  • Personalized Activities: Pay attention to what comes up naturally in your House, a common interest, a funny moment, a scholar's unexpected expertise, and lean into it. Turn it into a theme day. Reference it in chat messages. Build it into a brain break. Scholars bond fastest when they feel like their House has its own culture, not just a letter.
Review the modality-specific guidance in the Building Community guide for even more ideas for how to leverage the virtual camp environment to foster strong camp culture.

Core Responsibility #2: Facilitate Learning

In virtual camps, all instructional leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating and supporting scholar learning. Here’s the role that each instructional leader plays in supporting scholar learning:
Instructors
  • Leading direct instruction 
  • Revising your camp’s agenda each day and deciding when instruction should happen at the Cloud, House, or smaller group level
  • Monitoring and assessing scholar’s technical proficiency
  • Differentiating and adjusting instruction to meet scholars needs
Virtual Camp Coordinator (VCC)
  • Supporting the instructional team in managing time and making decisions about how to navigate instruction throughout the day
  • Creating instructional resources for instructor assistants as needed to support scholar learning
  • Add essential resources to Camp Quick Links document
  • Providing additional support to scholar capstone project groups
  • Serving as a substitute instructional leader if an IA is absent
Instructor Assistants (IAs)
  • Facilitating strong practice and review sessions in houses or in smaller groups
  • Answering scholar questions during lessons & supporting them with debugging
  • Managing scholars’ capstone group projects
  • Reviewing and giving feedback to scholars on work
  • Flagging scholars that are in their comfort/panic zone and determining the best ways to differentiate support

The After Party

One unique component of virtual KWK camps is The After Party! Formerly known as Office Hours, the After Party is a one-hour session after camps close each evening, led by 2 instructional leaders. IAs and/or VCCs are expected to lead the After Party 1-3 times over the course of the camp. You’ll decide which After Party sessions you’ll lead during your Whole Team Collaboration Meeting.
  • Virtual Camp Coordinators will facilitate the sign-up process for hosting the After Party and provide the team with access to their Zoom account to host After Party meetings daily.
  • Because you will be helping scholars outside of your House during the After Party, it’s likely (especially when scholars are working on their capstone projects) that you’ll be unfamiliar with the project, but you may still support with debugging a specific section of the code.

Content Review

Every morning during Opening Circle, Instructors and/or IAs have an opportunity to lead a brief review session. The format should match what scholars need and how much time is available:
  • Code-alongs work well when scholars need hands-on support with syntax or application, and work especially well in Houses where IAs can offer both a guided option and an independent practice track simultaneously.
  • Kahoots or Blookets work well for reviewing general concepts at the Cloud or House level. Designate in advance who will host the game and who will read questions aloud. Splitting these roles keeps the energy up and the pacing tight.

Microfeedback

IAs review scholar microfeedback daily and share reflections with the full instructional team. Instructors and VCCs use those reflections to make adjustments at the Cloud level; IAs use them to differentiate support for individual scholars in their House.

Scholar Artifacts

Scholar artifacts are collected Days 1-5 via the microfeedback form. IAs score each submission for proficiency in Airtable. This data is used to track trends, identify individual learning needs, and inform capstone project groupings.

Core Responsibility #3: Manage Operations

The third and final category of your responsibilities as a virtual camp leader is to manage camp operations. Here’s the specific role that each instructional leader plays in managing camp logistics:
Instructors
  • Plan and lead daily team huddles with Virtual Camp Coordinator to analyze scholar feedback, finalize the daily agenda, and share key updates
  • Manage and support IAs throughout the camp experience
  • Support the team in maintaining core camp systems and ensure team compliance with data entry, analysis, and logistical tasks
  • Share key information and announcements with scholars on Slack
  • Communicate regularly with all Kode With Klossy staff throughout the duration of the program and follow all escalation procedures for any issues that arise during the program
Virtual Camp Coordinator (VCC)
  • Plan and lead daily team huddles with instructors
  • Support IAs throughout the camp experience
  • Support the team in maintaining core camp systems and ensure team compliance with data entry, analysis, and logistical tasks
  • Share key information and announcements with scholars on Slack
  • Serve as the main Zoom host and manage Zoom logistics
Instructor Assistants (IAs)
  • Take attendance daily
  • Maintain core camp systems (i.e. Slack, Google Drive, Airtable)
  • Serve as scholars’ main point of contact and support in each house
  • Escalate any major scholar concerns or issues to instructors, VCC, and KWK team
Three systems keep camp running. All instructional leaders are expected to maintain them, and Instructors and VCCs are responsible for ensuring IAs are doing so consistently.

