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Code School is Amazing

104 points by PStamatiou 16y ago

apas 16y ago
Cool new service for sure. Thanks for sharing, Paul.
kmfrk 16y ago
This is the start-up field I currently have the biggest interest in. Right now, I am using Codelesson, and while the course I am taking has yet to start, it shows some interesting promise - the biggest of which is the names of the people teaching the courses and the badges awarded to your public profile for completing them. The toughest nut to crack, to me, is convincing potential employers of the importance of the courses, and what they - and the gamification badges - tell about the user. I am trying to think of ways to leverage services like these for (extra) resumé-building, at least for people with little hands-on experience in start-ups and companies. Just look at [Facebook's puzzles](https://www.facebook.com/careers/puzzles.php https://www.facebook.com/careers/puzzles.php). It's difficult to gauge skill and qualification, which applies both to finding some metric for the usefulness of all these courses and to the people who complete them (and in the way they do it).
harpastum 16y ago
"The winning formula is screencasts + code challenges + gamification." This is also the formula the Khan Academy is using. I think they're both on to something pretty huge.
- kmfrk 16y ago
  "Screencast" is a humongous simplification of what makes Khan Academy great. His teaching style is paramount to its success. The equation wouldn't work, if the screencasts weren't great.
atgm 16y ago
I saw this once and was immediately turned off by the videos. Not only is it harder to go to a specific place and look at things again, but as someone with hearing problems, videos without captions are an immediate deal-breaker for me. I really wish the web wouldn't turn toward video instead of written material; one of the reasons I've enjoyed the web so much is its focus on reading instead of listening.
- fferen 16y ago
  +1. Plus the speed of reading is many times higher than the speed of speaking/listening. Also, videos often cause me to space out after a few seconds and do something else, thinking, "I'll listen in the background." This usually doesn't work.
jacques_chester 16y ago
It looks very polished and seems to fit in nicely with the common findings of psych about learning. The main thing missing is spaced repetition.
quinndupont 16y ago
Damn that's expensive for an unknown quantity/quality. I'll stick to book and free online tutorials.

104 points by PStamatiou 16y ago

apas 16y ago

Cool new service for sure. Thanks for sharing, Paul.

kmfrk 16y ago

This is the start-up field I currently have the biggest interest in. Right now, I am using Codelesson, and while the course I am taking has yet to start, it shows some interesting promise - the biggest of which is the names of the people teaching the courses and the badges awarded to your public profile for completing them. The toughest nut to crack, to me, is convincing potential employers of the importance of the courses, and what they - and the gamification badges - tell about the user. I am trying to think of ways to leverage services like these for (extra) resumé-building, at least for people with little hands-on experience in start-ups and companies. Just look at [Facebook's puzzles](https://www.facebook.com/careers/puzzles.php https://www.facebook.com/careers/puzzles.php). It's difficult to gauge skill and qualification, which applies both to finding some metric for the usefulness of all these courses and to the people who complete them (and in the way they do it).

harpastum 16y ago

"The winning formula is screencasts + code challenges + gamification." This is also the formula the Khan Academy is using. I think they're both on to something pretty huge.

kmfrk 16y ago
"Screencast" is a humongous simplification of what makes Khan Academy great. His teaching style is paramount to its success. The equation wouldn't work, if the screencasts weren't great.

atgm 16y ago

I saw this once and was immediately turned off by the videos. Not only is it harder to go to a specific place and look at things again, but as someone with hearing problems, videos without captions are an immediate deal-breaker for me. I really wish the web wouldn't turn toward video instead of written material; one of the reasons I've enjoyed the web so much is its focus on reading instead of listening.

fferen 16y ago
+1. Plus the speed of reading is many times higher than the speed of speaking/listening. Also, videos often cause me to space out after a few seconds and do something else, thinking, "I'll listen in the background." This usually doesn't work.

jacques_chester 16y ago

It looks very polished and seems to fit in nicely with the common findings of psych about learning. The main thing missing is spaced repetition.

quinndupont 16y ago

Damn that's expensive for an unknown quantity/quality. I'll stick to book and free online tutorials.