4 ms·

Interesting take. I am a graduate and former TA in OMSCS, and used to work at Udacity building Nanodegrees (worked on ML & AI mostly). My experience is from a d

Interesting take. I am a graduate and former TA in OMSCS, and used to work at Udacity building Nanodegrees (worked on ML & AI mostly). My experience is from a different perspective than the article, but I appreciated the differences without disagreement. What I found in my time in both environments is that Nanodegrees appeal more to students who don’t have access to traditional education (college is too expensive, or grad school requires an undergrad degree, etc.). That makes most MOOC students less experienced, less qualified, and higher risk (in the sense that they mostly don’t have the profile of successful college students). Udacity, et. al., then appear to have a very important role to play in satisfying the need for education unencumbered by academic gatekeeping. But the _other_ constant undertone in the MOOC community is the “get-rich-quick” crowd who expects a Nanodegree to make them a 6-figure AI engineer in three months at 5 hours per week. The dirty secret is that we already have a fast-paced learning environment that can give you a good crash course on the required core skills to make you a useful apprentice: it’s called “college”. It’s arguable that the typical BS could be abbreviated a bit or focus a bit more on “job-ready” skills. But I think the time required for most people to get there is much closer to a 48-month BS than a 4-month Nanodegree. The other dirty secret is that no one wants to hire you as a junior developer at SV rates if you don’t have experience and need a visa or want to work remotely in your low CoL hometown. Unless you already have strong qualifications, you’re fooling yourself if you think an ND or Udemy course is gonna help you break into Google as a fully remote worker.

barry-cotter 7y ago
> It’s arguable that the typical BS could be abbreviated a bit or focus a bit more on “job-ready” skills. But I think the time required for most people to get there is much closer to a 48-month BS than a 4-month Nanodegree. A US Bachelor’s is not 48 months, at most 9 months a year is spent officially studying, the rest is holiday. That would be 36 months. If we pretend the average student treats it as seriously as a full time job, ignoring all research on how students spend their time, we can still cut that 36 months in half, because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact. That’d be 18 months. If we want to look at the real world for examples we can see the UK, where most Bachelor’s are three years, with the extensive breaks and holidays you have in the US, but two year, full time, non stop degrees exist, or at Lambda School, which takes nine months to turn people into software engineers. They also demand more and more consistent work than well over 90% of university courses.
- matwood 7y ago
  > A US Bachelor’s is not 48 months, at most 9 months a year is spent officially studying, the rest is holiday. I went to college year round as it was the only way to balance my work schedule. I was a minimal full time student during the typical semesters and took classes all summer. > because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact. I disagree. The general education is probably what everyone should go to college to learn. Reading and writing (communication) is the basis for almost every single job a person may have. It's also a skill that lasts forever. When I was in undergrad I took random business courses for my electives. I still use and have built upon concepts I learned in economics, finance, and accounting.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact People that talented and motivated about CS should take computer engineering instead; much fewer general education courses are usually required. Aside from that, there are two obvious ways to turn the general education requirements to your professional advantage: 1) writing courses, since the average developer can't write or put together a logical worth a damn and a lot of writing is needed as they get more senior and 2) foreign language courses, which open up job opportunities if you take the time to achieve basic proficiency.
vermarish 7y ago
What is a CoL town?
- cgearhart 7y ago
  “Cost of Living”. What I mean is that you may have to be willing to move to where the jobs are rather than expecting to find a local job if you’re chasing a big paycheck or a “hot” field.

barry-cotter 7y ago

> It’s arguable that the typical BS could be abbreviated a bit or focus a bit more on “job-ready” skills. But I think the time required for most people to get there is much closer to a 48-month BS than a 4-month Nanodegree. A US Bachelor’s is not 48 months, at most 9 months a year is spent officially studying, the rest is holiday. That would be 36 months. If we pretend the average student treats it as seriously as a full time job, ignoring all research on how students spend their time, we can still cut that 36 months in half, because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact. That’d be 18 months. If we want to look at the real world for examples we can see the UK, where most Bachelor’s are three years, with the extensive breaks and holidays you have in the US, but two year, full time, non stop degrees exist, or at Lambda School, which takes nine months to turn people into software engineers. They also demand more and more consistent work than well over 90% of university courses.

matwood 7y ago
> A US Bachelor’s is not 48 months, at most 9 months a year is spent officially studying, the rest is holiday. I went to college year round as it was the only way to balance my work schedule. I was a minimal full time student during the typical semesters and took classes all summer. > because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact. I disagree. The general education is probably what everyone should go to college to learn. Reading and writing (communication) is the basis for almost every single job a person may have. It's also a skill that lasts forever. When I was in undergrad I took random business courses for my electives. I still use and have built upon concepts I learned in economics, finance, and accounting.
ThrowawayR2 7y ago
> because half of the average US Bachelor is general education with no professional impact People that talented and motivated about CS should take computer engineering instead; much fewer general education courses are usually required. Aside from that, there are two obvious ways to turn the general education requirements to your professional advantage: 1) writing courses, since the average developer can't write or put together a logical worth a damn and a lot of writing is needed as they get more senior and 2) foreign language courses, which open up job opportunities if you take the time to achieve basic proficiency.

vermarish 7y ago

What is a CoL town?

cgearhart 7y ago
“Cost of Living”. What I mean is that you may have to be willing to move to where the jobs are rather than expecting to find a local job if you’re chasing a big paycheck or a “hot” field.