Core Camp Systems

Slack
Slack is the primary communication platform for scholars and the instructional team. Each camp has a community-wide announcements channel and individual House channels for scholar support. Key practices:
  • IAs should open a help thread in their House channel at the start of each lesson and practice session
  • Instructors and VCCs use Slack to keep the team aligned on pacing, transitions, and daily updates
  • Scholars use Slack DMs to share personal or sensitive communications with their IAs
Airtable
IAs are responsible for tracking the following in Airtable throughout camp:
  • Attendance (AM and PM)
  • Scholar artifact proficiency ratings (Days 1-5)
  • Capstone project progress
Instructors and VCCs monitor Airtable to identify trends and ensure IAs are keeping it updated consistently.
Google Drive
Each camp has a shared Google Drive folder for curricular materials and resources. Organizational best practices:
  • Include your House letter in all document titles to avoid confusion across Houses
  • Use subfolders (Opening Circle Slides, Practice Sessions, Brain Breaks, etc.) rather than a flat folder
  • Browse other Houses' folders for inspiration — collaboration is encouraged, just give credit where it's due

Communication Norms

Managing communication across ~80 scholars requires clear, consistent norms, and those norms need to be explicitly taught on Day 1 and reinforced throughout camp.

Zoom Chat vs. Slack: When to Use What

The table below outlines where different types of questions and concerns belong. This is shared directly with scholars as part of Day 1 camp norms.
Use Zoom Chat
  • Clarifying questions that benefit the whole group ("Why do we need a semicolon here?")
  • Navigation questions ("Can you go back to the last slide?")
  • Conceptual questions with broad relevance
Use your Slack House Channel
  • Code-specific questions ("I typed <p>Rainbows<p> and nothing is showing up")
  • Tech issues ("My CodeSandbox isn't loading")
  • Time or pacing questions ("How much more time do we have?")
Use a Slack DM to your IAs
  • Personal or sensitive information ("I have a doctor's appointment and will miss the first 30 minutes tomorrow")
  • Anything you'd prefer to share privately with your instructional team

Debugging During Zoom Sessions

During lessons, scholars will often post code questions in the Zoom chat. For the most part, redirect these to Slack, especially if the question is specific to one scholar's code. Reserve Zoom chat responses for questions that are genuinely useful to the whole group.

Slack Help Threads

At the start of each lesson and each practice session, IAs should post a message in their House Slack channel to open a help thread. Scholars reply in thread with their questions throughout the session. This approach:
  • Keeps the main channel easy to scan
  • Creates a record of common questions other scholars can reference
  • Allows the support Instructor, IA or VCC to answer questions during instruction without interrupting the lesson

Additional Chat Norms for Scholars

  • Limit off-topic chat during instruction. Tell scholars that there will be moments when the chat is paused so that an important link or set of directions can be shared clearly. Establish that this is normal and expected.
  • Zoom Q&A is not used. All whole-group questions go in the Zoom chat; individual questions go to your House Slack channel.

Using Zoom Reactions to Facilitate Participation

Zoom's reaction tools are most effective when scholars have been explicitly taught to use them. Walk scholars through the following on Day 1:
  • Yes ✅ / No ❌ for check-ins and votes
  • Raise Hand 🖐️ for being called on (not for general questions, which go in chat)
  • I'm Away ☕ when stepping away briefly
  • Emoji reactions for energy and fun — encourage everyone to use these liberally
The more consistently your team reinforces these norms, the less friction there is in the flow of each session.

Virtual Facilitation Strategies

Teaching effectively in a virtual environment is a skill that develops with intentional practice. Beyond knowing how Zoom features work, there are habits, tools, and techniques that experienced virtual instructors use to make sessions feel energetic, engaging, and alive — even through a screen!

Managing Energy and Attention

Virtual instruction demands more deliberate energy management than in-person teaching. Scholars don't have the ambient cues of a physical room to help them stay present. They're looking at a screen, and everything is competing for their attention. A few practices that help:
  • Vary your pacing and tone more than you think you need to. Monotone delivery flattens quickly on a video call in a way it doesn't in a room. Exaggerate emphasis, pause intentionally, and let moments of enthusiasm read a little bigger than feels natural.
  • Use the chat as a back-channel for energy. Asking scholars to drop a response in the chat (even just an emoji) re-engages attention and gives you a real-time read on who's with you.
  • Name transitions clearly. When you're about to do something engaging, tell scholars what's coming. Anticipation is a tool.

