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I'm one of the cofounders of Codecademy. I posted this on Audrey's blog, but I'm posting it here as well. Thanks! I’m glad you’re learning to code. In fact,

by zds 15y ago

I'm one of the cofounders of Codecademy. I posted this on Audrey's blog, but I'm posting it here as well. Thanks! I’m glad you’re learning to code. In fact, I was in the same position a few years ago. Since then, I’ve tried everything - books, college classes, videos and more. For me, and for hundreds of people we’ve talked to, none of these traditional approaches, though useful for learning history or literature, helped it ‘click’ for us in learning to program. My cofounder, Ryan, has spent the past couple of years helping developers at Columbia learn how to apply their theoretical computer science skills to actually programming. He’s taught hundreds of Columbia students the basics (and beyond). Before I start, I just want to point out that Codecademy is new. We started working on the project in the middle of August and released it a few weeks later. The money we raised is not just a show of support for what we have - it’s a sign that people are excited about the future. I’ve been very upfront with everyone we’ve spoken to so far about what you can learn on Codecademy. At the moment, the “Getting Started with Programming” course is indeed very basic. It’s meant to show people that programming can be fun. As you said, you won’t come out of one course as an awesome developer (as I can sadly attest). Then again, you won’t come out of a freshman computer science course with the ability to be an awesome developer. It’s a long road, and that’s why developers are a hot commodity nowadays. We only have three courses up right now. We’re working on hundreds more in other languages and at various skill levels. While you can’t learn the full stack from Codecademy now, you will be able to shortly. Lastly, our experience has been that the badges and other aspects are a crucial part of the experience we’re creating on Codecademy for most of our users. If you ask most people what stopped them from reading their entire programming book (and we’ve talked to hundreds of people), it’s almost always that they aren’t motivated enough. In school, learning is motivated by report cards and teacher expectations. We hope we can build a motivational experience that pushes anyone to program - not just the stereotypical developer. We’ve made a conscious effort to reach out to underrepresented demographics who are interested in learning to program. You’ll see the fruits of those efforts in coming months. Above all, we’re open to feedback as we grow. I just hope you’ll look at what we’re doing as a first attempt - not the final one. Please let me know if you have any other feedback.

craigmc 15y ago
Great response. Anyone using your site today and thinking that it is close to being the finished product... well, presumably they've never been in a startup office and looked at the massive roadmap of features, ideas, entire new sites, etc., scrawled on a big whiteboard. I've had a play with codecademy and I think it is a promising start. As someone who fairly quickly falls asleep whenever I have to read or watch videos for extended periods of time, this sort of (guided) learning-by-doing definitely appeals. Of course, education is fiendishly difficult to do well at scale, and you are definitely right to be focusing on what motivates people to learn... However, I don't envy you having to figure out what are the best bits to adopt from the sum of all the research done in this area!
pixcavator 15y ago
>>My cofounder, Ryan, has spent the past couple of years helping developers at Columbia learn how to apply their theoretical computer science skills to actually programming. He’s taught hundreds of Columbia students the basics (and beyond). Take notes, Mr Khan.
- Adam503 15y ago
  Sorry, but students that get admitted to Columbia aren't real tough to motivate. Sal Khan has already had millions of every kind of everyday students young and old chose to set aside their video games and sat down and work their math at KhanAcademy.org. Some nuns are starting sainthood talk for Sal at some Catholic schools.
alinajaf 15y ago
> If you ask most people what stopped them from reading their entire programming book (and we’ve talked to hundreds of people), it’s almost always that they aren’t motivated enough. In school, learning is motivated by report cards and teacher expectations. We hope we can build a motivational experience that pushes anyone to program - not just the stereotypical developer. Badges and achievements are awesome when done right, but will only go so far with motivation. Real, intrinsic motivation will come from realizing that you can create something with the skills you've learned. If you could somehow capture this in Codecademy I think you could score a decisive advantage against the traditional tutorial/book learning model of learning to program. Context: I'm currently working on a spaced repetition app that schedules Japanese vocab/sentence flashcards for you. While it has achievements/badges for behaviour that's conducive to your Japanese learning, it also finds native content on the internet that you're likely going to be able to read 90% of (based on the vocab cards you've done well on). Realizing that you can actually read Japanese content for native Japanese (i.e. you can actually _use_ the skill you're learning here) is the biggest rush of motivation I've experienced. It pushes you to go on and see how much more you could do, way more than any badge or achievement could.

by zds 15y ago

craigmc 15y ago

Great response. Anyone using your site today and thinking that it is close to being the finished product... well, presumably they've never been in a startup office and looked at the massive roadmap of features, ideas, entire new sites, etc., scrawled on a big whiteboard. I've had a play with codecademy and I think it is a promising start. As someone who fairly quickly falls asleep whenever I have to read or watch videos for extended periods of time, this sort of (guided) learning-by-doing definitely appeals. Of course, education is fiendishly difficult to do well at scale, and you are definitely right to be focusing on what motivates people to learn... However, I don't envy you having to figure out what are the best bits to adopt from the sum of all the research done in this area!

pixcavator 15y ago

>>My cofounder, Ryan, has spent the past couple of years helping developers at Columbia learn how to apply their theoretical computer science skills to actually programming. He’s taught hundreds of Columbia students the basics (and beyond). Take notes, Mr Khan.

Adam503 15y ago
Sorry, but students that get admitted to Columbia aren't real tough to motivate. Sal Khan has already had millions of every kind of everyday students young and old chose to set aside their video games and sat down and work their math at KhanAcademy.org. Some nuns are starting sainthood talk for Sal at some Catholic schools.

alinajaf 15y ago

> If you ask most people what stopped them from reading their entire programming book (and we’ve talked to hundreds of people), it’s almost always that they aren’t motivated enough. In school, learning is motivated by report cards and teacher expectations. We hope we can build a motivational experience that pushes anyone to program - not just the stereotypical developer. Badges and achievements are awesome when done right, but will only go so far with motivation. Real, intrinsic motivation will come from realizing that you can create something with the skills you've learned. If you could somehow capture this in Codecademy I think you could score a decisive advantage against the traditional tutorial/book learning model of learning to program. Context: I'm currently working on a spaced repetition app that schedules Japanese vocab/sentence flashcards for you. While it has achievements/badges for behaviour that's conducive to your Japanese learning, it also finds native content on the internet that you're likely going to be able to read 90% of (based on the vocab cards you've done well on). Realizing that you can actually read Japanese content for native Japanese (i.e. you can actually _use_ the skill you're learning here) is the biggest rush of motivation I've experienced. It pushes you to go on and see how much more you could do, way more than any badge or achievement could.