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Yes, the title is definitely out of whack with the article. My take is that a key part of learning how to program (or anything new, in general) is in the motiv

Yes, the title is definitely out of whack with the article. My take is that a key part of learning how to program (or anything new, in general) is in the motivation - if your student is just "kicking the tyres" then forcing them to commit $3k or making them digest an entire book is only going to deter them. Once they're motivated though, they'll usually plow through obstacles that would've stopped them just last week. So give them small wins at first and give them an idea of what it's all about, then ramp up the difficulty once they've figured out what they want to do. A common "tell" for this I find is that they move from "how does 'x' work" to "I need to do this thing; how do I do that?" combined with doing lots of stuff (They might do it in a weird, non-programmer way, but they'll still be doing it).

helen842000 14y ago
Yes, anyone that has gone through lots of courses and STILL keeps looking to learn is pretty dedicated to start with, even before bringing money into it. Udacity gets you thinking on your own. It teaches you principles then presents a blank screen and says 'now make something that does XYZ' That's a whole world away from a pre populated page of code where you type between the quote marks. Going from a blank page to something that works - where the steps, logic and reasoning are all your own - THAT's what makes beginners jump around the room with excitement. Beginners also often need to be reminded that if you get stuck your job is to stop coding and find out.