Narrating What You're Doing

One of the most effective facilitation habits in a virtual setting is narrating your actions before and as you do them. In a physical classroom, scholars can see what an instructor is doing. In Zoom, they often can't! Silence while you switch tabs, queue a link, or set up a breakout room creates confusion for scholars and IAs alike.
Build a habit of narrating moments like:
  • Switching tabs or adjusting your screen — "I'm going to open a new tab with the CodeSandbox file and split my screen so you can see both the instructions and the code."
  • Dropping something in the chat — "I'm putting the link to this article in the chat right now."
  • Opening breakout rooms — "In just a second, you'll move to your Houses to practice this."
  • Giving directions for House time — "In your House, your IAs will lead a quick code-along before releasing you to work independently."
  • Returning from breakouts — "Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed working on Arrays."
  • Making any behind-the-scenes Zoom move — admitting from the waiting room, adjusting breakout rooms, changing chat permissions
This habit keeps IAs in sync in real time and reduces the need for off-channel coordination during sessions.

Sound Effects

Playing a short sound effect at a well-timed moment (a drumroll before a reveal, an airhorn for a correct answer, a timer countdown) adds a layer of fun and surprise that translates well through a screen. A few tips:
  • Have sounds queued and ready before the session so you're not hunting for them mid-lesson
  • Share your screen audio (or use the computer audio share option in Zoom) so the sound plays through for everyone
  • Use them sparingly — a sound effect that happens once is memorable; one that happens every five minutes becomes noise
A curated playlist of reusable sound effects saved to Spotify or a local folder is worth building and keeping across sessions.

Custom Cursors

A custom cursor is a small thing that scholars notice and enjoy, and it's one more signal that you've put thought into the virtual experience! Custom cursors are available via the Custom Cursor Chrome extension. Choose something that fits your teaching style or the day's theme, and swap it out occasionally to keep things fresh.

Tips from Experienced Virtual Instructors

A few principles that consistently show up in strong virtual instruction:
  • Over-prepare for your first few technical sessions, then trust yourself. The unfamiliarity of virtual teaching can make early sessions feel shaky even for experienced instructors. The more you've practiced your pacing and transitions in advance, the more confident your presence will be.
  • Make scholars feel seen individually, not just as a group. Call scholars by name. Notice when someone's struggling. Comment on something specific you saw in the chat. Individual acknowledgment goes a long way in a context where it's easy to feel anonymous.
  • Build your virtual toolkit incrementally. Don't try to use every feature or technique at once. Start with what feels manageable, then add one new element per day until it becomes second nature.
  • Debrief with your team after sessions. What landed? What fell flat? The instructional team has different vantage points during a session, and sharing observations after the fact accelerates everyone's growth as virtual teachers.

Scholar Engagement Norms

We’ve shared with scholars that we’d really like for them to be camera-on. Specifically, camera-on is optional in the Cloud, and highly encouraged in the House. We’ve done as much as we can to encourage it, but as we’ve found, it still isn’t always 100%.
  • In the Cloud: Cameras are optional but encouraged.
  • In Houses: Cameras are highly encouraged. IAs should set the expectation early and frame it as a community norm, not a rule.
When you see a wall of black screens: Don't panic, and don't take it personally. There are many reasons a scholar might be off camera, including tech issues, comfort levels, or a hard day. Your job isn't to control their cameras; it's to bring energy that makes people want to show up!
Strategies for off-camera moments:
  • Use the chat for quick check-ins: "Drop a ✋ if you're with me!"
  • Use Yes/No reactions or polls to gauge engagement
  • Celebrate on-camera scholars without calling out those who aren't
  • Keep bringing the vibes — energy is contagious even through a black square

Naming Convention

All participants, scholars and instructional staff alike, should follow a consistent naming format in Zoom. This makes it easier to take attendance and manually move participants into the correct breakout rooms.
Format: [House Letter] First Last (pronouns)
Example: A Tara Tran-Kennedy (she/her)
For IAs: Follow the same format, adding (IA) at the end.
Example: B Awa Goodwin (she/her) (IA)
Important: Scholars must download the latest version of Zoom to be able to move themselves into breakout rooms. If a scholar has an outdated version, a co-host can move them manually using their house letter as a reference.
Pro tip for scholars: Encourage them to update their name in their Zoom profile settings rather than just in the meeting! This way their name persists automatically every time they join.