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Does getting a nanodegree from Udacity significantly improve ones hirability? For $600, it looks like one gets a shot at a nanodegree that has numerous soft dea

Does getting a nanodegree from Udacity significantly improve ones hirability? For $600, it looks like one gets a shot at a nanodegree that has numerous soft deadlines, but with fixed, inflexible deadlines potentially piling up at the end of the course. In my experience, having a mostly self paced class with no hard deadlines, then a stack of hard deadlines for projects at the very end results in stressed out students and a ton of poorly done work. Choose a model and stick to it, either its self paced with no defined end date, in which case people will learn at their own pace, or its a classic fixed format course, with a list of due dates published prior to the class even starting. Edit: Additionally, the refund window seems much shorter than one sees at traditional colleges and there is still no accreditation for the nanodegrees Udacity lists. At accredited institutions, these types of workforce retraining programs have a bit more heft, and set you up to go straight into a decently paid job. It appears Udacity hasn't solved this problem.

brylie 8y ago
Building a portfolio of open source work in conjunction with at-your-own-pace study is a great way to grow and showcase your abilities.
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  This portfolio is built by committing your classwork to git, I wouldn't say Udacity has this as a particular advantage. If I search for a course, usually the first couple results I'll get are git repos, regardless of the institution offering said course.
  - brylie 8y ago
    Right, building a portfolio isn't specific to any learning platform. When I buy an online course or book, it is often reassuring for me that the course materials are available in an open source repository. This ensures that students can use the course materials in their personal projects, and increases the commonwealth.
nstart 8y ago
My pathway to getting a job at Buffer starts partially because of what I learnt in udacity's basic web development course. I had a degree in software engineering already but I knew nothing about actual web development itself. I'd never have started scoring the jobs I wanted that led me to Buffer without the udacity course. Admittedly the newer upfront massive payment is really difficult to stomach. 400 USD or a 100 USD per month for 4 months was ok. 999 for a front end web development nanodegree on the other hand is a tough decision [1]. 250 USD per month is not unreasonable but it makes the choice that much more difficult. [1] https://www.udacity.com/course/front-end-web-developer-nanodegree--nd001 https://www.udacity.com/course/front-end-web-developer-nanod...
anonymous5133 8y ago
The accreditation issue can't be tackled until you build high-quality courses in traditional subjects. That's what many of these sites don't get. You need to look at what traditional university is offering THEN REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING BETTER. Physics 101 and chem 101 are still important and people need to learn these subjects. You can't just build a new "university" and then just have a bunch of buzz word named courses. Until that happens, none of these MOOCs will obtain accreditation from any accreditation organization that is worthwhile. The quality offered by current MOOCs simply do not compare to what you learn from traditional university.
- barry-cotter 8y ago
  https://www.edx.org/masters https://www.edx.org/masters I count eight Master’s degrees. I’m sure you’ll agree Georgia Tech is an excellent university. https://www.coursera.org/degrees https://www.coursera.org/degrees Ten Master’s degrees including Computer Science from UIUC and a Bachelor’s. As far as accreditation or doing something better than a traditional university look to lambdaschool.com Zero to employment ready software engineer in eight months, not ready to be an intern, not well, we’re desperate we can train you, but solidly capable of most front end jobs, decent coverage of algorithms, data structures and basic computer science. They’re not MOOC as they’re neither massive nor open but they may be transformative.
  - anonymous5133 8y ago
    $20,000 masters degrees isn't what I have in mind, sorry. That's just more of the same old same old. Nothing innovative about that. The whole point of MOOCs is to delivery high-quality courses for free. If there is some sort of fee type system then it has to be affordable for everyone, even for people in places like rural India.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > The whole point of MOOCs is to delivery high-quality courses for free. No, it's not.

brylie 8y ago

Building a portfolio of open source work in conjunction with at-your-own-pace study is a great way to grow and showcase your abilities.

StudentStuff 8y ago
This portfolio is built by committing your classwork to git, I wouldn't say Udacity has this as a particular advantage. If I search for a course, usually the first couple results I'll get are git repos, regardless of the institution offering said course.
- brylie 8y ago
  Right, building a portfolio isn't specific to any learning platform. When I buy an online course or book, it is often reassuring for me that the course materials are available in an open source repository. This ensures that students can use the course materials in their personal projects, and increases the commonwealth.

nstart 8y ago

My pathway to getting a job at Buffer starts partially because of what I learnt in udacity's basic web development course. I had a degree in software engineering already but I knew nothing about actual web development itself. I'd never have started scoring the jobs I wanted that led me to Buffer without the udacity course. Admittedly the newer upfront massive payment is really difficult to stomach. 400 USD or a 100 USD per month for 4 months was ok. 999 for a front end web development nanodegree on the other hand is a tough decision [1]. 250 USD per month is not unreasonable but it makes the choice that much more difficult. [1] https://www.udacity.com/course/front-end-web-developer-nanodegree--nd001 https://www.udacity.com/course/front-end-web-developer-nanod...

anonymous5133 8y ago

The accreditation issue can't be tackled until you build high-quality courses in traditional subjects. That's what many of these sites don't get. You need to look at what traditional university is offering THEN REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING BETTER. Physics 101 and chem 101 are still important and people need to learn these subjects. You can't just build a new "university" and then just have a bunch of buzz word named courses. Until that happens, none of these MOOCs will obtain accreditation from any accreditation organization that is worthwhile. The quality offered by current MOOCs simply do not compare to what you learn from traditional university.

barry-cotter 8y ago
https://www.edx.org/masters https://www.edx.org/masters I count eight Master’s degrees. I’m sure you’ll agree Georgia Tech is an excellent university. https://www.coursera.org/degrees https://www.coursera.org/degrees Ten Master’s degrees including Computer Science from UIUC and a Bachelor’s. As far as accreditation or doing something better than a traditional university look to lambdaschool.com Zero to employment ready software engineer in eight months, not ready to be an intern, not well, we’re desperate we can train you, but solidly capable of most front end jobs, decent coverage of algorithms, data structures and basic computer science. They’re not MOOC as they’re neither massive nor open but they may be transformative.
- anonymous5133 8y ago
  $20,000 masters degrees isn't what I have in mind, sorry. That's just more of the same old same old. Nothing innovative about that. The whole point of MOOCs is to delivery high-quality courses for free. If there is some sort of fee type system then it has to be affordable for everyone, even for people in places like rural India.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > The whole point of MOOCs is to delivery high-quality courses for free. No, it's not.